As I listen to Pastor Winai preach, with the sounds of hands slapping away mosquitoes off legs and arms in the background, I can feel God surrounding me. I can feel His love in every word Pastor Winai speaks. I feel an innocent, pure, incredible, passionate love enveloping me, and then I realize that that love is God’s arms. His love goes beyond language, beyond skin color, beyond any cultural difference, right to our very souls. It shakes us and rattles our souls. It sets our hearts on fire. A fire that gives us life! A fire that burns away the death we had and washes away our old, and gives us a new. A new life, a new heart, a new joy, a new transformation only found in Jesus Christ. This love crosses every border, every boundary. It overpowers any gun that tries to stop us, any robber that comes in the night, any enemy who we can not find it in our hearts to forgive. This love gives us life. Gives us strength. Makes the impossible, possible. “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16. God is love. God gives us life. God gives us strength. God makes the impossible, possible.
I have been learning this powerful, incredible, passionate, intense, beautiful, pure love that shoots straight to my soul. This love that crosses all boundaries. As I sit and hear another mosquito lose it’s life, I’m reminded how I was so graciously given mine. Grace. Do we truly know what that means? “I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see”. Amazing Grace. My heart was lost, but now it is found. The eyes of my heart were blind, but now they see…….see the amazing grace I’m shown every single day through God’s incredible love. I can never do anything to gain God’s love and I can never do anything to turn His love away. It is always there. Graciously given to me…..overflowing into my heart. “….love covers all sins” Proverbs 10:12. God’s love for me covers all my sins. The love He showed when He sacrificed His son washes me white as snow. My sins are erased as far as the east is from the west. I made mistakes and yet God was standing there the whole time my back was to Him with open arms. With an embrace that would envelop me and wash away every sin. With a love that longingly waited for me, that covered me, and showed me that it was there all along.
Through all the mistakes I have made in my life, all the times I have allowed the darkness of my heart to come out and allowed my sin to blossom, God never slapped me away as I flew to His arms and legs. As I flung myself at His feet, begging for His forgiveness, He reminds me that I am already forgiven. The price has been paid. He so loved me with such an intense, desirable, passionate love that He sent His one and only son to die for me. To die, so I could live. “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. We have never been shown a greater love then the love that comes from God. Jesus laid down his life for you, for me. Because of this love the darkness of my heart has seen light, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” Ezekiel 36:26. My heart can now experience love I can’t give justice to, no matter how many paragraphs I fill up with words. Love that is waiting for everyone. A love that repairs, a love that forgives, a love that gives everlasting joy, a love that sets us on fire, a love that changes nations, and a love that changes me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Wow Andrea. Reading your blogs is like a Bible study! You are learning soo much and I'm soo glad you're sharing that with us. God is doing amazing things through you girl! I love you!
You gave an excellent description of the indescribable. I agree, the most powerful force in the universe is LOVE. Number two is the TRUTH. God sends his love on the wings of love,...His Spirit. You are truly blessed to feel God at your intense level. Many never get to experience it so deeply. Occasionaly, I am overwhelmed with similar feelings. It sure is powerful.
Amazing Grace....Yes, it surely is
Love DAD
Amazing Love:
So often we as Christians go to church, sing our worship, listen to a sermon and go home... and that's it. We have become robotic machines doing what we are programmed to do.
You know, as do so few of the Christian population, that there is power behind the words that are song and the message that is spoken. Each song written for worship is specifically written by God himself so that we may have a better understanding of His love for us. God's love is SO great that we can't just fathom it on our own so music is a gift to connect the dots. The most simple set of lyrics..."Amazing Grace!" have the most powerful meaning.
I once challenged myself to really focus on the meaning I of what I was singing. I would then study a song through out the week, each phrase. That was the summer of my Sr year in high school. It was an amazing journey.
As for the sermons, even more amazing still is that God has gifted these leaders with wisdom to write a message that will effect each and everyone in the congregation, regardless. We too often take this for granted how BIG this is. Here I am amongst 600 or so people (back at DSCC) and even though one man is talking, God is speaking to each of us. His work is living!
Thank you for the reminder to BE IN THE MOMENT with God and not to go into auto poilot!
All that is left is faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. :) I love you, Andrea!
Post a Comment