Devotional Thoughts

G od wants us to love Him deeply, personally, intimately, and passionately. God wants our all.  He wants us, in fact, He commands us to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The command is simple, straightforward, unmistakable.  There is no middle ground.  If you don’t love God more than you love your spouse, you sin.  If you don’t love God more than you love your children, you sin.  If you don’t love God more than you love your country, you sin.  If you don’t love God more than you love yourself, you sin.  If you don’t love God more than……whatever, you sin.   Jesus Provides What He Demands “Wait a minute!”  “I think you may have gone a little bit too far.”  “This seems too extreme.”  Many feel such an all-encompassing demand seems a l...

  New Testament Christianity is the response of a born-again believer to the supernatural creator God.  This creator God reveals Himself as the God who is an intimate Father of perfect saving love.  Therefore, Christianity is correctly characterized as a religion of love.  Loving those who were in rebellion against Him, God the Father created a plan of salvation in which the second person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, would become man and die for the sins of those who were the objects of God the Father’s saving love.  The incarnate Jesus Christ faithfully accomplished that plan on Calvary.  The Father and the Son together sent their Spirit to apply that accomplished salvation in the life of each of those who were the object of God’s love.  All this work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was done to save sinners from a life of misery and lead them into glory.  Believing in this and being overwhelmed by this amazing reality of divine love sustains lov...

God’s Love is Holy and Righteous God’s love is not a weakness of God’s nature.  God’s love is not a soft spot we exploit for a sinful benefit.  The fact that “God is love”, does not mean God winks at sin. God never sweeps sin under the rug.  God cannot stand sin; this is true because God is completely righteous.  This righteous nature requires that ALL sin must be justly punished.  His Holiness demands no less.  But it is essential to know and understand that God’s love and His holiness, or righteousness, are two sides of the same coin.  They do not contradict one another; they are not in conflict with each other.  In fact, God’s love and God’s righteousness work together in our salvation.  This truth is revealed in two passages that come to us in the Letter to the Romans.  Read the following two passages from the Book of Romans with the thought that God’s love and God’s righteousness are both at work in your salvation. Roma...

God’s Love is Immutable God is Himself immutable.  Immutable means that God does not change.  Malachi 3:6a, “ For I  am  the Lord, I do not change. ”  This great truth means many wonderful things to believers, but one overwhelming truth that continually moves our hearts is that we can depend upon God.  Therefore, we can absolutely depend on God’s love.  God’s love does not disappoint. One person that worked for me many years ago had a set of coffee mugs with a variety of moods displayed --- happy, sad, mad, goofy, don’t tread on me, reflective, etc.  She put the mug of the day on her desk each morning.  We all came to learn that the mug of the day communicated her true mood of the day as effectively as the mugs held coffee.  “Check the mug” before entering her office was a prudent move. Coffee mug mood of the day is not the way of God’s love.  James 1:17 speaks of God the Father when it correctly affirms, “ w...

“God is Love!”  The glorious fact that God is love is the reason that we have the joy of loving Him.  “ We love Him because He first loved us.”  Every aspect of love in our lives flows from the foundational fact that God first loved us.  We have established the truth that God’s love is unmerited .  Today, we build on that wonder as we see that God’s love is both eternal and infinite. God’s Love is Eternal Is God eternal? Yes.  Psalm 90:1-2, “ Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You  are  God. .”  Is God Love? Yes.  1 John 4:8b, “God is love.”  God’s eternity and God’s love go hand in hand.  God had no beginning; God’s love had no beginning.  God has no ending; God’s love has no ending.  God loved and chose the elect before the world was, ...

“God is Love,” is one of our very first Bible Study lessons as a child.  Why would that be?  It was one of our first Bible Study lessons because “God is love” is the foundation of all our love for Him and for any others we are privileged to love.  Leo Tolstoy said, “Where love is, God is.”  We begin to understand God’s love when we realize that His love precedes all of our love.  1 John 4:7-8, “ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Therefore, if we truly love, God has provided that love.  We enrich our understanding of “God is love” by surveying the landscape of God’s Word. This endeavor gives us an overview of the nature of His divine love.  Today we will focus on the transforming truth that God’s love is unmerited. God’s Love is Unmerited There is nothing inherent in those who are the objects of God’s love...

In our Christian lives it is important to answer the question, “Does our love for God please Him?”  “Is God honored by how we love Him?”  “Is He thrilled with how passionately we love Him?”  If a person is married, they want the way they love their spouse to thrill and completely satisfy their spouse.  How do we so love our God? Over the last several months, The Word Revealed devotionals have covered many God honoring ways to answer that question.  We love God and grow daily in our love for God when we listen to Him in His love letter to us on a regular basis.  We love God and grow daily in our love for God when we speak to Him in prayer with honesty and passion.  We love God and grow daily in our love for God when we worship Him in a manner which communicates absolute love and adoration.  We love God and grow daily in our love for God when we consciously die to self daily and take up our cross and victoriously follow Him.  But how do we lo...