We All Long For Love Jeremiah 31:3 Zephaniah 3:17 Hosea 11:4 Hosea 14:4 Psalms 103: 8-14 John 3:16 Ephesians 2:2-5 Romans 8:31-39 1 John 4:7-10 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Ephesians 3:16-19 03.05 21

 

WE ALL LONG FOR LOVE

BREAD

³ The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”  Jeremiah 31:3 (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)

 

⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.   Hosea 11:4 (NIV)

 

⁴ “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.”   Hosea 14:4 (NIV)

 

⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  ⁹ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; ¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 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.  Psalms 103:8-14 (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.”   John 3:16 (NIV)

 

³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.  Ephesians 2:2-5 (NIV)

 

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 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 8:31-39 (NIV)

 

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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.  1 John 4:7-10 (NIV)

 

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸ Love never fails.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)

 

¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 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 3:16-19 (NIV)

 

BUTTER

 

“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

 

“God’s love for us is higher and deeper and broader and longer than anyone can imagine.  He loves us with an everlasting love and He rejoices over us with singing.  He leads us with cords of kindness and we rest secure between His all-sufficient shoulders, finding repose in His shadow.  His eye is ever on us for our good and His glory never one surpassing the other.  His way is the best way even though oftentimes extraordinarily, breath takingly difficult.  In love, He meets our needs - not necessarily our wants - as He is always in the process of conforming us into the image of His Son AND He uses everything in our life towards that end as Jesus was to be the first among many brothers.  This is taking hold of life that is truly life.  How are we to respond to this great love?  The psalmist rightly proclaims:  ‘²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?  And earth has nothing I desire besides you. ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’  Psalms 73:25-26 (NIV).”  BHY  

“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

“Love Him totally who gave Himself totally for your love.”  Claire of Assisi 

“Obedience to God is the most infallible evidence of sincere and supreme love for Him.”   Nathanael Emmons

“Fall in love with the One who erases all of your falls.  Pine after the One who hung on a tree for you, the only One who ever loved you to death and back to the realest life.”  Ann Voskamp

 

“God loves you as though you are the only person in the world, and He loves everyone the way He loves you.”     Augustine

 

“Christ’s love has depths in which the daring soul may drown, and abundant shallows for the humble to safely wade.”  Vincent Alsop 

“If the Sovereign, Omnipotent, Omniscient God is on our side, as His child, seriously, what do we have to fear?  He, Who loves us with an everlasting love, Who ever has His eye upon us, Who never leaves us nor forsakes us, Who not only died to save us but has also given us the Grand Deposit of the precious Holy Spirit to empower us to walk in a manner worthy of our high calling all the way Home – this God, this very God is for us and not against us.  No matter what the circumstances of your life may be bellowing out.  The world shouts fear while God whispers peace.  He will never let the righteous fall and we can trust Him with our lives and with the lives of all we love and hold dear.”  BHY        

“Jesus, Thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love Thou art.”  Charles Wesley

“O Lord, let me enter into your presence and there taste the eternal, timeless, everlasting love with which you invite me to let go of my time-bound anxieties, fears, preoccupations, and worries. . . . Lord, teach me your ways and give me the courage to follow them.  Amen.”   Henri Nouwen  

“All the attributes of God act in the strength of love, and all the providences of God flow from the motions of love.  Love is the proper source of all our other mercies.”  Matthew Mead        

“You are His peculiar care, His royal treasure that He guards as the apple of His eye, His vineyard over which He watches day and night. “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.”⁶ Let the thought of His special love to you be a spiritual painkiller, a soothing balm to your woe: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”⁷ God says that just as much to you as to any saint of old. “Fear not . . . I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”⁸ We lose much consolation by the habit of reading His promises for the whole Church instead of taking them directly home for ourselves.”  C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg

 

“Christian, believe this and think on it; you will be eternally embraced in the arms of everlasting love.  The love that brought the Son from heaven to earth, from the earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the glory; the love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crucified; that love will eternally embrace you.  What shall we say to these things?  No wonder the angels desire to peer into this mystery.  All of Christ’s way of mercy end in the saints’ joy; He wept, sorrowed, suffered that we might rejoice; He sent the Spirit to be our Comforter, He multiplied His promises that our joy might be full.  It is not our joy only, but mutual joy and mutual love.  If there is joy in heaven at your salvation, will there not be joy at your glorification?  Will not the angels welcome you there and congratulate your safe arrival?  Christ Jesus rejoices at the outcome of His suffering, and is admired by that believe.  We are the fruit of His soul’s travail.”  Richard Baxter    

“God doesn’t love us because of our worth, we are of worth because God loves us.”   Martin Luther 

HEART SAVOR

·         Love demonstrates.

·         God loves us with an everlasting love.

• ·         God’s love leads us with cords of human kindness.  Indeed, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.  ¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. ² Give thanks to the God of gods.  His love endures forever. ³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.   Psalms 136:1-3 (NIV)