Overwhelming Love

Once again, God has amazed me and opened my eyes through Passion 2013. I can honestly say that tonight during John Piper's message, I finally started to understand God's love for us. I haven't been able to really grasp it before.

For me, I've been in Church since I can remember. I was raised to "believe" that God loves us. When I say "believe", I mean its something I learned or memorized, but never taken it in and fully understood it. Piper took a different approach at the concept of God's love than I have ever heard. He explained that we are to bring glory to God. He talked about liberation, freedom from anything evil. God sent his Son Jesus to free us from eternal death and separation from Him. Jesus took the path of love for liberation. <------ Think about that.

We are created in God's own image. What did he to? He sacrificed Himself, he paid the ULTIMATE price, to give us liberation from death! So since we are created in His image, we are called to do the same thing for others. That means that we have the choice to take the path of love for liberation, or take the path that seems safer. The path of love for liberation means there will be many struggles along the journey we are to spread Gods word and free others from sinful things. Its a real sacrifice, but we can learn to endure and embrace the sufferings that are thrown at us. If we choose to take this path, God promises he will NEVER leave us and He is on our side. He also promises a reward for us to look forward to when the journey is over, eternal life with Him. Does that not amaze you?

There is another choice though. We could choose to take the path that would be easy along the way, but in the end it results in a worse punishment than we could ever imagine, death. If Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, why not be obedient and sacrifice ourselves to save others, to bring glory to Him? There will be struggles and suffering, but we can endure, embrace, and joyfully look forward to what God has in store for us. I am still amazed at this. The fact that He loves us and promises to never leave us just amazes me. Its the best feeling ever to finally grasp this.