February 4 Home Communicator – Amazing Love!
The fact that the word ‘love’ is in the title of my opening article is not surprising since Valentine’s Day is a week away. I have already enjoyed my fair share of the conversation hearts and am anticipating some delicious chocolates from my husband in the near future. 😉 There is lots of fun surrounding Valentine’s Day and having a day focused on loving each other is not a bad thing in this day and age where the majority of the focus is on the negative.
In the month of February, Christians look forward to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. During this time of spiritual renewal and reflection in preparation for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, love is also the focus. But this Love is that of our Heavenly Father. We celebrate love, the greatest love of all! God’s unconditional love is amazing and, for me personally, is sometimes hard to wrap my mind around. Yet we know, believe, and celebrate the assurance of His words of love to each one of us.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” I John 4:10
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. We love because he first loved us.” I John 4: 16 & 19
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are! I John 3:1
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge –
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:27-19
Amazing love! God’s love is total – reaching every corner of our experiences. It is wide; it is long; it is high; it is deep. We can never be lost to God’s immeasurable and inexhaustible love and nothing can separate us from it. Yes, amazing love!
Serving a Loving God,Mary Broene, Interim Superintendent