November 17 - No matter what ... God loves us.

Sometimes I think that we make life way too difficult.  We make it difficult for ourselves ... we set expectation for others that we can't meet.  We ask our family and friends to be perfect.  We don't lay out clear expectation in our relationships, but they're there, hiding underneath our acceptance of them. 

It is difficult to love and receive love.  It is just plain hard.  We don't trust enough, we trust too much.  We don't love enough, we love too much.  We don't offer enough of ourselves, we offer too much. 

This is hard work.

But, the thing of it is ... it isn't all that difficult.  We just can't accept that life is simple, so we have to work to mess it up.

The relationship with God really is that simple, though.  We try our best to mess it up.  But, the best part of this relationship is that we can't.  God loves us.  Nothing stops him from loving us.  We can try to walk away from it, we may think we have messed it up ... but, we can't.  He still loves us.  Moment by moment, day by day, year by year ... no matter what.  He still loves us.

Does that resonate with you at all?  It certainly does with me.

August 22, 2009 - Romans 8:31-39 - Nothing Separates Us

Romans 8:32 just wipes me out. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"

I listen as people are very confused when they read about Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son, Isaac. (Genesis 22:1-19) The questions that are asked end up at, "How could God ask a man to sacrifice ... to kill ... his own son?" And then discussion ends up at the point that no one can imagine obeying a God that would ask us to do that. We place a very high value on the lives of our children.

God was testing Abraham's obedience, but He didn't ask Abraham to do anything that He Himself wasn't prepared to do. And He ended up proving just how much He loved this world with the sacrifice of His Son.

This passage in Romans, though, tells us that God did this for us. And as He offered His Son in sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice as most of us would see it, He proved to us the great love that He has for us. Without this sacrifice, God would only see the charges brought against us. He would only see our sin.

Love is at the center of everything that God has done. He loves His children, He loves this earth, He loves us! And Christ stands before Him interceding on our behalf, so that the sins we commit moment by moment are covered by Him. Christ loves us as God loves us.

What can separate us from that love?

I don't know that any of us can fully understand a love that can't be broken. Our hearts are broken all the time. Friends, family ... they all have the power to wound us. Even best intentions can be destroyed. Death of a loved one breaks our heart, there is no one on earth that can love us without exception. So, how can we comprehend the depth of a love that will never end, will never break, will never be destroyed? It's difficult!

Paul does his best to put into words the fact that there is no limit to Christ's love and his words are beautiful.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:35)

No one ... nothing can separate us from that love. Even if we can barely comprehend it, even if we can't accept it, even if we try to reject it ... Christ still loves us enough to have sacrificed everything for us.

"Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39)

And you know what? That means NOTHING can separate us from that love.