God Loves YOU!

Well here we are at the holiday of love. Millions of people everywhere are spending lots of money to show their love to the one they have given their heart to.  I like having a special day to surprise my beloved with a card and a small gift. I also thoroughly enjoy whatever card or gift he chooses for me.  

But how much does it really cost to show someone you love them?  How can we be sure we are loved? How do we know that the one who says they love us will be here for the long haul?  Can we trust love? Tina Turner asks us, “What’s love got to do with it?” and she goes on to call love a second hand emotion.  People have sung songs about found love, lost love, unrequited love and bad love (that’s a misnomer surely).  But can we find true love? And how do we recognize it for what it really is?

And what happens if we don’t have the love we so desire?  What do we do with a lover’s holiday if we don’t have something to fill it?  No box of candy, no bouquet of flowers, and in some cases not so much as a nod in our direction.  Are we destined to live a less than life? In the shadows of could have been, would have been, should have been?

There is one who loves you beyond your wildest imagination. You cannot begin to fathom the love that the Lord has for you.  You are on the ground floor of love and He is in the penthouse, so our view is often clouded by circumstances, dreams and disappointments. But God’s love pulls us up to His level. It completes us. His love transforms us. We who were destined to try to make do are now full of God’s love

Oh beloved, if I could give you one thing for Valentine’s Day it would be a real understanding of the love God has for you. There is no beginning to His love – you did not earn it. There is no ending to His love – you cannot lose it. There is no place where you live that God won’t come and show you His love. You don’t have to be anything for God to love you. You are indeed loved. And because you are loved you can rest in and rejoice about and enjoy that love.

What's love got to do with it?  I'll tell you. It has everything to do with it. Because of love, God created you, Jesus rescued you, the Holy Spirit covers you and you have been given a new life, a fulfilling purpose and you can walk in the light of His love. Other people may disappoint you, reject you, belittle you, upset you. But God’s love seals your heart so that you can walk free.  

Walk beloved, no dance, in the fact that God loves you and He’s for you and His love is forever and ever and then some!

Romans 8:39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

1 Chronicles 16:34 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Romans 5:7-9 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.  But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

Psalm 57:10 For Your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Ephesians 3:18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.

God is Calling!

 

At work I’ve been getting a lot of automated calls. They start out with a voice sounding so sincere, but then after you listen for a moment you realize it’s just a fake call, trying to sell you something, asking you to press a number to talk to a “real” person. These calls only serve themselves. Even when they start out with phrases like, “we know in these troubling times” or “if you have a few ...minutes, we think we can help” – they end up wanting your time and eventually your money. Some unknown company goes to elaborate and expensive lengths to hook you into thinking they care.

If they get the right person, one who is uninformed or misinformed, they can trick them into swallowing their line of reasoning and get money. Fortunately we are a business, so I hang up quickly and move on to other things. Still the calls keep coming. It’s pretty sad that if they get someone who’s lonely on the phone, they may, by appearing to be friendly and concerned, ultimately get the money they want and leave the person paying with little if anything to show for it.

This morning you need to know that there is a call worth answering. It’s the call of God. He’s always trying to reach you and He’s always thrilled when you pick up the call and respond. His call is full of love and affection. He’s always calling with something good to tell you. His calls won’t scam you or cost you, for He paid the ultimate price already. He calls because He genuinely wants to connect with you, to speak truth and life into your heart. He wants to build you up, not tear you down. He wants to give you something precious rather than take something from you.

The Lord’s call is on your life! He speaks wonderful things to you, too marvelous to believe! His call always begins with I love you! Then He will go on to say I am for you! He knows it may have been a tough week, a tough month, a tough year. He wants to let you know He’s been with you through it all. He also wants you to know that He saw every heartache, every teardrop, and every disappointment. He also has heard every call you made to Him – the prayer, the plea, the praise and the worship too.

Oh beloved, God delights in your conversations together! He rejoices when you call out to Him! He answers every single time you call on Him! His calls will always be worth answering for everything He has is covered in love and everything He does is covered in His abundant care and mercy. Answer the call beloved! It’s the One who loves you unconditionally calling to say He’s got your troubles covered and your heart cries answered. And He’s always available, no waiting and wondering for his beloved!

Psalm 91:15 When they call on Me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.

Romans 9:25 As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

Psalm 89:15 Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship,for they will walk in the light of your presence, LORD.

Psalm 36: 7 How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.

Are you Living on Truth or a Dare?

I love to look through old pictures. It’s funny to see how photography and cameras have changed along the years. Mother and Daddy took pictures with an old Brownie Hawkeye. You placed a huge bulb in the reflector for the flash. You also looked down into the viewfinder rather than holding it up to your eye.




Among the old photos there’s one of my friend Pam that I see occasionally. It’s a photo of... her peering over the top of my parents’ house. She’s on top of the porch roof looking down at us! We seemed to like to play truth or dare back then. Our truth wasn’t too awful and our dares were fairly benign, but there Pam is completing her dare. It was a tall old house and I don’t even remember how she got up there, but she was evidently very nimble back in the day. I still laugh when I think about it. I don’t remember the dare, but I do remember the photo. I don’t remember what we were doing that day, but the photo lets me know we were having fun.



Truth or dare. For teens who played the game, the truth could be quite awkward, as the questions were meant to embarrass. Often completing a dare was the easier way to go. Isn’t life like this? We choose everyday whether to live in the truth or not. When we don’t know the truth, or we don’t want to live that way, we choose dare. We dare to escape the confines of God’s Word, we dare to branch out and live our own life, just the way we want to, we dare to go where “angels fear to tread”. Then we wonder, how did we ever get stuck on the roof? We get in a tight spot and we need help to get ourselves out of the place we thought we were so sure we wanted to go.



For parents we watch our children grow up and find that many times they go the opposite direction you raised them to go. It’s hard to see them playing truth or dare with their lives, the life we as parents so love. That life that we gave ours up for to raise and groom and prepare not just for life, but hopefully for heaven as well.

Are you stuck in a dare? Did you decide the Truth was too hard, too narrow, too confining? Did you just mean to step out into the shallows, but now you find yourself up to your neck in troubles? Right about now, you’re wishing you could climb down from your situation and climb into your Father’s Arms where it’s totally safe and secure Maybe you were given free reign to do your own thing, but it’s brought you to the brink of disaster. The daring life is no longer fun. It’s a hard taskmaster but you’re not sure how to live any other way.



Oh beloved, it’s time to go back to the Truth! This Truth won’t embarrass you, won’t reveal your weaknesses or your sins. This Truth will pick you up, straighten your life and give you a firm footing to walk on. It’s not just a momentary fix or answer to a game, it’s a way of life. And no matter how far you’ve veered from God’s Truth, He’s waiting to take you back to Himself. It may seem daring to trust your life to God and let Him call the shots, but this is one dare that will lead you into All Truth, and God’s Word is the only Truth you’ll ever need. If your children or other loved ones have veered from the truth, you can trust God for them as well. Dare to come boldly to the throne of Grace of your needs and for the needs of those you love. God is always willing to answer the prayer of faith and to seek those who have gone astray.



Run to His Word this morning. It’s the Truth! Dare to let yourself live in His light, so that you will always walk in a way of success and courage, no matter what. Dare to let go of self and grab onto Him! He knows your hurts, your anguish, your embarrassment, even when no one else knows a thing, He knows it all. He loves you in spite of everything and He’s for you no matter what and that, beloved, is all that really matters.



Psalm 119:176 I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.



Ephesians 4:18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against Him.



Psalm 107:6-7 “LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble, and He rescued them from their distress. He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live.



Psalm 130:4 But You offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear You.



1 Chronicles 16:34 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.