~God’s Love – Our Love~

Hatred stirs up strife, But love* covers all transgressions. [PROVERBS 10:12] [NAS]

Today, we hope to discuss and maybe help change the way you look and feel about love. We will be discussing the love of God and most importantly the love that you have and show for our Creator and Savior Jesus. They tell us that of all of our desires, (power, pleasure, etc.) the desire to be loved is the deepest and strongest. The human soul cannot endure without love. Since God is love, you have to have God in your life to be fully loved. Look at I John 4:8; The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love**. [NAS] That is pretty plain and simple. I don’t know how anyone can get the message messed-up that, “ God is love,” so He loves us; and to know God we have to love Him as well as our fellowman, since He passes on this characteristic of love to us. ** Love – Strong’s G25 - to love (in a social or moral sense)

~One Woman’s Recent Life Experiences~ (True Story)

There was a young lady in my office a few months ago. She was telling about what had happened to her in the last year. She was in the process of a divorce, lost custody of her two children, and her house had burned down. In the fire she lost her two dogs and one of them was her best friend and had been for many years. She couldn’t get into the burning house to save them. She had no fire insurance on the house and she lost all her worldly material possessions. As she began to cry, she said she had no job and did not know how she was going to pay next month’s rent or buy groceries. She also owed the IRS thousands of dollars. In addition to all this, her sister had died as well as four other people in the mobile home park that she lived in.

As she continued, she said, “she had thought about suicide, but she knew that wasn’t the answer.” Do you know what she told me the answer was? “She said I know God still loves me.” Through it all, “I know God still loves me.” “I just needed to know that God loves me.” What a testimony to the love of God?

If these things had happened to you, would you be able to say; “I know Jesus still loves me?” I have to be honest with you; it would be hard for me. I may possibly be asking the questions, “Why me Lord,” or “Why,” or “I don’t understand it,” or maybe, “Lord, I’m a good person,” or “Lord, I don’t deserve this.” In the hour of adversity we will either turn away from God or toward God. It’s a choice or decision we make each day; each time God has a test for us. Our faith plays an important role in the way that decision is made.

Brother Dewey E. Fox