God Sent His Son As An Atoning Sacrifice - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 4:10,

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

John tells us the source of God’s love for us has nothing to do with anything we might have done or not done. He tells us that it wasn’t because we loved God that he sent his Son to pay the penalty for our sins but because of his love for us.

Paul puts it this way, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Romans 5:8,10.

While we were God’s enemies, he provided reconciliation for us with himself! While we were sinners, rebellious, going our own way, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins!

The atoning sacrifice is what makes provision for everything to be "right", for everything to be "good" between us and God! Out of his storehouse of love, he reached out to us and provided us a way… “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17.

What a heart of love this is!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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God's Divine Love - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 4:7

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

Our God is a wonderful God. In every aspect of his being there is that which is to be found that brings adoration, admiration, love, reverence, respect and fear. All we need to do is look. Cast just a glance to behold our majestic God of splendor and we can’t help but be hopelessly drawn to him. This morning as I consider what it is we are asked of him through John, I marvel at him: he asks us to love one another!

What is so unique and wonderful about that? As I think of it, I recognize we live in a world where most look out for themselves. They elbow one another out of the way to get theirs. Often those in the world exploit one another for their own personal gain, whether in the workplace, in “romance”, at home, even in many churches.

As I consider what God asks of us, I find it so refreshing and wonderful. He could have asked us to snoop on one another, to be the boss of one another, to use others for what we need as it might be a while before the Lord returns. He might have asked us to “carry out jihad against the infidels”, to punish one another, to take advantage of one another to achieve certain goals. But not our God… he asks us to love one another!

What a reflection of his character to ask this of us. “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. And what a wonderful God he is!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

God's Strength Dwells Within Us! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 4:4,

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

John speaks of false prophets and teachers that have gone out into the world. He calls these "antichrists" and in chapter 2 he points out that they attempt to lead the faithful astray. John says his readers have overcome these false prophets and teachers.

As I look at this verse this morning I notice how it is that his readers have overcome these false teachers and prophets. I note it is not because they have read the latest book on “overcoming”. I note also that it is not due to the “spiritual muscles” his readers might have, or “spiritual disciplines” his readers might engage in, or the pastor they listen to on Sunday mornings or anything whatsoever that is innately from within them.

Not that any of these things are not helpful, but He says his readers overcome these false prophets and teachers because “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Because God resides within believers we have all that we need to overcome anyone who would attempt to lead us astray.

I am reminded of Paul’s observation, “Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?” 1 Corinthians 4:7. It is God who provides us spiritual wisdom and strength. My weakness is the canvas upon which God’s strength is displayed. As Paul says in his second letter to the church in Corinth, 12:9-10, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

This morning I take great encouragement that it is the strength of God in my weakness that makes me an “overcomer”. Jesus Christ is greater than anyone in the world and upon God’s own faithfulness he assures me he will keep me strong and blameless till the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” 1 Corinthians 1:7-9.

I think our God is wonderful and how wonderful it is that whatever spiritual strength I need, I have it within me, as it is God who dwells within me!

Just how wonderful is that?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

God's Children Are Overcomers: On The Winning Team! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 4:4,

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

This morning my thoughts have been centered on the blessedness of being on the “winning team”.

Whether it’s the news, hearing of those who take advantage of others while seeking their own gain, people being unfair to others, politicians, religious charlatans, our judicial system that seems to be less than just so often, predators of all kinds of stripes, a growing darkness that seeks to destroy all which has been produced by our Judeo-Christian heritage (western civilization) etc., hearing of these things have a way of being disheartening at times.

But then I am reminded that we who have embraced Jesus Christ have One who will make all things right one day. We have anchored ourselves to the winning team. “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” One day all these wrongs will be made right.

This is so much the case that Paul encourages us to keep from condemning these miserable exploiters who seek to take advantage of others. He tells us to leave it to the Lord. “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” 1 Corinthians 4:5.

In Revelation 21:6-8 we read, “He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.’”

In reading this I find I must admit, there, but for the grace of God, go I. The end of things will be a horror for those who reject the true God and continue in their ways. This thought leads me to compassion and concern: is there anything I can do to help these see the light?

It is wonderful being on the “winning team” that overcomes. How I wish all were!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

The Son Of God Took On A Human Body! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 4:2b,

“Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God…”

Here is an amazing reality: as we read in verse 9, God, “sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him”. He came as one of his own creations, God as man – with a human body! Fully God and fully man! Paul tells us in Colossians 2:9 that, “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…”, that is, in human bodily form.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God "… is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:5b. He is our Creator God as John tells us in John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

From my understanding of this, it differentiates the Son from the other members of the Trinity. In taking a body, Jesus Christ set aside what is called “omnipresence” and became local in bodily existence. Peter notes this when he points out that Jesus Christ is currently in heaven (as opposed to everywhere, specifically here on earth), to stay there, until the appointed time of his return to earth, “He [Jesus Christ] must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” Acts 3:21.

Look at what our Creator God has done! In his desire to create an identity we can relate to, as well as having a body to sacrifice for us, he has taken on human form! In his love and passion for us as his creation, he has taken on humanity, Hebrews 2:14-17!

In Romans 8:29 we read, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Here is a well known verse that speaks to the change God brings about within us, that we might be “brothers”, in a sense, to Jesus.

What is assumed in Paul’s statement is that the Son of God has done something on his part to bring this about as well: while being God he took on humanity that “he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Jesus Christ is God and always will be, we are humanity, his creation, and always will be… but look at what he has done!

What an astonishing truth! It is breathtaking to consider!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.