THE
PRECIOUS HEART OF CHRIST
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)
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)
6 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)
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)
16 This
is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16 (NIV)
9 “As the Father has loved me,
so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as
I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that
your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each
other as I have loved you. 13 Greater
love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John
15:9-13 (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)
3 Not
only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering
produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And
hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)
“Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he
shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his
shoulders.” Deuteronomy 33:12 (NIV)
BUTTER
“If you are
in Christ, you have a Friend who, in your sorrow, will never lob down a pep
talk from heaven. He cannot bear to hold
Himself at a distance. Nothing can hold
Him back. His heart is too bound up with
yours.” Dane Ortlund
“Everything that
is lovely in God is in Christ, and everything that is or can be lovely in any
man is in Him: for He is man as well as
God, and He is the holiest, meekest, most humble, and every way the most
excellent man that ever was.” Jonathan
Edwards
“God’s love contrasts with human love in
both nature and degree, because God demonstrates (“keeps on
showing”) His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (hyper, “in our
place”). Though a few people might possibly be willing to die to save the lives
of good people, though that is rare, Christ went well beyond that. He died in
the place of the powerless (“feeble,”
v.
6),
the ungodly (v.
6;
4:5), sinners (5:8), and even His enemies! (v.
10).” Bible Knowledge Commentary
“His favors are
always performed with the love of His heart.
He doesn’t send us the cold meat and the broken pieces from the table of
His luxury, but He dips our morsel in His own dish, and seasons our provisions
with the spices of His fragrant affections.
When He puts the golden tokens of His grace into our palms, He accompanies
the gift with such a warm pressure of our hand, that the manner of His giving
is as precious as the boon itself.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“God’s mercy and grace come directly from
His heart, and run with a straight, direct, and natural stream. The Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to
anger, and abounding in lovingkindness.”
Thomas Goodwin
“There is no love so great and so
wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ. He is one that delights in mercy; He is ready
to pity those that are in suffering and sorrowful circumstances; one that
delights in the happiness of His creatures.
The love and grace that Christ has manifested does as much exceed all
that which is in this world as the sun is brighter than a candle. Parents are often full of kindness towards
their children, but that is no kindness like Jesus Chris’s.” Jonathan Edwards
HEART
SAVOR
·
The heart of our Savior is most
wonderfully kind.
·
Jesus cares about all our affairs
down to the smallest detail of our lives.
And He loves each of us to the fullest measure of His love.
·
Our Lord abounds in lovingkindness.
