Tag: God’s love

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The Greatest Feast of All

A Church Feast

Recently in Geneva, I came across a picture on an outside wall in the old quarter, showing a church feast for all. A potluck, possibly to celebrate the harvest. People of all kinds participated and ate happily together.

This morning I read in Isaiah 25: 6, about another church feast, which will be the greatest feast ever. The Lord Himself will make this feast. It will be for all peoples. It’s the coronation festival inaugurating the reign of the Lord on earth 🌎.

What will he serve? Rich meat 🍖 full of fat and marrow, it says, and the best of well-aged wines 🍷.

What will he do when he reigns? Verses 7-8 tell us that he will abolish death forever and wipe away tears from off all faces. Wow!

This is God telling the world, long before the time of Jesus, through the prophet Isaiah, of his love for all people. That includes you, whoever you are, and me too. God loves us all, and he, when he reigns, will restore relationships and life, as we feast together at his table.

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Broken but Loved

Broken but Loved

Broken but loved, this ornament is a gift from my son 💙. It represents his love to me. But alas, the tail broke off some time ago. I glued it back on, but later it broke off again. Then it sat in a drawer for several years, until yesterday I got it out and glued it back together again. You can see where it broke, but I put it back out where it can remind me daily of my son who I love.

We are all like this ornamental bird, broken but loved. God our Father and Creator loved each one of us from the beginning. No one is perfect. We’re all broken. But he sent Jesus to redeem us and restore us to himself.

Romans 3:23-24 (The Amplified Bible) says: Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives, all are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus.

I’m so glad God loves me that much. In spite of my foibles, big mistakes, stupidity, brokenness and shame, he loves me. Jesus has redeemed us, and by faith in him we are restored to a right standing with God.

I wish I could undo the stupid things I’ve done, but I can’t. Yet God loves me anyway. And you too. Broken but loved.

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What the World🌎 Needs Now…

Is Love, Sweet Love

Remember that song 🎵? Today as I read my Bible I was reminded of God’s love, which He has continually blessed us with throughout history. We just need to open our eyes and see it. God opened the eyes of the apostle Paul, who spread the gospel of God’s love to the world.

I [Paul] stand here testifying to small and great alike, asserting nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses declared would come to pass; that the Christ, the Anointed One, must suffer; and that He, by being the first to rise from the dead, would declare and show light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. Acts 26:22-23 (The Amplified Bible)

Paul was making his defense before King Agrippa and the prominent citizens of Damascus. He had been falsely accused by Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus, and wanted to kill Paul.

Paul himself had previously persecuted Christians, until Jesus spoke to him personally one day out of a blinding light.

Jesus appointed him as a witness to both Jews and Gentiles “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may thus receive forgiveness and release from their sins and a place and portion among those who are consecrated and purified by faith in me.” (verse 18)

The Gospel of God’s Love Keeps Spreading

Paul had been given the astounding privilege of spreading the amazing message of the gospel to the world. Those who tried to kill him only helped further the gospel by giving Paul the opportunity to testify before Roman authorities and prominent people.

This same gospel message still reverberates around the world 🌎–a message we all personally need–to be forgiven and accepted and loved by God. Jesus made it possible–praise God! He turns sinners into saints by making us right with Him. Who wouldn’t want that?

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Mercy

The Mercy Seat

You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony [the ten commandments] that I will give you. Exodus 25:21

It strikes me that the mercy seat was placed above the 10 commandments.

The 10 commandments (found in Exodus chapter 20) are very good–given from God who loves us and wants us to live in a good way. But we continually fail to live up to even those few commandments.

So God, in his love for us, puts the mercy seat above the commandments. He goes on to say that at the mercy seat he will meet with us, and speak intimately with us.

Who wouldn’t want to sit there on that seat between two angelic golden cherubim spreading their wings of protection overhead, with God sitting next to us and speaking intimately with us.

Wow! From the beginning God showed his understanding, love and mercy for us people who he created. We are so in need of mercy all the time. Thank you so much God!