INTRO:
The Living God,
Draws us to walk,
In the high places
Of His passion;
He lifts us above,
The dark clouds
Of trial, and sorrow,
That float beneath;
Into a high, and
Majestic ambiance;
Where we can savor,
The Light of His love.
Love was the moving, controlling attribute in God’s great plan of reconciliation. Justice may have demanded it, holiness may have required it, wisdom may have planned it, and power may have executed it, but love originated the whole, and was the moving cause in the heart of God; so that the salvation of the sinner is not so much a manifestation of the justice, or holiness, or wisdom, or power of God, as it is a display of His love.
Love is not so much an attribute of God as it is His very essence. It is not so much a moral perfection of His being as it is His being itself. He would not be God were He not love.
The elegance
Of His Love,
Gives an inward
Eternity,
Unto every moment;
Dancing with the
Expectations
Of my spirit;
And swaying
With the desires,
Of my heart.
To deny that He is love would be to deny that He is God. To unrobe Him of this essential quality of His nature would be tantamount to the unrobing Him of His essential Godhead. He would not be God were He not love: His omipotence is the power of love; His omniscience is the eye of love; His omnipresence is the atmosphere of love; His holiness is the purity of love; His justice is the fire of love; and the Living Word is His fountain of love.
He draws, unto Himself,
By the manifestation
Of His love;
That we would pursue Him,
As our heart's desire:
For the Father seeketh such,
To worship Him.
In the words, “God is love,” we have a perfect portrait of the eternal and incomprehensible Jehovah, drawn by His own unerring hand. “The mode of expression here adopted differs materially from that usually employed by the inspired writers in speaking of the Divine perfections. They say, God is merciful, God is just, God is holy; but never do they say, God is mercy, God is justice, God is holiness. In this instance, on the contrary, the apostle, instead of saying, God is loving, or good, or kind, says ‘God is love,’ love itself. By this expression, we must understand that God is all pure, unmixed love, and that the other moral perfections are so many modifications of this love. Thus, His justice, His mercy, His truth, His faithfulness, are but so many different names of His love or goodness. As the light which proceeds from the sun may easily be separated into many different colors, so the holy love of God, which is the light and glory of His nature, may be separated into a variety of moral attributes and perfections. But, though separated, they are still love. His whole nature and essence is love. His will, His works, His words, are love; He is nothing, and can do nothing but love.” (Payson)
Infinite love;
Must have
Boundless places,
Wherein to utter,
And show itself;
Filling all eternity:
Yet it is expressed,
Even in the
Smallest pith,
By making me able,
In every moment,
To love Him.
Now, God is essential love. He is not only loving, but He is love; is not only good, but goodness. All others are loving and good, not of themselves, but by derivation. The essence of all creatures is good, because God made them so, and so pronounced everything which He made; but they are not essentially good, else they could not change their nature and become evil.
Every creature must necessarily derive its love, and its capacity of loving, from God. But God derives His love, and His power of loving, from no other being but Himself.
In proportion as the Holy Spirit leads us to see the depths of our sinfulness, poverty, and nothingness, we shall learn that nothing less than a God of infinite love, grace, and sufficiency could meet our need.
We deal, my friends, with a God whose love is infinite, and can infinitely more than reach the farthest extent of your need. Come with your great and your minor sins; come with your deep and your shallow needs; come to His infinite ocean of love, in which the lamb may wade, frolic, and feed throughout all eternity.
As we walk;
With lowly guise
And reverent heart;
There comes,
By sweet consent;
The surrender of the will,
In the presence of
A pure and absorbing Love;
Brought close within,
By a life ablaze,
With the sacred glow
Of His everlasting glory.
STOP HERE FOR MUSIC
You have thought of Him, perhaps, as the God of holiness, as the God of justice, as the God of power, as the God of judgment; come now, my friends, and meditate upon Him as the God of love; and while you thus muse on this marvelous and soul-abiding truth, may the fire of a responsive affection kindle in your heart, and your tongue break forth into thanksgiving and praise.
God is essentially the God of love. The words which suggest our present meditation emphatically declare this: "God is love." This is, perhaps, the most sublime sentence of the Bible. It is a sentence which only could arise from a divine mind. It is at once simple and grand, intelligible and affecting. It involves a truth in which an angel's mind might expatiate, and which a child's can grasp. It reaches to the highest, and descends to the lowest intellect. That the abstract term love, and not the concrete term loving, should be employed, expresses something beyond the ordinary meaning of the word. And what is the truth thus embodied? Just the one we are now attempting to vindicate- that God is essential love. Love is not so much an attribute of God as it is His very essence. It is not so much a moral perfection of His being as it is His being itself. He would not be God were He not love. To deny that He is love would be to deny that He is God. To unrobe Him of this essential quality of His nature would be tantamount to the unrobing Him of His essential Godhead. He would not be God were He not love!
I am the flower,
Even the Rose of Sharon,
Clothed in fragrant grace.
In the wilderness,
I shall blossom in the dew,
Sweet fragrance for all.
East in the desert,
You shall find Me among thorns,
Calling you softly.
Beloved, come to Me
Stroll and play, learn more of Me,
I am Life to you.
To the abscised soul,
I am the balm of Gilead,
To soothe and refresh.
To the downtrodden,
The Lilley of the valley,
Adorned in Glory.
Come ye unto Me,
That I may take root in you,
And Blossom within.
My yoke is easy,
Just a small burden I bring,
In exchange for life.
Bend low with thine ear,
Hear the whisper of My heart,
Come to Me my love.
STOP HERE FOR MUSIC
Everything about God is infinite. His essence fills heaven and earth. His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present and future. His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him. So His love is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom; there is a height to it which none can scale; there is a length and breadth to it which defies measurement, by any creature-standard. Beautifully is this intimated in Ephesians 2:4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us: the word "great" there is parallel with the "God so loved" of John 3:16. It tells us that the love of God is so transcendent it cannot be estimated.
No tongue can fully express the infinitude of God’s love, or any mind comprehend it: it "passeth knowledge" Eph. 3:19). The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about Divine love, are infinitely below its true nature. The heaven is not so far above the earth as the goodness of God is beyond the most raised conceptions which we are able to form of it. It is an ocean which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition in those who are the objects of it. It is a fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it
As the morning crocus
Is soaked in dew;
So the rejoicing earth.
Is filled with His
Love and mercy:
As I meander, aimlessly,
Through the fields,
And stop to rest
Under an inviting maple;
Everywhere I survey,
Do I see the signature
Of a loving Hand;
And almost, as it were,
The smile of God,
Cast across the light,
Of the flowers dancing
Upon the Grass.
It is of the nature of love that it cannot lie quiescent. It is active, creative, and benign. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were sinners, Christ died for us.” “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” So it must be where love is; love must ever give to its own, whatever the cost. The apostles rebuked the young churches sharply because a few of their members had forgotten this and had allowed their love to spend itself in personal enjoyment while their brethren were in need. “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” So wrote that John who has been known to the centuries as “the Beloved.”
The love of God is one of the great realities of the universe, a pillar upon which the hope of the world rests. But it is a personal, intimate thing, too. God does not love populations, He loves people. He loves not masses, but men. He loves us all with a mighty love that has no beginning and can have no end.
In the believer's life there is a highly satisfying love that distinguishes him from all others and elevates his spirit and his life to heights far beyond that of the worldly, natural man. This love content is more than a thing; it is God Himself in the midst of His beloved singing over His people. True Christian joy is the heart’s harmonious response to the Lord’s song of love.
To live a life,
Within the Breath
Of Almighty Jah;
Is a mystery,
Deep, and blessed:
For His many gifts,
As with His love,
Cannot be separated
Away from Him:
They Are Him.
How imperfectly are men in general aware of the deep, the significant, the spiritual import of the term! They think not, they know not, that a believer is one who partakes, in His renewing, sanctifying grace, of that same Divine Holy Spirit with which Christ was anointed of the Father for His great work.
The effects of this anointing are what might be expected from a cause so glorious. It beautifies the soul. It is that anointing spoken of by the Psalmist: “ to make his face to shine.” Therefore it is called the “beauty of holiness.” How does a man’s face shine- how is his countenance lighted up- when the joy of the Lord is his strength, when the spirit of adoption is in his soul, when the love of God is shed abroad in his heart! It gladdens too. Therefore is His love called the “oil of joy” and “the oil of gladness.”
It causes the heart to sing in its deep sorrows, it imparts the “garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,” and fills the soul with the glory of that “kingdom which consists not in foods and in drinks, but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Do you remember,
My friend;
The infancy
Of this sublime,
And Celestial
Greatness?
Those pure, and
Virgin apprehensions;
Inexpressibly rare,
And delightful,
That we shared
From the beginning?
And that Divine Light
Wherein we were
Birthed; and bathed?
We could see,
The Living Wonder
Of all creation.
By the gift of God;
They attend
To us still;
By His favor,
We remember them
Till now.
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“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18.
Who that has felt it will deny, that “fear has torment”? The fear of death, of judgment, and of condemnation- the fear engendered by a slavish view of the Lord’s commandments- a defective view of the believer’s relation to God- imperfect conceptions of the finished work of Christ- unsettled apprehensions of the great fact of acceptance- yielding to the power of unbelief- the retaining of guilt upon the conscience, or the influence of any concealed sin, will fill the heart with the torment of fear.
Some of the most eminent of God’s people have thus been afflicted: this was Job’s experience- “I am afraid of all my sorrows.” “Even when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling takes hold on my flesh.” “When I consider Him, I am afraid of Him.” So also David- “What time I am afraid, I will trust in You.” “My flesh trembles for fear of You; I am afraid of Your judgments.” But “perfect love casts out fear:” he that fears is not perfected in the love of Christ.
The design and tendency of the love of Jesus shed abroad in the heart is to lift the soul out of all its “bondage through fear of death,” and its ultimate consequences, and soothe it to rest on that glorious declaration, triumphing in which, many have gone to glory, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” See the blessed spring from where flows a believer’s victory over all bondage and fear- - in the power presented to us through the love of Yeshua.
The blood and righteousness of Christ, based upon the infinite dignity and glory of His person, and wrought into the experience of the believer by the Holy Spirit, expels from the heart all fear of death and of judgment, and fills it with perfect peace. O you of fearful heart! why these anxious doubts, why these tormenting fears, why this shrinking from the thought of death, why these distant, hard, and unkind thoughts of God? Why this prison-house- why this chain? Are you not perfected in the love of Jesus, for “perfect love casts out fear:” are you not perfected in that great truth, that Jesus is mighty to save, that He died for a poor sinner, that His death was a perfect satisfaction to Divine justice; and that without a single meritorious work of your own, just as you are, poor, empty, vile, worthless, unworthy, you are welcome to the rich provision of sovereign grace and undying love.
The simple belief of this, will perfect your heart in love; and perfected in love, every bondage and fear will vanish away. Oh, seek to be perfected in Christ’s love. It is a fathomless ocean, its breadth no mind can scan- its height no thought can scale.
Encircled;
By His Divine,
And unapproachable
Glory .......
God is Light;
And from His own
Essential fullness,
He wells out Light,
In prismatic rays
Of beauty, and power:
Here, of love,
And grace;
There, of strength,
And wisdom;
To glimmer,
And glisten, along
Our homeward path;
Shining brighter,
And more beautiful;
Unto the Perfect Day.
All NATURE is a tracing of the God of love; dim, it is true, marred by the fall, and tainted by sin, yet sufficiently vivid and palpable to indicate, if not that God is love, yet that God does love. He must be an fool of the deepest dye who can gaze upon the worlds above and the earth beneath, and see no trace of Divine goodness, no evidence of the fact that God loves man. If creation demonstrates the being of God- if the things that are made clearly evidence His eternal power and Godhead, so that men are left without excuse who deny His being- then every star that glows, and every flower that blooms, and every gem that sparkles, and every spring that murmurs, is an evidence that He who made all for man, loves man with the love of infinite benevolence.
PROVIDENCE, too, is an unfolding of the God of love. What is providence but the Divine goodness molding and tinting, shaping and directing, all the affairs of the children of men? And that man's life must needs be a blank in which no trace of God's love is found- nothing in his creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life- nothing in the changes through which he has past, of prosperity and adversity, of sunshine and shade- nothing in the hand which so strangely guided his steps, mapped his path, overruling and directing all the events and affairs of daily life, educing good from evil, transmuting misfortunes into blessings, extracting sweet from the bitter, which tells that God is good, that God is love.
In proportion to our EXPERIENCE of the love of God in our souls, it will become a motive of power in our lives. The outward holy life of a believer is the result of an inward principle of love to God. "The love of Christ constrains us." For this cause the apostle breathed that precious prayer in behalf of the Thessalonian saints: "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God." Standing as upon the shore of this boundless, fathomless ocean, he prays that the Lord, the Spirit, might lead their hearts into its infinite depths. What a needed and holy prayer! What a vast and precious blessing! Their hearts were sinful, and sad, and weary; guilt tainted them, bereavement shaded them, conflict and service exhausted them; and now, just as their heart was, the apostle prays that it might be led into the sanctifying, soothing, life-refreshing love of God.
Into this ocean of divine love, my friends, let your heart, just as it is, plunge. Let it repair, with all its sin, and sorrow, and weariness, to no other purifying, comforting source, but to the shoreless, soundless sea of the love of God in Christ Jesus. Oh descend, in simple, child-like faith, into its depths, and lose yourself amid its boundless infinitude! The love of God thus filling and overflowing your heart, all will be well. Winter will bloom into spring, and spring will blush into summer, and summer will ripen into the golden fruit of autumn. Oh, how the love of God changes the aspect of everything! Afflictions are then seen to be 'disguised blessings'; trials, are proofs of Divine faithfulness; clouds, become chariots paved with love, and penciled with light, in which our risen Savior comes to us.
Yes, my friends Almighty God loves us. The Father loves us, for He chose us. The Son loves us, for He died for us. The Spirit loves us, for He dwells within us. Look at the care which the Lord takes of us, my friends,- the supplies of grace measured out --- the yearnings of His heart over us--- the gentleness of His dealings towards us--- and how He is collecting us; one by one; unto Himself, that we might be with Him where He is, and behold His glory! And never more need ask, Wherein has He loved us?
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