The LOVE STORY - 3 (final)

RECIPROCATING THE LOVE OF GOD
March 2020

The Love of God demands that those who are recipient and have benefited from it should respond accordingly.
God’s love is not for show. Christ’s death, which is the Grace of God’s love, was for the sole purposed of adoptions of sons and reconciliation. All humanity has in one way or the other become partakers of the divine love of God. The love of God is for the whole world not for some set of people. Those who think God loves only the saints are void of proper biblical understanding. As a matter of fact God loves both the saints and the sinners. God’s love has no specific measurement for your moral ways. We have discussed that in the previous chapters, that God’s love is unconditional and independent of any man’s merit or qualification. So, we all need to come to this reality, God loves all of us equally. Have you forgotten how Jesus puts it? He said “For God so love the world” he never said, “For God so love the righteous in the world”

It is very unskilled to interpret the Old Testament judgments of God in the same line as the New Testament. Yes! This is because it has been noticed that some unskilled teachers of the word claim that although God is love, he seldom kills or punishes mercilessly. This is not a way of interpreting the scriptures. Covenants are an important principle in a good bible interpretation. Under the Old covenant, one should understand that The Love of God was still 100% active and potent but that Grace had not yet come. Jesus Christ came with Grace, so when Christ died, Love and grace became powerful into overriding every other dimension of God. I do not in anyone mean that God is not a righteous Judge as some have claimed. God is a righteous judge. But the judgment of the whole world was taken care of by Jesus Christ and in turn released Grace unto men. So God’s dimension of Judgment has been put on hold till the final day. God does not judge anyone now, except that those who have received eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus have been judged together with Him on the cross. It is done deal! It is a past tense thing! God loves the world, he is not judging anyone yet, and those who will face God’s judgment are those who reject Grace and Love.

So now that we are lucky recipients and beneficiaries, how do we respond to God’s love?

1. Love God: Loving God seem to be the most impossible task for many believers. This is because the methodology involved is not specifically stated in the bible.

Everyone knows, that when you claim to love someone, you care for such, relate with such in kindness, you become acquainted with such person that they become part of you. Even inanimate things, when loved, has the tendency to still away a great portion of one’s heart. However, loving God is the simplest thing everyone can do. Since God is not seen or visible to us, he gave us another alternative in loving him. To love God, you must love people around you. Simply put, loving God is loving man. Therefore if anyone wishes to respond to God’s love, he or she should respond by loving those who are in God’s Image and likeness. The idea is that, God cannot be loved because your love cannot satisfy him. Also that, you cannot see him, and this barrier would affect your love strength.

Therefore, since Jesus Christ (man-God) bought God’s love and Grace for humanity, therefore, when you love man, you love God.  This is as simple as abc.

2. Love your Neighbours: Neighbours are a fraction of the people that you ought to show love too according to the point one above. Nevertheless, neighbours are closer than any human being to us all. Our neighbours are almost like our families. The love of neighbours is demanded because it is the best way one can demonstrate one’s love. If you claim you love God, you ought to first show that by loving your neighbours.  Amen.

3. Love your Enemies: Loving enemies is like kissing a snake to some people. But only few people have ever thought of it, that there are really no enemies anywhere. Those whom we call enemies are actually innocent human beings under the influence of some evil force or spirit. No one was created or born into this world as an enemy. Therefore, it is demanded that believers love their enemies; those who mock, abuse or despise them. This is the way we can know that we have love. This is the only type of love among these three that is cannot be found among the unbelievers. If one claims to be a believer and does not love his or a he enemy, then such person is has a poor understanding of God’s love for humanity. This is why we are considered that first in the previous chapters. The idea in loving enemies; came from the fact that; we were once God’s enemies when he showed us love. He didn’t love us when we turned to his will; he loved us while we were far away from his will.

If you ask me, how do I live a kingdom lifestyle? I will ask you to begin with these three. Reciprocating God’s love is equal to living a lifestyle of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God was founded upon God’s love, Christ’ Grace and the Spirit’s Fellowship.

Interestingly, Jesus Christ, once taught these three points and repeatedly informed his disciples to lover God – which the greatest commandment. Also he added, that the only way people can know that they are his disciples is when they live a practical life of love. From records, they did well.

What about you?

THE END.

The LOVE STORY - 2

LOVE, GRACE & FELLOWSHIP
March 2020

When Jesus Christ was speaking in John chapter 3, he said in verse 16 “For God so love the world…” the word “so” is a modification of the word “love”, describing the weight and magnitude of God’s love for humanity. Jesus Christ said God did love us so much. This love was described and then manifested in the work of Grace. Jesus Christ is the custodian of this grace, and this grace gave us an opportunity to become one with the Godhead through fellowship. This is the eternal counsel of God.

Now, Jesus Christ went further in John 3:16 to say “that He (God) gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life”… the phrase “gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him” describes the Grace of Love been made available through faith. The Love of God produced the Grace of Christ. That is, the aim of God’s love is to unleash the grace that will bring about his intention - a kingdom of God in the hearts of men. Therefore God’s love has an end point – a family bound together in love through the amazing grace of the Jesus Christ.
It is interesting to note that, the Love of God is unconditional and does not depend on anyone’s merit. No man has merited and will ever merit this love.

God loved the world because he saw a great value in it. He saw a great kingdom in it. However, the world at this time does not look like it, so he made provision of grace to establish an intimacy through constant fellowship of the spirit with the people of the world. Those who have received this grace are already in fellowship with the love of God. This made Paul said in his benediction “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.” These three are the radar of man’s essence in life. All of our becoming is rooted in the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

THE LOVE OF GOD

God is love. He is true love. How do we know? He loved us while were yet sinners. He loved us while we were yet enemies of his will. He loved us while we have gone astray. This kind of love is very uncommon in hearts of mere men. There is only “love” in the heart of God - Only love written upon the tablets of his heart.

Cory Asbury said “Oh the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God…” he is right! The love is a reckless one. Very reckless! God’s love is not the type we see all around today. God’s love compelled him to sacrifice his son Jesus Christ for us, while we were doomed in sin. God’s love made the death of Christ our death that his life might become our life. Love!

William McDowell said “How can I describe a God that’s indescribable, a love that’s unexplainable…?” of course William is right. You cannot explain God’s love.

1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be propitiation for us””

THE GRACE OF CHRIST

How do you enjoy God’s love? – the love of God can only be accessed and enjoyed through the Grace of Christ.
The grace of Jesus Christ is the salvation package he gave upon his finished works on the cross. He died that you might live as a Son of God. When God loved the world, the love was not in touch with humanity until Jesus Christ died to make grace available to man. This grace was the channel through which man became one with God. This is the love of God accomplished.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLYSPIRIT

How do you experience God’s love continually? – The love of God can be constantly evident in one’s life through fellowship. The spirit of a believer is joined together with the Holy Spirit for fellowship. This mutual communion is the exercise that unleashes more and more depths of God’s love. Those who are easily fed up of life and God have for a long not been in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Constant fellowship, intimacy and communion with the Holy spirit of God is the key to experiencing God’s love continually in every sphere of life. This fellowship majorly depends on word study and prayers. Always pray in the Holy Ghost.

You would notice that the “Grace” is to Jesus Christ, the “love” is to God and “fellowship” is to the Holy Spirit. The Godhead had planned it long before time began, man and God have an ancient love story that all other creatures do not know about. The fallen angels were vexed beyond measure seeing the abundance of grace that was made available for humanity at the crucifixion unlike thiers. They saw LOVE, Grace and Fellowship been given to the sons of Men.

Now, this is the definition of God’s love – that he brought us into himself through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ for eternal fellowship in the Kingdom of God. Halleluyah…

TO BE CONTINUED… 

The LOVE STORY - 1

GOD’S LOVE FOR HUMANITY

March 2020

What is man? What claim has one so weak, and frail, and short-lived, to be remembered by time? What is there in man that entitles him to so much notice? Why has God conferred on him so signal honor? Why has he placed him over the works of his hands? Why has he made so many arrangements for his comfort? Why has he done so much to save him? He is so insignificant his life is so much like a vapor, he so soon disappears, he is so sinful and polluted, that the question may well be asked, why such honor has been conferred on him, and why such a dominion over the world has been given him.

Why should a God who is so vast and glorious, and who has all the starry worlds, so beautiful and grand, to claim his attention - why should he turn his thoughts on man? And especially why should he honor him as he has done by giving him dominion over the works of his hands? What was man, as he was originally made, that such exalted honor should have been conferred on him; and what has any one of his descendants become, in virtue of his native faculties or acquired endowments, that he should be thus honored?

David said in the book of Psalms, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visit him?” This was a question by some angels to the sovereign God. They had observed something different about the relationship between God and man. This relationship was built upon a strong foundation of love. God’s thought is always about man! Man!! and man!!! Why is this so? The angels were curious to know. The phrase in the above scripture, “That thou visit him” means God is not forgetting him; not leaving him; not passing him by. The word used here is the Hebrew word - פקד pâqad – which properly express a visitation for mercy; for friendship. Here it refers to the attention bestowed by God on man in conferring on him such marks of favor and honor as he had done - such attention that he never seemed to forget him, but was constantly coming to him with some new proof of favor.
The question is - why is this so? Why did God love man so much? – because man is the apex of God’s creation. Man is the summary of God’s eternal counsel. The kingdom of God was meant to be a colony of man’s dominion.

Interestingly, God created the angels before man. They were created as ministering spirits. But for who? For God and for Man! God had another picture in mind as he was creating the angels - Man was created in the Image and Likeness of God. Man was made to be like God himself in dominion and authority. This is the first clue in understanding God’s love for humanity. Man was God’s offspring brought into physical existence for a purpose of relationship and government. Man evolved out of the Godhead. Before time began, man was in the mind and plan of God. God told Prophet Jeremiah for example, that he (God) knew him (Jeremiah) and also that he (God) ordained him (Jeremiah) before he was formed in his mother’s womb. When God said in Genesis, “Let us make man…” he was only mentioning a concluded agreement among the Godhead. They must have discussed about man long before this time. If I would paraphrase the sentence, it would read “And God said, the man we discussed about and we agreed upon, let us make him in our own Image and Likeness”. So God brought man (already existing in him) into physical existence. God’s love for humanity is vested upon the truth that he created man for the sole purpose of relationship and family. Man was the apex of God’s creation. As seen by John, the twenty-four elders in the book of revelation said “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” Just in case you have never thought of it, all of God’s creation was just because of man. The earth and everything in it was created for man. Man has a special place in the heart of God. Therefore humanity must come to this understanding.

I have taught this many times, that – God performed two experiments with two of his top creations – Angels and Man. Talking about the rebellion of the fallen angels; I have called it the experiment of Holiness. This is because when the angels thought to lead a revolt against God’s kingdom, they were banished, expelled forever out of God’s presence. As close as their leader (Lucifer) was to God, he casted him away. On the other hand, God performed another experiment with man. It is the experiment of Love. He manifested his love through man. God chose to reveal his love nature to all his creatures but through man. See what man did compared to the angles - Man handed the dominion of the earth to darkness (Satan). Yet, God chose to forgive him. Man committed treason, but God chose to love him unconditionally still. “For God so love the world …” This is love! We understand the love dimension of God more than the angels do. They are creatures subject to the beholding of God’s holiness, we are creatures bound together in love with God. God’s family is a family of love.

This love is unconditional, indescribable, intentional, overwhelming, great, superb, unexplainable, awesome, outstanding, pure and powerful! Halleluyah!

If we understand the magnitude of his love, we would be able to respond accordingly also in love. Love is the lifestyle of the new creation. Love is the lifestyle of the Kingdom. John the beloved said "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us..." Take note of the phrases "great is the love" and the word "lavished". They are deeper revelations of God’s eternal purpose demonstrated as a dimension of love towards us his creation - Man.
Dear reader, have you ever wondered if you are loved by people around you? Never mind, God loves you deeply. No matter your background, no matter your wretched lifestyle, no matter your state of poverty, no matter your imperfections, no matter your sins, no matter your criminal acts, no matter your addiction to drugs, no matter your addiction to pornography, no matter your wayward lifestyle, no matter your indulgence in cultism or voodoo, no matter your struggles or shortcomings. God loves you and does so dearly and deeply. He thinks about you just the same way a father thinks cares about his infant child. You are always on his mind. His heart is wide enough to carry your thoughts. He knows what you are going through and he cares for you. God loves you! You need to know this! You don’t need to live right to earn his love. He loves you even in your imperfections. This love is the greatest love ever to be shown. 

This is the love story that humanity must hear, that God loves man so much and very much than all of us could ever imagine.

TO BE CONTINUED…