Next week I will be attending the Malaysian Cell Church Conference at DUMC so I may not be able to update my blog....I have decided to post 2 entries today....
My favourite Bible study website must be www.biblestudyplanet.com. Not that I know many Bible study blogs...in fact, this is probably the only one I know other than biblegateway.com. My dear sister Lydia introduced me to this website when our life group started the 4/14 life group within our life group. The 4/14 group was inspired by a message that John Robb had shared with us in church about the need to minister to and raise up the 4/14 generation i.e. young people age 4 to 14. Sister Lydia suggested that we download the Bible studies from this website to teach the children in our life group. Not only did I find the Bible studies for this age group useful, I found that there were some practical and easy to remember Bible teachings and devotions that really ministered to me.
I am going to adapt one of the Bibe lesson for this blog post called "Letting God love us with His AAAAAA love". Before I do that let me tell you about how I got the inspiration for the title to this blog. It came from Pastor Vernon Falls. Pastor Vernon must be one of the most inspiring speaker I have heard. His favourite phrase is that God has blessed us with the AAAAAAAAAA anointing, the AAAAAAAAAAA favour and the AAAAAAAAAA abundance! Each time I hear him speak, my faith lifts and I can believe that with God nothing is impossible!
There is this wonderful lesson in Biblegateway about the love of God which is simply AAAAAA. It is the love of God which is Atoning, Adopting, Accepting, Assuring, Able to set us Apart and simply Amazing!
Unlike the AAA batteries that we use for our walkman or camera, the AAAAAA love of God is a never-ending supply...it goes on and on as long as you and I are 'plugged' to Him!
This type of love cannot be expressed by human beings. We are not capable of such AAAAAA love as our natural human love has its limitations. But God's love is deep and wide and cannot be grasped with human understanding....we can only experience it with the help of the Holy Spirit....
The AAAAAA love of God begins with the ATONING LOVE.
God's atoning love for us is demonstrated through Jesus, while we were yet sinners He died for us. His atoning love for us opens the door to all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places reserved for us by God himself through the foundation of the world.
John 3:16-17 "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but in order that the world may be saved through Him"
The moment we invite Jesus into our heart, His atoning love begins to operate in our lives! If we continue in that atoning love, we will enter into a personal, loving relationship with God and there will be available to us all the spiritual blessings promised to those who believe in Christ!
Let us continue to let God love us with His ADOPTING LOVE. God's adopting love brings us into a relationship with Him where we can call Him Father! Which religion in the world allows us to call the Supreme Being and the Creator of heaven and earth Father God? The longer we spend time with God, the more we realise that God does not want us to be alone in our walk with Him. He has put us into a family....a family of God, the local church where He has called us to be planted and to grow...
Rom 8:15 "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
An adopted son is in the same position as one born naturally into a family. He is entitled to inherit all his father's riches...the Father's riches include salvation, strength, hope, peace, joy, comfort, providence, fellowship and so much more!
The more we pray, the more we realize that God's love is also an ACCEPTING LOVE. We have all sinned and fallen short of the the glory of God but we are justified by our faith in Christ Jesus. In Christ and through Christ alone, we stand accepted in the Beloved! Rom 3:23-25. God accepts us warts and all, irregardless of our background and our troubled past. God accepts us whether we are beautiful or ugly, fat or thin, dark or fair, smart or not so smart....our Father is no respecter of persons, He loves all who come to Him through Christ Jesus.
Let us also allow God to love us with an ASSURING LOVE. If God is for us who can be against us. In Christ we are set free from guilt and condemnation. His love assures us that He loves and nothing will seperate us from Him. Rom 8:38 "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth,nor any other created thing shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"
The more we stand face to face with God, the more God will reveal to us that He is certainly ABLE TO SET US APART with His precious sanctifing love. God's love is able to sanctify us in 2 ways, positionally and progressively. In terms of position we are sactified the moment we come to Christ. Heb 10:10 "We have been sanctified through the offering fo the body of Jesus Christ once and for all"
God's love is also able to sanctify us progressively throughout our Christian lives. Progressive sanctification is the process of dying to sin and lving for Christ to become more and more like Him each day. Its about producing the fruit of the Spirit and not to indulge in the works of the flesh. Gal 5:19-23
God's sanctifying love sets us apart for His own special plans.
Finally being face to face with God is to experience the most AMAZING LOVE of all times. It endures from generation to generation, it is His eternal promise to be with us no matter where we are and no matter where we are going through. It is as God's says "I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you to the ends of the age". This amazing love and amazing grace will eventually bring us into eternal glory.
"Beloved, we are God's children, now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know when He appears we will be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is" 1 John 3:1-2.
Throughout our lives on this earth, we will wrestle with sin, struggle with temptation, face all kinds of challenges, encounter trials, testings and tribulations, we will cry, we will mourn and we will weep....but the day will come when all tears will be wiped away from our eyes when the good work that God begins in us will be completed. When we go to be with the Lord forever, our sinful nature will be left behind and we will be like Him, and with Him, forever!
Rev 21:4 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be more pain, for the former things have passed away"
O Lord give us the grace and favor to experience all the different aspects of your AAAAAA love!
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