THE
COMPELLING LOVE OF JESUS
BREAD
You
see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the
ungodly. 7 Very
rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might
possibly dare to die. 8 But
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8 (NIV)
1 It was
just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to
leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the
world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. John 13:1 (NIV)
35 Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your
sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be
slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, 39 neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39 (NIV)
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)
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved
you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that
you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (NIV)
21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who
loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him
and show myself to him.” John
14:21 (NIV)
14 For
Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and
therefore all died. 15 And he
died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for
him who died for them and was raised again.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV)
9 This
is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved
us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:9-11 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Do you know who you are? Do you know who you were designed to be? Do you know the Father’s intent for your life? You are meant to hear in your spirit the same thing Jesus heard when he came out of the waters of baptism at the beginning of his ministry: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’….J I Packer puts it simply. ‘What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God for his Father’…Our highest privilege and deepest need is to experience the holy God as our loving Father, to approach him without fear and to be assured of his fatherly care and concern.” Greg Ogden
“Doubt not His grace because of thy tribulation, but believe that He loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness.” Charles Spurgeon
“No
sea is deeper than the ocean of His love.
There is no army stronger than His hosts, no force greater than His
throne of grace, no enemy who can overcome His direct and indirect work in our
lives.” Robert
J. Morgan
“We
cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.” Francis de Sales
“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” Amy Carmichael
“A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“O love
that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee. I give Thee back the life I owe, that in
Thine ocean depths its flow, may richer fuller be. O light that followest all my way, I yield my
flickering torch to Thee. My heart
restores its borrowed ray, that in thy sunshine’s blaze its day, may brighter
fairer be. O joy that seekest me through
pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee. I
trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, that morn
shall tearless be. O cross that liftest
up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee.
I lay in dust life’s glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red,
life that shall endless be.” George
Matheson
“While I regarded
God as a tyrant I thought my sin a trifle; But when I knew Him to be my Father,
then I mourned that I could ever have kicked against Him. When I thought God was hard, I found it easy
to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion,
I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who
loved me so, and sought my good.” C.H. Spurgeon
“We
are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
HEART
SAVOR
- · Jesus’ love goes deeper and wider, reaches higher and further than mind can conceive. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)
- · Jesus always has my best interest at heart.
- · I am called to love as He loved through His power for His glory.
