Oh, How He Loves You and Me
Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 04:08AM 
Oh, how He loves you and me,
Oh, how He loves you and me.
He gave His life, what more could He give;
Oh, how He loves you, Oh, how He loves me,
Oh, how He loves you and me.
Jesus to Calv’ry did go,
His love for mankind to show.
What He did there brought hope from despair.
Oh, how He loves you, Oh, how He loves me,
Oh how He loves you and me.
What causes shocking, grisly scenes like mass murders and school shootings? Why do newscasts constantly blare out the theme of murder, mayhem, abuse, rape, kidnapping and rebellion? Hatred, bitterness, rejection, anger, jealousy, loneliness and lack of self-esteem seethe in the cauldron of society. We have expelled God, the Bible, and judgment. In their place, we have enthroned man, his self-determination and his opinions. It should be no wonder that we are reaping the harvest of crop that we have so wantonly planted.
We live in a ruined paradise, wrecked by sin, inhabited by guilt-ridden, self-hating, angry people. Some are angry because their parents tore their home apart; some because they were abandoned and abused. People are so confused and hurt that they cannot believe in the simple gospel. They cannot believe in a God who loves them, a God who is trustworthy, and a God who is not going to hurt them. When Jesus says, I love you, they say, “I don’t believe you.” When trials come, they use it as evidence that the Gospel doesn’t work. When the church reaches out, they reject it as a phony ploy. When God’s truth penetrates them, they harden their hearts so they won’t be hurt again. But that’s why there are Apostolic churches. That’s why there are pastors who keep preaching behind the pulpit. It’s because there is a message that won’t go away. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
But the question is not just IF God loves you. It is, “How much does God love you?” We have a baseline to gauge the question. We find the answer to the first question revealed in the second. So, how much? This much: “[He] gave himself for it.” He loved the church enough to give himself for it. He turned down the world to save the church. “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men …he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8. KJV. Jesus loves you more than fame, fortune, kingdoms, or even his own life. He loves you more than the acclaim of Satan, more than the political ambitions of Judas Iscariot, more than the approval of the Pharisees. You, your love, your life, make up his sole driving force in the universe.
First, God loved you enough to find you. I remember hearing the heart-wrenching story of a man who was abandoned as a little boy. His lifelong dream was to locate his mother. He arduously searched until he found her. Imagine his reaction when he saw her in the back of a trashy bar, drunken and filthy. He slowly backed away, left and never went back. Not Jesus. He saw you at your worst and stayed until He saved you.
Second, God loves you enough to make you over again. God may have found you in sin, but he’s not going to leave you that way. The healer is not going to leave you in your suffering and pain. God took you in as His labor of love, the piece of pottery that was marred so the Master Potter makes it over again. If God’s grace saves you, God’s grace also makes you!
Finally, God loves you enough to place you into the body of Christ. Do you feel like a misfit? Loner? Afterthought? Unwanted? Your feelings will try to dictate your doctrine to you. Your feelings will try to discredit the Word of God! What kind of people did Jesus bring into his fold? Unlearned, uneducated disciples. Common, ordinary blue-collar working people. Zaccheus, a scheming, fraudulent thief. Matthew, a tax-collector. Mary Magdalene, a prostitute. The woman at the well, an adulteress. Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling class. Whosoever will may come.
You belong. He offers you His Name, His blood, His Spirit, His Word. God wants you to be a member of the family. God wants your name to be written down in the family album, the Lamb’s book of life. This is how much he loves you. He saw you from the cross. Then, He saw you from His throne. Today, He sees you from eternity.
Reader Comments (1)
I'm going to print this out and send it to my 47 yr. old son - in prison (again). He's a 'good' person, as felons go; he wouldn't hurt anybody; he's just stupid. Yr's ago in elementary school the principal who had him in his office at the time told me he would be a 'career criminal' if he didn't change soon. I think God was talking to me and his dad at the time.
Parents - if it's REASONABLE' information, reasonable advice, please think on it. I didn't.