Why love?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1Corinthians 13)

I have to confess, I have the hardest time forgiving. I should be forgiving because God forgave me in Christ. But I went further with the Lord on this subject.. Why did Christ forgive us?..

back to John 3:16- He did it out of love. But why love us??

What am I- I’m dust that He breathed into- I am his creation- is that enough merit for love?

No.. didn’t God make the devil? He is landing Him an eternity in the lake of fire for all that Satan has done. The Bible doesn’t say God loves him, but . still, why.. love us?

Out of pity? We are weak and disobedient…but we bear the image of the Lord, not only this, we are witnesses of His creation and are a learning creation- we can change. We feel and are able to express: we have been gifted language- word- good and bad, just like angels. We can communicate with God through his Word- Jesus; the light of men. And that is where love is: Jesus. Painfully pouring out his riches that His treasure may be gifted to the undeserving:

love?

well, what else could you call it?

Ultimately, it’s for His glory. He shows how great He is through the world, by having mercy on the Hitler’s while they live, and then showing them on judgment day why they’re going to Hell. What MIGHT of incomprehension and mercy beyond understanding that our maker loves though we do not deserve anything from our first breaths but the pits of Hell- Eve should have been striked down from the very moment she took a bite of that apple- yet still He strives with us until death is defeated on that final day; the second coming of the Lord.

Gifts

I had the strangest dream.

Dustin(Bryan’s friend) had this crazy cat in this strange apartment complex that we lived in and we were trying to keep it out of trouble but it’s like the cat’s name was trouble or something- it’s all the cat ever did. So we tried to lock it in a shed next door for a while, but then these mean jock kind of guys came to clean out the apartments pool and opened up the shed. This some how made us decide to watch the movie Sin City…

When we started watching it- Dustin’s friend, who was sitting on one of the couches, ended up to be John Travolta and he started talking..”You know Sin City is such a terrible movie, our society has it out like people are actually looking for God when really, the Bible says in Romans 3:11 that NO ONE seeks after God- all have turned away and have together become useless. No one does good, not even one.”

This got me thinking of my life and how much I had loved my sin; drugs, pride, gluttony, sloth, not submitting to any kind of authority and the world revolved around me..- it wasn’t until I just wasn’t satisfied with anything even though I had all I could ever want and I saw that my coveting- it wouldn’t stop until I had destroyed myself- and that’s exactly what I wanted to do because I couldn’t be happy with all the money and things and relationships that I had.. It wasn’t til then that I tried to look for God because I was suicidal and I really wanted to know where I’d be going if I died. It wasn’t til I was brought to that point- not of my own doing- but of God’s mercy to a hater of who He was….

back to my dream: John Travolta proceeded to preach out into the street which suddenly got packed full of Mexicans and there was a truck there that was full of them, and on the truck there was a blue plastic mold of Jesus as if He were on the cross- but there was no cross and He was upside-down. And John Travolta starts commenting on how according to the Bible, He should be all beaten up.

You shouldn’t even be able to recognize the man’s face. I observed the 15 year old looking baby skinned Jesus, laying there peaceful like nothing was wrong. What a lie.

Isaiah chapter 53 prophesies Jesus’ death:

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

That was the end of my dream.. but the point was- No one has the will to go after God- no one understands how important He is- How He is the creator and sustainer of our lives and that this little life won’t last forever- everything here is passing away with it. We didn’t choose anything- not our hair color- not our parents- not our skin tone.. we don’t choose to sweat or choose when to use the restroom.

If you want to know God, you go to God, and He doesn’t turn anyone away who comes to Him. If He is who He says He is, He will not forsake you and He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows all you’ve ever done, said, or thought and will do, say, or think. Don’t die ignorant of the God who’s delivered so many from their evil destructive way into REAL life; REAL love; REAL knowledge; REAL joy! Joy is happiness that cannot be effected by anything that happens; it’s all gifts from God.

Thank you, Jesus.

To think that not so long ago people thought our solar system was all that there was- that space didn’t continue on past what the naked eye could see; that we only thought there were a little more than a thousand stars in our vast sky. Oh how much more is there- why are we here but to wonder and be in awe of such beauty we’ve easily managed to corrupt.

Lord, my faith may be weak but I know your upholding hand will strengthen as the days go on. You are glorious, God. Your Holy Trinity is so beyond my comprehension- everything you are I can’t hardly explain to its great fullness. Little tiny rib I am, do what you will with me, Lord. I’m happy to be chosen to know you and to live in your hands and by your hands. I thank you, God, for all that you are: your mercy, kindness, goodness, mystery, wisdom, justice, perfection… The great ‘I Am’- you know me and you’ve brought me to know you. I can be so ungrateful- my thoughts are so fleeting. Please help me live to honor you above all, dear Lord. Please help me realize who you are, Lord, help me remember how much I need you. I want to cry and shout for joy for the rest of my days- “All for your glory, Lord.”

My Only Boast is You

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You

by Jordan Kauflin

Humble by God’s Hand

How blessed are the humble..

He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble(or meek) with salvation. Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.. ..Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.. ..Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the Lord God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.”

How greatly is pride despised.. that is what led Satan to his fall and his eternal torment in the never ending separation from God; the ring of fire where their smoke will go up forever and ever. and ever and ever and ever.. What a concept to try and comprehend.. it’s what we’ve been saved from in Christ and in Him alone.

May the Lord have mercy and protect our souls from the corruption of pride.

In the beginning

May the Lord use my words for His glory and good pleasure.

I write this blog as a record of my  commitment towards Jesus Christ as a witness of the world and the majesty of the Creator. He has made me a new creature in that I can see truth through the Spirit. Have you ever stopped and really looked around?- seeing every tint and crease of your palms.. and are grateful for the power to wield them!? Every pore of the skin with its purpose in heat regulation- completing this task without your conscious command. I could go on for the rest of existence on the wonder and mystery of life. I’ve only recently come to see the world in such a way- it came by the light of the Holy Scriptures, the Bible.