Today's Worship: An intense love.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in James 4:8,

 

"Come near to God and he will come near to you."

 

Think of the posture God has taken toward us -- that if we reach out to him, we find him reaching out to us! The Creator of all that exists, the One against whom mankind has sinned and rebelled, rejected and spurned, this One awaits us with open arms if we but turn to him!

 

We read in Isaiah of this posture of God, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.' All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations— a people who continually provoke me to my very face..." Isaiah 65:1-3.

 

What kind of love is this? How is it our God has such a love in his heart that he should send his Son to die a miserable death that we might escape his judgment and have a place at his table? A love that expresses his desire to spend an eternity within the midst of those that turn to him! There are many things of God that remain a mystery, but the greatest mystery to me of all is this love God has for man, a love of such an intensity that within it we find a kindness, a compassion, forgiveness and favor.

 

This is a love brimming with intensity. Not a whim, not a dabbling of affection, but a rich, deep-seated love that moves God to open his arms wide. In his prayer Paul acknowledges that for us to begin to conceive the full dimension of this love our Lord has for us is life changing, life altering. "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19.

 

How wonderful this love of God for us! "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." John 3:16.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com