THE
LORD’S LAVISH LOVE
BREAD
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16-17 (NIV)
21 Yet
this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your
faithfulness. 24 I say
to myself, “The Lord is my
portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord
is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for
the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:21-26 (NIV)
11 For as
high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who
fear him; 12 as far
as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a
father has compassion on his children, so the Lord
has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we
are dust. 15 As for
man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it
is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to
everlasting the Lord's love is with
those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children-- 18 with those who keep his
covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
Psalms 103:11-18 (NIV)
17 “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty
to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he
will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
16 And so
we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love
lives in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Unless Christians
are convinced of God’s love for them and His favor over them by virtue of their
union with Christ, they will minimize their sin and engage in blame-shifting
and excuse- making in order to feel justified before God. Unfortunately, many
in the Church today teach believers a two-step. The two-step is to simply
repent and fight. They acknowledge their sin and proceed with new resolve to
try harder to avoid sin. The problem with this approach is it bypasses the
cross of Christ and the power of the resurrection.” Bob
Flayhart
“We must lean into
the truth of God’s love displayed in Jesus’ coming. Our fall into depravity and
alienation was because our confidence in the kindness and love of God was
shaken. We doubted and doubt the love of God. Our recovery must begin with the
belief of His love; ‘this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (I Jn. 4:10).” Dr.
Tom Wood
“God’s
love is always supernatural, always a miracle, always the last thing we
deserve.” Robert
Horn
“Often hell is portrayed as a place of punishment and
heaven as a place of reward. But this concept easily leads us to think about
God as either a policeman, who tries to catch us when we make a mistake and
send us to prison when our mistakes become too big, or a Santa Claus, who
counts up all our good deeds and puts a reward in our stocking at the end of
the year. God, however, is neither a policeman nor a Santa Claus. God does not
send us to heaven or hell depending on how often we obey or disobey. God is
love and only love. In God there is no hatred, desire for revenge, or pleasure
in seeing us punished. God wants to forgive, heal, restore, show us endless
mercy, and see us come home. But just as the father of the prodigal son let his
son make his own decision God gives us the freedom to move away from God's love
even at the risk of destroying ourselves. Hell is not God's choice. It is ours.” Henri
Nouwen
“For although there is nothing in the world deserving of God’s
favor, He nevertheless shows He is favorable to the whole world when He calls
all without exception to the faith of Christ, which is indeed an entry in to
life.” John Calvin
“They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are
ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“Only he who has experienced it can believe what the love of
Jesus Christ is.” Bernard of Clairvaux
HEART SAVOR
- · Jesus loves me this I know.
- · Christ’s love gives me hope – His compassions never fail – they are new every morning.
- · I can know and rely on God’s love.
