It has been forever since I've blogged. Summer Project is definitely over. I haven't forgotten about this blog, I just have been to lazy to sit down and sort out my thoughts.
God has done many many amazing things in my life since my last post and a very small portion of them are mentioned on the summer project blog. This past weekend I just had an amazing time in Rogers, MN at my Summer Project reunion! It was fantastic! I loved seeing so many project friends again. Of course a weekend is not nearly long enough it seems, but it was well worth the 14 to 15 hours of driving almost 800 miles.
God just reminded me of his great love for me as I talked with some friends getting updated on what He was doing on their campuses and sharing the same for my campus and just seeing their excitement and passion for God is so encouraging. I was talking with my friend Joanna sharing a lot of this kind of thing and we were talking about how God's love is much more realized in view of his hatred of sin and his wrath. God's attributes are not mutually exclusive. In his love, he doesn't put his wrath of sin aside. Rather, out of his great love for us, he send Jesus, his only son to die for us when we deserved nothing. He poured out his wrath on Jesus because of his great love for us. The LEAST we can do is offer our entire lives on this earth. For all believers, we have been bought at a great price and we owe our lives to God. God doesn't need us, yet he loves us enough to bridge the gap between himself and us with the death of his son. Jesus' death paid our penalty because Jesus was perfect and when we accept Christ, we are crucified with him. As we live here on this earth, we are living in the death of Christ. We are in a sin-cursed world that has much pain and suffering, but in the heat of it all, knowing that God loves me, a hopeless wretch apart from Christ, I can have joy that God's plan is what's best for my life. I can live for God through trials with great peace when I am walking close with him. For to live is Christ and to die is gain!
I thought of an analogy in considering God's love. Imagine very clearly your best friend. If you don't have a best friend, just pick one of your closest friends in mind. Imagine someone kills that best friend. Some murderer who has killed many. Imagine your feelings towards that person. Now say they are caught and go to court and you are in court against them. The natural human response would be to hate them, to want the worst for them. We think, "They need to go to jail for life or get the death penalty. We can never get the life of our friend back..." Well we might be thinking it's only natural to feel that way, but as Christians, that's not how we are called.
Do you have a love for that person who killed your best friend to say to them that you forgive them for what they did? Do you have the kind of love for that person that wants the best for them. Would you be willing to take that person's punishment and go to prison for them or even take the death penalty? The punishment must be paid or there would be no justice. Would you love them so much that you would die for them? How would this love speak to them. They wouldn't understand how you could love them after something like that happened.
Do you realize that you are this murderer? Do you realize that God in his great love for you sent his only son Jesus to die for you and pay that penalty? If anyone hates another person, they have already murdered them in their heart. The punishment was poured out on Jesus. Jesus should be your closest friend. I hope when you hear the phrase, "Jesus loves me", you will think of what that cost him and you'll remember that it's true.
This kind of love is the kind of love that God has called us to love with.
John 15:12 says: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
This is certainly a challenging thing for me. We can't love like this on our own strength. Don't even try. Rather go to God and ask him to show you how to love and ask that you be filled with the Holy Spirit and the ability to love.
1 John 4:10 says: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So how do we love God? We follow his commandments.
I John 5:3 says: "for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome."
Brothers and sisters, reflect on the gospel and on God's great love for you. Realize the cost to God our free gift of salvation is and go and share this love with others. If you are not yet a believer and are reading this, you can have this great love. If you have been living thinking that Christianity is all about doing good works and following rules and doing this or that or abstaining from this or that, then you are missing out on the beauty of God's love! It is not burdensome to do the commandments of God and love him. Don't do it on your strength apart from God for you have none.
Ephesians 2:8-9 say this: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Anyone wanting to talk about any of this with me, I would love the opportunity, so please let me know!
God has done many many amazing things in my life since my last post and a very small portion of them are mentioned on the summer project blog. This past weekend I just had an amazing time in Rogers, MN at my Summer Project reunion! It was fantastic! I loved seeing so many project friends again. Of course a weekend is not nearly long enough it seems, but it was well worth the 14 to 15 hours of driving almost 800 miles.
God just reminded me of his great love for me as I talked with some friends getting updated on what He was doing on their campuses and sharing the same for my campus and just seeing their excitement and passion for God is so encouraging. I was talking with my friend Joanna sharing a lot of this kind of thing and we were talking about how God's love is much more realized in view of his hatred of sin and his wrath. God's attributes are not mutually exclusive. In his love, he doesn't put his wrath of sin aside. Rather, out of his great love for us, he send Jesus, his only son to die for us when we deserved nothing. He poured out his wrath on Jesus because of his great love for us. The LEAST we can do is offer our entire lives on this earth. For all believers, we have been bought at a great price and we owe our lives to God. God doesn't need us, yet he loves us enough to bridge the gap between himself and us with the death of his son. Jesus' death paid our penalty because Jesus was perfect and when we accept Christ, we are crucified with him. As we live here on this earth, we are living in the death of Christ. We are in a sin-cursed world that has much pain and suffering, but in the heat of it all, knowing that God loves me, a hopeless wretch apart from Christ, I can have joy that God's plan is what's best for my life. I can live for God through trials with great peace when I am walking close with him. For to live is Christ and to die is gain!
I thought of an analogy in considering God's love. Imagine very clearly your best friend. If you don't have a best friend, just pick one of your closest friends in mind. Imagine someone kills that best friend. Some murderer who has killed many. Imagine your feelings towards that person. Now say they are caught and go to court and you are in court against them. The natural human response would be to hate them, to want the worst for them. We think, "They need to go to jail for life or get the death penalty. We can never get the life of our friend back..." Well we might be thinking it's only natural to feel that way, but as Christians, that's not how we are called.
Do you have a love for that person who killed your best friend to say to them that you forgive them for what they did? Do you have the kind of love for that person that wants the best for them. Would you be willing to take that person's punishment and go to prison for them or even take the death penalty? The punishment must be paid or there would be no justice. Would you love them so much that you would die for them? How would this love speak to them. They wouldn't understand how you could love them after something like that happened.
Do you realize that you are this murderer? Do you realize that God in his great love for you sent his only son Jesus to die for you and pay that penalty? If anyone hates another person, they have already murdered them in their heart. The punishment was poured out on Jesus. Jesus should be your closest friend. I hope when you hear the phrase, "Jesus loves me", you will think of what that cost him and you'll remember that it's true.
This kind of love is the kind of love that God has called us to love with.
John 15:12 says: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
This is certainly a challenging thing for me. We can't love like this on our own strength. Don't even try. Rather go to God and ask him to show you how to love and ask that you be filled with the Holy Spirit and the ability to love.
1 John 4:10 says: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So how do we love God? We follow his commandments.
I John 5:3 says: "for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome."
Brothers and sisters, reflect on the gospel and on God's great love for you. Realize the cost to God our free gift of salvation is and go and share this love with others. If you are not yet a believer and are reading this, you can have this great love. If you have been living thinking that Christianity is all about doing good works and following rules and doing this or that or abstaining from this or that, then you are missing out on the beauty of God's love! It is not burdensome to do the commandments of God and love him. Don't do it on your strength apart from God for you have none.
Ephesians 2:8-9 say this: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Anyone wanting to talk about any of this with me, I would love the opportunity, so please let me know!
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