The Love of God
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December 28, 2014 |
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 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Unbelievers talk about the transience and vanity of life, but believers have different feelings about earthly life. We are living with hope for glory and rewards in Heaven as well as receiving answers and blessings on the earth. So, we are filled with thanks every day.
God prepared Jesus Christ for His beloved children since before the ages, and he has continually been preparing to give them unimaginable happiness and joy. Now let's delve into the God's love that we must remember as His loving children.
First, God gave Jesus Christ to save all mankind
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
The precious Son of God came to this earth in a human body. He preached the gospel of the kingdom to souls and saved them from diseases and various pains with His great power. Eventually, to redeem us from our sins He received the wretched punishment of the cross.
What would we have felt if we had directly seen Jesus being flogged and moaning, with His whole body covered with blood? Also, what if, while He was hanging on the cross we had had eye contact with Jesus, who had such desperation in His eyes for the souls? I believe the impact would have made it impossible for us to forget the scene for the rest of our lives.
The memory of the eyes of Jesus would be vivid reminder whenever we heard that God 'so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save us'. We would burst into tears thinking of the love of Jesus who was hung on the cross and of the love of God, who had given His only begotten Son unto death on our behalf.
Some people think, "Did Jesus really suffer the pains?" They think, "…would it not have been easy for Him to bear with tiredness, hunger, and even the sufferings of the cross?" But such could never be the case.
Though He is the Son of God, because He came to redeem sinners from their sins as a human, He still had to suffer all the pains as they were. He suffered from hunger, tiredness, cold and heat. He also suffered the pains of being torn by the scourging and being nailed through His hands and feet. The pains were felt the same way any ordinary man would have felt them.
He confined all His divinity in the small physical body, and He felt all the stuffiness of this physical space, and He ever increasingly missed God more greatly. He had great concerns for those souls who had weak faith and also for the disciple who would betray Him.
Before He took the cross, He had to pray until His sweat became like drops of blood. But He did not try to avoid any of those painful moments. It's because He knew so very well the love of God who wanted to open the way of salvation for the souls that were going the way of death.
Of course, God mourned so much when Jesus was taking the cross. When He was nailed to the cross, God even left His throne and mourned in the place that no angels and no heavenly hosts could see and find. He lamented more because He knew that many people would not repent but just go to Hell due to their evilness though they saw Jesus' miserable crucifixion.
Jesus's lamentation of mourning was the same as God's. Even when He cried out on the cross, "Why have You forsaken Me?" He cried out and mourned thinking of the souls who would go to Hell without knowing that He was crucified to save them. Both God and Jesus mourned for the souls. So, while He was on the cross, even the sun in the sky lost the light and it became dark. When Jesus breathed His last, there was an earthquake and the rocks split open.
We received salvation because God took up such pains and gave Jesus to suffer the cross. We gained the way to go into the eternal Heaven being set free from the eternal punishments of Hell. How thankful we must be! And how amazing this is! I hope you will etch this love in your heart so that you will not forget it even for a moment.
Secondly, God established the church which is the Lord's body and gave us a true shepherd
Latter part of John 10:11 says, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." A good shepherd would not spare any kind of effort for the flock. When ferocious animals attack, he would protect the sheep risking his own life.
In a spiritual sense, a true shepherd would take care of the sheep with all his life as well. Today, there are many churches and many pastors, but it is not easy to meet a true shepherd who would protect the flock with all his life and lead them to spirit. If a pastor is a hired hand who seeks his own, he does not really have to teach the flock to live a holy life and distance themselves from the world and to enter into the narrow gate.
Such a shepherd might just teach them that they will receive answers and blessings if they pray, and avoid teaching them about casting off sins. He might feel it easier to preach and the members might like it more. But a true shepherd should teach about sin, righteousness, and judgment for the flock's salvation and spiritual growth.
Thus, it is a tremendous blessing if we are always being taught to be holy and pure, and we are learning to cast off sins in our life of faith. It is in this way that a true shepherd renews believers with the word of life and leads them to the way of salvation and Heaven.
On the contrary, hired shepherds teach believers that they may rely on the worldly methods when they are sick, although God clearly says He will work according to our faith and signs will accompany those who believe. It means they deny the almightiness of God and demean the signs and wonders in the Bible. Even if they do teach the truth, it does not always mean they are true shepherds.
1 Corinthians 4:15 says, "For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." A true shepherd is not just a teacher who teaches only with words. The true shepherd is a person who shows the example of practicing the truth and supplies the flock with the strength to act.
The shepherd has to pay a price to help his flock walk in the Light just as Jesus Christ paid the price with His life to open the way of salvation.
As the shepherd of Manmin Central Church, I have been storing up countless prayers and fasting so that the members could gain the power to practice the truth. I taught the true will of God by having deep communication with God, and I have clung to Him to open the spiritual realm so that they could have more hope of Heaven.
Whenever it was necessary I showed them greater manifestations of the power, drove away the darkness with light, and supplied them with the strength to change. Furthermore, there were souls who said they repented of sins leading to death but could not turn away completely. For them, I had to cling to God once again with so many tears and so much mourning.
To make way for just one more soul to be saved I could not rest my mind. I had to lead just one more person to the rock of faith, from the rock to the spirit, and from the spirit to the whole spirit, and from the whole spirit to reach the fullest measure. I offer up aroma of earnest prayer to God day and night. Now, many of them are standing on the rock of faith and have come into the spirit, and many more of them are coming into spirit.
I hope you will always give thanks for the love of God who has given you a precious church and a true shepherd so that you can lead a proper Christian life.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we learn the Word of God, we have to try to practice what we have learned. We have to obey the Words that tell us to do, not do, keep, or cast away certain things. Only in doing so, the Words that you learned will become life and power in you. I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, you will become pure brides of the Lord our Bridegroom and one day rest securely in His arms.
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