“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 8:39

 

Lately as I see the happenings around us it seems like the world is out of control. It is confusing and perplexing why a God of love lets things happen. You know as I listen to God’s word thru Paul, I’m relieved to know nothing can separate us from the love of God. We still serve a wonderful God, a loving God. In the midst of this dark time we as children of God have a responsibility to share His love.

 

Psalmist says in Ps. 63:3 “Because your living kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.”

 

We need to take this lesson from the Psalmist and praise God for his love for us. I remember the story of Dwight L. Moody. Once he was preaching in Chicago, a drunk man walked into the church service and saw a sign above the pulpit that read “God is Love.” It struck him with anger, he slammed the door and muttered to himself, God is not love. If God was love, He wouldn’t love a miserable man like him. It is not true so he walked away, but the statement kept coming back to him. “God is love, God is love” so he decided to go back to the church confused and desperate and sat in the back of the church as Moody continued to preach. When the service ended and all the people were gone, D. L. Moody saw this man setting and crying. So he approached him and asked him if the sermon had touched him. The man replied, “Sir I did not listen to the sermon but the words above your pulpit “God is Love” broke my heart. So Moody sat down and explained the depth of God’s love. The man broke down and gave his life to Jesus for the first time he understood that God really did love him.

There are many people in our world today who see the chaos in the world and wonder if God is love. I often wonder why we, the Christians, who have been given and shown love have not reached out to the lonely and desperate people. Is it because we are so busy taking care of ourselves and we forget the hurting around us?

 

We have a greater responsibility to see through the eyes of Jesus, who has redeemed us and given us hope in spite of our inability to fathom the full scope of God’s love. He has revealed to us in many ways that we can clearly understand. Through the laughter of a year old or the colorful sunset, or through the fall leaves around us and many other ways that HE loves us. Because God is God, He does as He pleases, and it pleases Him to love us without cause. From the beginning of time God does not love us because we love Him. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

 

God’s love is unending, so we are the extension of God’s love to the hurting and desperate world. John 3:16 says, “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.”

 

This fall let us be the bridge to people who are blind for some reason and let them see God is love.

 

Fall colors are in full bloom so enjoy His generous love and share Him with people you come across.

 

God Bless.

Pastor Shaker