LOVE #3
A SHORT LOOK AT GOD'S LOVE
FROM THE BOOK "SWINDOLL'S ULTIMATE BOOK OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND
QUOTES"
GOD'S LOVE
What God Hath Promised
God hath not promised Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through;
God hath not promised
Sun without rain, joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labor,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.
-Annie Johnson Flint, quoted in Donald Kauffman, "Baker's Pocket
Treasury of Religious Verse"
......
KARL BARTH, famed theologian, was once asked, "What is the
greatest thought you ever had?" His answer: "Jesus loves me this
I know, for the Bible tells me so."
-Dale Galloway, "Rebuild Your Life"
......
WHAT MATTERS SUPREMELY, therefore, is not, in the last analysis,
the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it
- that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am
never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His
sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first
knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one
who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or
His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when
His care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is
unspeakable comfort ... in knowing that God is constantly taking
knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There
is tremendous relief in knowing that His love is utterly
realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst
about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me,
in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench
His determination to bless me.
-J. 1. Packer, "Knowing God"
......
ONE NIGHT I HAD A DREAM. I Was walking along the beach with the
Lord, and across the skies flashed scenes from my life. In each
scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One was
mine, and one was the Lord's. When the last scene of my life
appeared before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand,
and to my surprise, I noticed that many times along the path of
my life there was only one set of footprints. And I noticed that
it was at the lowest and saddest times in my life. I asked the
Lord about it, "Lord, You said that once I decided to follow You,
You would walk with me all the way. But I notice that during the
most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of
footprints. I do not understand why You left my side when I
needed You the most." The Lord said, "My precious child, I never
left you during your time of trial. Where you see only one set of
footprints, I was carrying you."
-Margaret Rose Powers, "Guideposts magazine," July 1992
......
WHEN I WAS IN THE MARINE CORPS in the Orient I became serious
about the ministry. It was amazing to me that God was changing my
heart at that time. My sister, Luci, who knew of my interest
through a letter I had written her, sent me a book I still have
in my library. I treasure it. I opened the book the afternoon I
received it and saw she had written in the front part of the book
this inscription, "Whom have we, Lord, but Thee, soul thirst to
satisfy. Exhaustless spring, the water is free, all other streams
are dry." (This is from the hymn "Whom Have We, Lord, but Thee"
by Mary Bowley Peters.) God's love is an exhaustless spring.
......
THERE IS NO OTHER BLESSING I can give you, no gift so precious no
treasure so refreshing, nothing that can provision you for the
journey we are all making, than to tell you that Someone is
searching diligently for you. He is not a stationary God. He is
crazy about you. The expense to which He has gone isn't
reasonable, is it? The Cross was not a very dignified ransom. To
say the least, it was a splurge of love and glory lavishly spent
on you and me: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the
ungodly." "A shepherd having a hundred sheep, if he loses one,
leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one and searches
diligently until he finds it."
God is like that shepherd. That is enough to make me laugh and
cry.
-David A. Redding, "Jesus Makes Me Laugh with Him"
......
To be continued
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