The Apostle Paul writes: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with G-d through our Lord Yeshua Ha'Meshiach (Jesus Christ)." (Romans 5:1). We have peace with G-d.   That means we were never at war with G-d. But Paul does say to his readers, “Therefore, since we are justified . . . we have peace” Why does he say that?  Maybe the question doesn't really occur to you today.  Then again perhaps it should? That's for you to decide.

When we think about the many ways that people today avoid being close to others or try to relieve their problems with using sexual relationships wrong, alcohol, drugs, or some other addiction, we begin to see how, but turning away from G-d occurs. Paul, even though he wrote nearly two thousand years ago, speaks to us today about our need of peace with G-d.

This part, the opening of Romans shifts a little but both ends are equally important here. It moves from Paul’s writings of the importance of Abraham to the Christian faith, and then shifts into Paul’s talk on how the Christian life should be. This passage helps us understand the importance for peace with G-d. As sinners, elsewhere described as “ungodly,” we are not even worthy of Him.

Most people want to live in some kind of love or cooperation with their neighbors. When we come to a crossing point, it bothers us. How many times have we had a falling-out with someone because of something relatively minor that happened? Because of our pride - and also because of the other person’s pride - getting back together, to say, or seeing things the same way again is difficult. Most of the time, we just make enemies because we do not really know how to make peace.

 

Maybe the same is true of our relationship with G-d. We want to live in harmony and peace with G-d, walk with Him, but somehow we have an uneasy feeling that something is not well in our relationship with G-d. Look at it, though,  Paul make it clear to us how it is possible between G-d and G-d’s creatures in this passage to be together.

 

I want to note two of many important lessons the Romans text teaches us. The first is pretty simple. Paul wants the readers to understand that G-d starts our peace with Himself even before we supply anything to the relationship.

What does that mean? Let me tell you.  Paul wrote, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . . But G-d proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8).

The second important aspect of this passage is that there is a "circular effect" in what Paul writes. Paul starts with the hope in G-d and continues through suffering, then he talks about endurance, then character, and back to hope, where he started. Just like peace does, hope begins in G-d and ends in G-d. We can go through a whole lot of things and different ages will pass by but we end with hope and peace (Jer. 29:11).

Because of Yeshua's death on the cross we can be at peace with G-d, not be ashamed or ungodly like, and can walk with Him - And when we fall, G-d will pick us right back up again!

God is Love: How do we Define Love?

 "G-d is Love", but how do we define it? Dictionary.com defines love as "an intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties". Often this "intense affection" comes from a sexual attraction for that other person. We love other people, or we say we love other people, when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. Notice that a key phrase in the dictionary definition of love is the phrase "based on". This phrase implies that we love conditionally, in other words, we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them. How many times have you maybe said, "I love you because you, because you are  so cute," or "I love you because you take really good care of me," or "I love you because you, you're fun to be with"?

Our love is not only conditional, it is also based on emotion. We love based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next. The divorce rate is really high in today's society because husbands and wives supposedly stop loving one another-or they "fall out of love". They may go through a rough patch in their marriage, and they no longer "feel" love for their spouse, so they call it quits. Evidently, their marriage vow of "till death do us part" meant absolutely nothing at all to them.

Can anyone really comprehend "unconditional" love? It seems maybe the love that parents have for their children is as close to unconditional love as we can get without the help of God's love in our lives. Parents continue to love their children through good times and bad, and they don't stop loving them if they don't meet the expectations we may have for them. Parents make a choice to love their children even when them consider them the worst creature on earth or just unlovable; their love doesn't stop when they don't "feel" love for them. This is similar to God's love for us, but as we will see, God's love is different, than the human definition of love to a point that is hard for us to  ever understand.


G-d is Love: How does G-d Define Love?
 
The Bible tells us that "G-d is Love" (1 John 4:8). But how can we even begin to understand that? I know I can't. 

There are many verses in the Bible that give us G-d's definition of love. The most well known verse is John 3:16, "For G-d so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." So one way G-d defines love is in the act of giving, but what G-d gave (or should we say, "who" G-d gave) was not like a Christmas present but G-d sacrificed His only Son,Yeshua, so that we, who put our faith in His Son, will not spend eternity separated from Him. This is an amazing love, because we are the ones who choose to reject G-d, yet it's G-d who fixes, and turns the separation through His personal sacrifice, and all we have to do is accept His gift.

Another great verse about G-d's love is found in Romans 5:8, "But G-d commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In this verse and in John 3:16, we find no conditions placed on G-d's love for us. G-d doesn't say, "as soon as you clean up your act, I'll love you; " neither does He say, "I'll sacrifice my Son if you promise to love Me." In fact, in Romans 5:8, we find just the opposite. G-d wants us to know that His love is unconditional, so He sent His Son to actually die for us while we were still unlovable sinners. We didn't have to get clean first, and we didn't have to make any promises to G-d before we could experience His love. His love for us has always existed, and because of that, He did all the giving and sacrificing long before we were even aware that we needed His love.


G-d is Love: It's Unconditional

G-d is Love, and His love is very different from any love we have. G-d's love is unconditional, and it's not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good; He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son, who died for us, to restore that relationship so we can walk with G-d and call him Father now.

 

G-d's Love

 

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, 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 3:14-19 (NIV)

 

 

I know I just did a page about G-d's love for us but there is so much to add, or say about it that I cannot just leave there and call it done.  I am sure that even after writing this a whole lot more will come to me, even concerning this topic, but I try to keep these shorter so they are easy to be read like devotionals.

 

The Bible says that G-d loves us, and the cross proves it. Something pretty sad, though, this is a truth for many believers, but that is where it stops, instead of a truth they really experience. The problem is not with the Lord, but with the believer's ability to feel G-d's love for us.

 

One thing may be the tendency to measure G-d's love by life's circumstances. When the Lord allows tragedies and pain, some consider Him uncaring. The age-old question then becomes very personal, "How could a loving G-d allow me or those I care about to suffer?" We'll never fully understand His ways, but we can know that His compassion and concern are bigger than the suffering of the whole world, and if you just wait, He will make all things right.

 

A sense of personal unworthiness and failure can also keep you away from the acceptance of God's love. Focusing on past sins and moral failures or comparing yourself with others will lead to guilt and hopelessness. Satan always promoting these self-condemning thoughts and feelings. The Lord never says, "Straighten up, and then I'll care about you." Remember that G-d's for all His people, Jew, Greek, and Gentile, is based on His character, never what we do.  We have been set free of the law.

 

G-d is love.  In other words, you are loved whether you feel it or believe it.  But that is a wall, G-d wants every Jew, Greek, and Gentile to feel his love. When we deny His interest and concern for us, we doubt the truth of scripture.

 

The Lord wants each of us to experience His great love in a personal, intimate way. Don't let the Enemy's lies or life's hardships steal the enjoyment and security of this great blessing. When doubts come to us, rely on the truth of G-d's Word. He loves you. Believe it, and eventually you will feel it!

 

 

How He Loves Us 

 

It’s so easy to let worldly problems and concerns get in the way of our spiritual lives, to forget how great it is that we can even call ourselves Christians.  Maybe because G-d’s love for us is so much greater than we can understand, because we can't see it, wee totally forget.  But G-d is the one definition of love, and Yeshua died for us, not for animals, He does love us! 

 

And it’s only because He loves us so that we have nothing to fear at all.  No matter what problems we are facing, He, G-d is always in control.  His plan is unfolding with each passing moment, and though we don’t always understand it fully, He is making everything work for good.  I do wonder why but also am glad G-d let us know anything about His plan at all.  He is our Creator and so certainly doesn’t have to explain Himself to us. But when we do think about it, He humbles Himself to work with His us and maybe plants and animals too, I don't really know.  G-d's love is so great that He wants us to live in Him and do His work, in other words, be a Christian and let it show!  Though He is so much higher above us, He doesn’t treat us as slaves.  He doesn’t even treat us as servants.  He actually calls us friends (John 15:15)!  And through our Lord are not only friends, but sons and daughters...

 

It’s so easy to lose sight of all this, especially when things are difficult.  Sometimes it feels like we’re going to fall down under the weight of our own self.  But Yeshua tells us not to worry, to trust Him.  The burdens of this world can be heavy, make us feel like the whole world is on their shoulders, but Yeshua died to forgive our sins which rolled our burden away.  He wants us to rise, to take away all of our pain and suffering and give us His yoke, but He can’t if we’re too focused on ourselves.  Yeshua is calling us to fix our eyes on Him so we can be filled with His love and peace.  Yeshua is desperately seeking for us to open our hearts to Him so that they can be filled with Him (John 3:16).  He wants to take away all the darkness and be one with us, put us in His light.

So let us give thanks for such great and incredible love, for a love that couldn’t be stopped by death and so can’t be stopped by anything else we experience in this world and for a love that is pursuing us with every breath we take with an intensity unlike anything else.  We should all be grateful for so great a Savior and respond to His love!  Let us go and be filled with His love, act on it as he acted to teach us.  Do it all because G-d loves us!

Our God is Greater - Chris Tomlin

Whom Shall I Fear [God of Angel Armies] [Lyrics]

 

We have a G-d who encourages us. He is One who "knows how we are formed,'' and "remembers that we are dust'' (Psalm 103:14 NIV). Therefore He has compassion on us. He makes His compassion known by giving us encouragement. It comes in a variety of ways. Like one of my favorites, Jeremiah 29:11 says that they are plans not bad, or not of evil but good fortune, to give us good fortune and hope.  That is enough to go right there, but I'll also tell you no matter the temptation, G-d is right there.

 
There is no doubt that we need encouragement from G-d to overcome temptation. One way to be encouraged is to see what happens when we try to say no to the devil. The Bible does not speak much about this.  But there are two quite different stories that reveal to us the ministry of angels in this regard.
 
The first reference is found in Matthew 4:11. Here it says, "Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.'' The second reference is found in Luke 22:43. It says, "An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.'' 

The first instance is Yeshua overcoming temptations with The Word then being comforted by angels.  Like after being baptized He was placed on a mountain top and tempted by satan and when satan said, "all this could be yours if you just bow down and worship me."
You'll notice in both instances, whenever Yeshua was tempted, He used Bible scripture as a way to say "no."

The second one is found in I King 18:40 and 19:4 In an act of vicious religious intolerance, Elijah ordered 400 priests of Baal executed. Ahab went to Jezebel, telling her that Elijah had "executed all the prophets with the sword." She swore to kill Elijah within the next 24 hours. Elijah fled for this life to Beersheba, went into the wilderness, and "prayed that he might die." He said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"

Rather than him kill himself while Elijah had fallen asleep that night an angel came to rescue him, rise Elijah up into a great chariot of gold as he was a great man.


Think about that.  You also have an angel army to protect and comfort you!

Yes, keep traveling because misery does love company.  I know that myself.
Now here.

My Dad and his wife were just here a while ago visiting.  While visiting the topic of there home and outside their home came up, their décor one might say.

They mentioned how the inside is basically the same but they had been doing some gardening for select vegetables and flower blooms.  She was telling me that she used very much "weed away" chemicals from Lowes but weeds still came up and were killing some of the plants, she had to pick the weeds every day, or the whole garden would die.

That's like a parable in the Bible.  Yeshua says that there is really someone out to get you.  Don't start the, "Oh my G-d's."  It's the people who really don't want you to belong to Christ.  Someone who cannot have you so wants to make your life very bitter and painful as long as possible.

If he cannot make misery for you, make you miserable, he'll make misery and try to suck you in and keep him company.

(see Matt. 13 for detail)