2-24-2018 For the Love of God
I’ve addressed the question before “Really, Who is God?” and, at that time, I shared three main spiritual events in my life. I talked about how these experiences impacted my life but I didn’t really talk about how they came into being. And that’s what I want to talk about today. These, and all the other things I have experienced in my Life wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the LOVE GOD has for me.”
Communication
with Father (or anyone else, is a two way street. So is God’s love – He communicates with us,
then we need to communicate with Him.
Communicate = talking.
First, God
so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son that should I accept His Son
(Jesus) into my life and through my commitment to Him, I would enjoy eternal
fellowship with the Father through the Son forever (John 3:16).
Second, I discover that if I love God I will live according to what Jesus said because it is a demonstration of my love for Him. Jesus said “If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 15:10-12). His commandments are actually a single commandment – to Love. But love moves in two directions – up and outward. God’s concept of love is to truly care about Father (the great I am), who He is and just what does He mean to me, then to care about those around me.
Truly caring about
our relationships is LOVE!
Thirdly,
God’s ultimate desire for me to have a relationship with Him through my love
for Him (He loved me first).
What I want
you to take away from this is about how Father loves me and then how I can
return that love to him. And, keep in
mind, this isn’t just about me, it’s also about you.
Jesus says
that whatever you’ve done to the least unto those in My kingdom, you’ve done
unto me (Matt. 25:31-46). He watches over us and stands beside us when
we n need His help. He is the first of
many brothers of those who seek the Lord (Rom. 8:29). Jesus IS our ‘big’ brother!
Basically, I
grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. In
my youth, I faithfully attended Sunday School and, as a group, the boys in my
class and I attended services afterward.
After High School, I drifted away from attending church on a regular
basis. Several years later, I met the
woman I wanted as my wife, who was also Southern Baptist, so we went to my old
church to see if the pastor would perform the ceremony. There was a new pastor (less than a year, I
think) and he agreed to do our ceremony but he required one condition – that for
the marriage to succeed, Jesus must be involved in our lives. He explained how things would work then he
turned specifically to me. He asked me
if I knew Jesus as my personal Savior. I
replied that I attended Sunday School in my youth. “That’s not what I asked you” he said. I responded to his next question with “I’ve
never done anything really bad and try to treat people nice.” Again, he said “that’s not what I asked
you. We exchanged thoughts then He asked
me one final time “Have you ever received Jesus into your heart?” At that moment, I felt a tugging deep down
inside and admitted “No” and then the pastor asked me if I would invite Him
into my life. I said “Yes.”
Iprayed to let Jesus into my heart and immediately I felt a huge, very
heavy burden literally lifting up off
my being. In reflection, at the moment I
realized that, that was when, Jesus had become my big brother! God, the Father, was now with me and in me!
While I was
yet a sinner Christ died for me (Rom.
5:8). I had the ‘audacity’ to ask
Him into my life and, in spite of who I was. He did not refuse.
Again, at
that moment, I knew that while yet a sinner, Jesus had exchanged His life for
mine 2000 years ago. Also, in
reflection, I’ve come to realize that was just the first step. I’ve spent all my life learning, continually,
how to walk more closely with my Lord. Over
the years, I’ve learned the depth of what ‘keeping His commandments means and,
more so, what giving my love to Him truly means.
When I
confess and repent my sins, He is faithful to forgive and forget them (Rom. 10:9, 1 John 1:9, Isaiah 38:17, Micah 7:19).
As I’ve
lived my life, too many times I’ve fallen short of Father’s expectations for me
and time and again, I’ve had to repent things which I have done. It took years for Father to finally get into
my thick skull to take care of business up front and not to put things
off. As with King David, when the
prophet Nathan reminded him of the sin he had committed with Bathsheba which
resulted in a little baby who died. Through
Nathan’s confrontation, David repented because he had come to realize what he
had done (2 Sam. 12:1-18). Father has impressed upon me that when I’ve
“messed up”, as soon as I realize what I have done – that is the time to
repent, not days, weeks, months, etc. later.
That is admit my guilt, confess
my sin and turn away from it. God
forgets our sins (Micah 7:19, Isa. 38:17)
and so should we.
Should I sin
(after salvation) I do have an advocate with Father as long as I repent (1 John 2:1).
What more
can be said here? I remember, as I truly
confess my sin, God puts that repented sin behind His back and it slides into
the sea and is forgotten (thank you for the reminder Micah and Isaiah?
Father loves
me and I do my best to show my love for Him.
Let me share a couple of situations where God has shown His love for
me. Now, grant it, other people may have
experiences more dramatic or traumatic than my situations, but these are a
couple of mine.
Baltimore/Washington
Parkway connects Baltimore Md. With Washington DC (no brainer). My home was just a few miles outside the DC
line and my sister was about fifteen miles closer to Baltimore. The Parkway was the quickest route between
the two points. When I was in my early
twenties, I rode a Triumph 250cc dirt bike.
I was coming from my sister’s, on the parkway and about a mile from my
exit was a ninety degree turn in the road (OK, about 90 degrees), in the
direction I was headed. I was coming out
the back side of that curve and as soon I had a clear view of the traffic ahead,
it was stopped – dead! The speed limit
was 65 mph then and the closest car to me was maybe thirty yards. I thought to myself ‘hit the brakes and lay
the bike down. Minimum damage I get
severe road burn but I should live, maximum damage I slide under the car in
front of me and suffer greater damage to myself as well as the bike. Then I heard a small voice ‘get off the
throttle and steer onto the shoulder’.
It was a gravel shoulder, but I did it.
I was able to safely slow the bike down to a controllable speed and
safely survived what could have been one very nasty incident. The Holy Ghost gave me direction. God was watching out for me! And, yet, at that time, I had not yet given
my life to Him so I wasn’t appreciative as I should (or could) have been. I didn’t even really know Him then. If that isn’t love? Not me!
The Lord!
The other
experience I’d like to share was on my job.
Except, for a little under two years, I was a ‘federal’ employee ‘lifer’. I worked for the US government, CIA, GSA and
FDA. Yup, that’s the Central
Intelligence Agency, the General Services Administration and I retired from the
Food and Drug Administration. While at
FDA, about five years after I had given my life to Him, I experienced God’s
love for me, in my finances. I was a documents clerk with the FDA for the
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) specifically Office of Generic
Drugs (OGD), under CDER, all under FDA).
I received, and coded documents then forwarded them for drug approval
and resourced them to the appropriate discipline reviewers, aka chemist,
medical doctors, pharmacologist, etc.
Not all the drug companies followed standard procedures by declaring
what issues the document was addressing, fortunately they did file it to the
appropriate drug application. I
processed various types of documents which would pertain to formula changes,
packaging changes, expiration date extensions, manufacturing changes, quantity
changes and the like and of course they all submitted an annual report
reflecting all of the year’s activity for that application. One day, I sat at my desk grumbling (to
myself) about processing ‘easier’ documents versus more involved
documents. Annual reports were the
easiest and it was a pain (oft times) trying to figure out just what the
companies were doing with other documents.
While I sat grumbling, I heard a small voice say “Give Me the job.” I looked up and around then said “OK, it’
Yours.” I knew Jesus by this time. I believe, at that time, I was a GS4 but I
might have recently been promoted to GS5, the ceiling of the pay scale for my
position. About two years later, we were
told that our position was being upgraded to a GS7. Still working within OGD. Several years later, my supervisors told me a
position was opening up as a contract Liaison which would go to a GS9. CDER had sixteen review divisions (each dealing
with a different drug type, heart, lung, kidneys, etc.) The liaison position meant
that I would be training contractor staff to do the same job I had been doing (for
about ten years) and I would also be dealing (as a liaison) with issues between
the contractor and the government, as well as writing procedures for the
contractor and explaining the impact for both contract and government staff. After a few years, my GS9, then the top level
of my position, was also upgraded to a GS11.
After a while, I was told that one of my co-workers would soon be
retiring and my supervisors wanted me to replace him. He retired and I did take his position which
was a GS12 slot and that’s the position
from which I retired. Generally, GS 10
and above positions, in the government, required college education. I thanked God for giving me the ingenuity and
the availability to attain that GS12 with only a high school diploma. Father showed His love towards me through my
paycheck.
Other
situations showing God’s love for me and how He protected me would be reflected
in the near accident when I first bought that Triumph 250, or on the roof of the
hotel in Saigon or when, the day before one of my coworkers and I were scheduled
to check out of country (Vietnam) and catch a plane back to good ole USA and during which we encountered a helicopter ride
to the middle of nowhere, yet, we did make our flight the next morning.
Over the
years, I have always given ‘something back to God, but I haven’t always been a
‘tither’. Later in my life I have made sure Father has that which is holy to
Him (Lev. 27:30). And even through my failings in those years,
Father has always given me direction and made sure I always had what I needed
to meet my needs. Yes, there were
lessons in the process, but Father kept showing His love for me.
Over the
years, He has continually grown me in knowledge of the bible AND drawn me into a
closer relationship with Him.
Has Father
blessed me? Definitely! Has He shown His love towards me? How can I count the all the blessings and
situations He has pulled me through?
I can never,
ever, fully repay Father for what He has done for me, but I do my best by
learning what He has taught me and doing my best to be faithful and obedient in
His will. I give Him praise and glory by
singing songs back to Him, which He has given me as well as singing along with
recordings from professional artists. I
enjoy singing those songs for as I do, I
feel His presence in my life. Some
songs, He has given me, even reflect those ‘physical’ feelings I have when I am
in His presence.
I may not be
like Daniel, who prayed every morning, noon and night but I do set a
significant amount of time each day to spend with my Lord. I like to know what Father and I talk about,
but He has also impressed upon me that there are times I just can’t express
myself in the way He likes, so yes, I also pray in the Spirit, that is the
heavenly language Father has given me, tongues
(1 Corinth. 14:13-15, 39-40).
What I do
doesn’t compare to what He has done for me, but I am still trying. Before Father took her home, I used to tell
my wife that “I was trying”. She would
look at me, get a slight smile upon her lips and say “Yes, I know. Very.”
How often must Father look at me with that similar, subtle smile? I thank God that He loves me.
I love the
Lord with all my heart and He has shown me, over the years how He loves me. Without going into greater detail, what more
can I say?
Father does
things for us and all too often we are not even aware of His presence or even
consider His involvement in what happens in our lives. Sooooo
Now, how
about you?
Amen