Wednesday, August 25, 2010

GOD LOVES YOU...HE REALLY DOES!

I just finished reading a book that was loaned to me...and now I think I have to go buy my own copy...because you cannot mark up a loaned book with yellow highlighter, and this is one book I will need to read again and mark up.

The book is called: "He Loves Me" by Wayne Jacobsen.

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Now, to be honest, when I first started reading this book I was not real sure about it. In fact, there were two main reasons that I kept reading the book even though I was not in agreement with what the author said at first. Reason One: the people who loaned it to me are the kind of followers of Christ that we should all strive to be. They are not perfect, no that is not it, they just love Jesus and His people, and so if they thought it was good enough to loan to me, I thought I should finish it. Reason Two: I'm stubborn. If I start a book and invest a little time in the first few chapters, I'm bound and determined to finish the book. This is a bit of stubborness that I have had since I was a little kid. In fact, in all my many years of book reading, there has only been one book that I did not finish...just couldn't get through it, and I was determined that this book would not be unfinshed book number two.

Truthfully, I do not agree with a few things that Wayne Jacobsen writes in this book, and some of it, if you are not grounded in the Word of God could trip a new believer up. Some of it is hard to accept, but that is the way it is when you're learning about the grace and love that the Lord extends to His children. But by the end of the book, I found this one of the most rewarding books I have ever read. In one way or another, it will impact my relationship with the Lord, His church, the lost and my even my family.

The premise of the book is that most of us don't have any idea how much God really loves us, and that even those who have tasted of the relationship with the Lord that is provided to us only through the sacrifice of Jesus, still try and earn the approval and love from our heavenly Father. While I had grasped the concept many years ago that God has never loved me more than He did when Jesus died for me, living out that knowledge and living in that love has not always been easy. This book paints the love of God in brilliant colors and vivid pictures.

The last two or three chapters alone are enough reason to read this book. In one chapter it shows how the love of Christ is lived out in us as we in turn love those around us who are unloveable or have hurt us.

I want to share just one short story that the author tells in chapter 21, "In Exactly The Same Way" :

"Recently I met a woman from the Midwest who had been divorced when her ex-husband told her he was gay, that he had AIDS, and that he wanted to live with his partner. A few years later as the disease progressed, she felt compassion for her former husband and felt God wanted her to help care for him as the disease worsened. She did just that. With her husband's permission she moved back in, not as wife but as nurse, and cared for him as the disease progressed...she talked about it as one of the greatest experiences of her life. Before he died, her husband and his partner came to repentance and faith (MY NOTE HERE: while it does not state it in the book, if, they came to repentance and faith, I would assume they ceased their homesexual relationship as you cannot repent and stay the same way you used to be). What's more, after her former husband's death, she took care of his former partner as he died. While she was doing that, other AIDS patients came to the door and asked for help. During the next decade she cared for more than sixty other patients and watched them all come to faith."

Now I don't know what you would call that, but I would call it POWERFUL LOVE! That is the kind of love that the world needs to see from the church. That is the kind of love that is able to be poured out on those that hurt us, those that sin the sins that disgust us, those that live the lives that repulse us...because we have experienced and are secure in the love and relationship that Jesus gives us.

Thank you Kitty and Jessica for this book...and thank you Jesus for loving me, even when I was not your child and yet You loved me enough to die for me.

Pastor Dave

4 comments:

familyman said...

As I read your comments, the thought that came to mind is that any sin worse than any other? The only I can think of in the Bible is the one about cursing the Holy Spirit. Yet I hear a lot of terrible stuff about gays, druggies, transvestites,Muslims and so on.Murders, rapists, child abusers yes all these belong in jail and even I believe in capital punishment that is what the courts are for. Yet The Blood of Jesus is for Everyone, Just as it was available for me. All these people need to repent , they cannot go on living the way they are living, no doubt about that! Repentance & Transformation does not get them out of jail, but it does get them into the Kingdom of God. Just some thought, thanks for your comments pastor Dave.-Blessings-Kevin

familyman said...

Hi Pastor Dave- My heart has gone out to you many times and I have been praying for you also. I really miss your posts and where God is leading you. Myself have been in and out of the hospital last time 3 weeks ago with dehydration and my kidneys shutdown and I lost my memory. I am still struggling but am doing my better. The Lord is still good all the time. I seek him daily with all my heart asking which way do I turn in my life. All I have is Him. My kids are 2nd in my life and I constantly ask for His guidance in raising them. We homeschool them, and my constant changes in my medication which will in the end run stabilize me is frustrating in that sometime it causes me to stutter or sleep. Yet my main purpose is to lead them to you Father! To show them the difference in the outside world to the world that God wants us to live in is so hard. There is so many worldly things out there Father God and their friends have them it is hard for them to see that it is not something they need or that we can afford to have. I think if makes them either bitter at you God or at me because of all my injuries. I lay all of these cares Lord at your feet. I was told my you Lord at the retreat that you never leave me and you are always there. So I lay these burdens and cares at your feet Lord. Brother I lay these cares and prayers before you. Sometimes I just get carried away typing....

In Jesus my Savior name,
Kevin

Pastor Dave said...

Kevin...well I'm back to blogging again. The devil really got me discouraged for awhile there...and then life got busy...but God is good all the time, and so I'm back again. I love to write and to preach and to share what God is showing me...both the good and the bad...so hopefully you'll have more to read from me soon...in fact I'll be posting the winners of the book giveway in just a few minutes...and offering another giveaway...oh, and by the way, you are one of the winners...so check the blog out and get back to me.

Dave

Pastor Dave said...

Kevin, I forgot to ask how is your health? I've been praying for you...hope that you are doing better.

Dave