*Points to Ponder*
Love is like a stream. Some days it
flows and rushes, for there is plenty.
On other days it trickles, and you
can see it bouncing against the
unseen rocks. But even when love
is dry and has lost its flow and lies
nearly empty on the muddy bottom,
there is more love to come.
We remember how Jesus loved,
how He forgave, and how He
reached out to show He cared. By
using Jesus as the Source of love, we
can fill up the stream again. Life has
the extra dimension found in Jesus
Christ. He is the Authority on love.
Jesus loves when love is hard. He
loves when love is rejected. He loves
when love makes little sense. Jesus
loves when others would quit. Jesus
loves when others are ugly. Jesus loves
when others are cold. Jesus loves
when others are unworthy.
And when we feel that love has
dried up, we reach out to Him,
and learn to love again.
—Author unknown
***
Nothing you will ever do could
make God love you more than He
does right now: not greater achievement,
not greater beauty, not wider
recognition, not even greater levels of
spirituality and obedience. Nothing
you have ever done could make God
love you any less: not any sin, not
any failure, not any guilt, not any regret.
—John Ortberg (b. 1957)
***
Do you think anyone is going to
be able to drive a wedge between
us and Christ’s love for us? There
is no way! Not trouble, not hard
times, not hatred, not hunger, not
homelessness, not bullying threats,
not backstabbing, not even the worst
sins listed in Scripture. None of this
fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m
absolutely convinced that nothing—
nothing living or dead, angelic or
demonic, today or tomorrow, high or
low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely
nothing can get between us and
God’s love.
—Romans 8:35,37–39 MSG
***
The love of God is one of the great
realities of the universe, a pillar upon
which the hope of the world rests.
But it is a personal, intimate thing,
too. God does not love populations,
He loves people. He loves not
masses, but men. He loves us all with
a mighty love that has no beginning
and can have no end.
—A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
***
God’s love reflects His eternal absolutes.
God’s love is eternal, like He is:
more durable than time, wider and
deeper than the incalculable dimensions
of the cosmos. As He tells us,
“I have loved you with an everlasting
love; therefore with lovingkindness
I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3
—David Jeremiah (b. 1941)
***
From Jesus:
“Try Me……
“If you don’t know Me yet, then I have a proposal for you: rather than trying to figure Me out, why
not give Me a chance to show you the truth? I am not just talking about right and wrong, or good
advice, but supernatural truth. All that I am cannot be comprehended by the mind. You have to
seek and understand with your heart. Why not see for yourself if I am real and ‘the way, the truth,
and the life,’ as I told My first disciples?*
Why not put Me to the test?
Accept My love and presence into your life, and then see what I can do for you.”
“I can be your closest friend and confidant. I can help you when things go wrong and you need
support. I can give happiness in place of grief, and I can bring beauty out of the ashes of failure
and mistakes. Once you ask Me into your life, I will never leave you.
That’s a solemn pledge! I will always love and care for you in spite of everything,
including your own faults and heartbreaks.
Once you connect with Me personally, and as you delve into what I have revealed in the Bible—
particularly in the Gospels—you will discover pure and life-giving truths.
There’s a personal message from Me to you within that book.
“All you need to do to start receiving all that I have to offer is open your heart and invite Me in.”
*See John 14:6