Ozias
Full Member
Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you
Posts: 100
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Post by Ozias on Jun 8, 2023 6:43:23 GMT -8
He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for “God is love”. 1 John 4:8 AMP
And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him. 1 John 4:16AMP
When we use this text we have said it all, for the text is so all-inclusive, so final, that it leaves nothing to be said. I think to really know God is a good idea for us to study the greatest text of the Bible, “God is love.”
Do you want to see the heart of God? Well look no further—John 3:16 AMP: “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”
Here we have something we can get hold of, because it is an expression of the love of God... “He Gave”.
In every act and thought of God there is love. Every command he ever uttered, every law he ordained, every precept he laid down—anything and everything that ever came from God is an expression of his infinite love. It is more the nature of God to love than for the sun to give light. The sun may ultimately become cold and dark, but God’s love will never dim or fade.
Scripture reveals God’s eternal love for us, a love that never fails. In fact, nothing at all can separate us from God’s eternal love: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38–39.
God is basic to life, and no matter what else may change, he will not. This fundamental fact about God gives us the “faith of our fathers.” God is love—the highest height, the deepest depth, the broadest breadth, the very essence and wellspring of love. God cannot change.
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Post by Obadiah on Jun 8, 2023 7:14:17 GMT -8
Great topic!
I think because God loved and wanted a being like Himself upon whom He could bestow his love, He created us in His own image. We are His God’s offspring, the crown of his creative genius. Because we are His creation God loves, us, and no matter how far astray we go, He will love us so long as we live and longs for us to except His gift of salvation found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It makes me think of Jesus crying over Jerusalem when they failed to recognize him as the Messiah.
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Post by Aeliana on Jun 8, 2023 8:30:29 GMT -8
Great topic! I think because God loved and wanted a being like Himself upon whom He could bestow his love, He created us in His own image. We are His God’s offspring, the crown of his creative genius. Because we are His creation God loves, us, and no matter how far astray we go, He will love us so long as we live and longs for us to except His gift of salvation found in Christ Jesus our Lord. It makes me think of Jesus crying over Jerusalem when they failed to recognize him as the Messiah. It makes me think of a pearl of great price. A pearl of great price is an idiom that means something that is very rare and important. We know that it comes from a parable of Jesus in the Bible, where he compares the kingdom of heaven to a merchant who sells everything to buy a fine pearl. The pearl also represents God's people, who are very precious to him and whom he redeemed with his own blood. God's unbelievable investment in us. That's how much he loves us. The Bible also uses pearls to symbolize God’s love and grace. Pearls are pure, beautiful, and rare, just like God’s love for His children. They can also represent our own purity and beauty before Him. Pearls are also a symbol of wealth and royalty, which reminds us that God treasures us more than anything else. |
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Ozias
Full Member
Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you
Posts: 100
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Post by Ozias on Jun 10, 2023 13:25:45 GMT -8
Big Steps: Love
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
Matthew 5:44
Recommended Reading: Ephesians 4:31-32
Cornelia “Corrie” ten Boom was a young Dutch woman whose Christian family protected many Jews during the Holocaust. After the war, when Corrie was released from a concentration camp, she held meetings in Germany, speaking about the power of God’s love and forgiveness. After a meeting, a man approached her, saying he had been a guard at her concentration camp. Since then, he had become a Christian and had come to the meeting to ask for Corrie’s forgiveness. With tears in her eyes, she grasped the man’s hand and exclaimed, “I forgive you, brother! With all my heart!”1
How big a step must that have been—to forgive one who had been part of a regime that took the life of Corrie’s sister and father. All steps of love and forgiveness seem too big at the moment. But none could be as big as Jesus’ step of forgiveness while hanging on the cross (Luke 23:34).
Ask God for His grace and compassion when you are called to take a giant step of love.
Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred.
Corrie ten Boom
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Post by civic on Jun 10, 2023 15:01:33 GMT -8
He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for “God is love”. 1 John 4:8 AMP And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him. 1 John 4:16AMP When we use this text we have said it all, for the text is so all-inclusive, so final, that it leaves nothing to be said. I think to really know God is a good idea for us to study the greatest text of the Bible, “God is love.” Do you want to see the heart of God? Well look no further—John 3:16 AMP: “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” Here we have something we can get hold of, because it is an expression of the love of God... “He Gave”. In every act and thought of God there is love. Every command he ever uttered, every law he ordained, every precept he laid down—anything and everything that ever came from God is an expression of his infinite love. It is more the nature of God to love than for the sun to give light. The sun may ultimately become cold and dark, but God’s love will never dim or fade. Scripture reveals God’s eternal love for us, a love that never fails. In fact, nothing at all can separate us from God’s eternal love: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38–39. God is basic to life, and no matter what else may change, he will not. This fundamental fact about God gives us the “faith of our fathers.” God is love—the highest height, the deepest depth, the broadest breadth, the very essence and wellspring of love. God cannot change. Thanks for the thread it’s probably my favorite topic to discuss and ponder. |
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Post by Redeemed on Jun 10, 2023 15:15:03 GMT -8
He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for “God is love”. 1 John 4:8 AMP And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him. 1 John 4:16AMP When we use this text we have said it all, for the text is so all-inclusive, so final, that it leaves nothing to be said. I think to really know God is a good idea for us to study the greatest text of the Bible, “God is love.” Do you want to see the heart of God? Well look no further—John 3:16 AMP: “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” Here we have something we can get hold of, because it is an expression of the love of God... “He Gave”. In every act and thought of God there is love. Every command he ever uttered, every law he ordained, every precept he laid down—anything and everything that ever came from God is an expression of his infinite love. It is more the nature of God to love than for the sun to give light. The sun may ultimately become cold and dark, but God’s love will never dim or fade. Scripture reveals God’s eternal love for us, a love that never fails. In fact, nothing at all can separate us from God’s eternal love: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38–39. God is basic to life, and no matter what else may change, he will not. This fundamental fact about God gives us the “faith of our fathers.” God is love—the highest height, the deepest depth, the broadest breadth, the very essence and wellspring of love. God cannot change. Thanks for the thread it’s probably my favorite topic to discuss and ponder. I hear you, starting to be mine also. The thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians Is one we talk about all the time. I think the Christian Life could be called "The way of love." It's all about the God who in love “gave his only begotten Son. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. 1 Corinthians 13:8 |
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Ozias
Full Member
Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you
Posts: 100
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Post by Ozias on Jun 12, 2023 6:12:13 GMT -8
What does it mean to say that God is love? What does God have to be like for that to be possible? We could perhaps imagine that the world was run by a machine, but its functional regularity would not be enough to make it God. We might even think of the world as being governed by a supreme mind, as many ancient Greek thinkers did, but its intellectual prowess would not be enough to make it God either.
As Christians we believe that God is in control of his universe and that he is the ultimate cause of all things. We are happy to accept that he is the “supreme being,” but this is a natural consequence of who he is and not an abstract ideal to which he ought to conform.
To put it a different way, we have not concluded that there must be a first cause behind the universe and then called it God, turning it into a personal being in order to make it easier for us to understand. On the contrary, it is because we have met the God who has revealed himself to us in the Bible that we understand that, if we are looking for a first principle behind the universe, it must be him
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Post by Theophilus on Jun 13, 2023 7:36:01 GMT -8
It is a great mistake to believe that because God revealed his love for us in time and space, the Trinity of divine persons who manifest that love has no existence beyond that temporal and spatial framework. But wrong though it is to think that way, the idea was widely entertained in the earliest centuries of Christianity, and it is easy to understand why. Christians had inherited the monotheism of the Old Testament, and in the polytheistic environment to which they were called to bear witness, any suggestion that there might be more than one God had to be strenuously resisted.
Under no circumstances could they afford to define the eternal, absolute being of God within the limits imposed by the temporal and contingent world in which they lived. It seemed natural to them that when God worked in the world he did so through intermediaries like angels, who shared enough divine characteristics to be in communication with him but who were also capable of adapting themselves to the finite circumstances of the created order to which they essentially belonged.
These Christians understood that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were closer to God than angels were, but they did not know how to identify them with the infinite being of God, which to their minds was not capable of adjusting itself to the limitations of time and space. This difficulty led them to think of ways to explain how God could be present in the world by his Son and his Spirit without compromising his transcendent divinity
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Post by Unmerited on Jun 28, 2023 9:57:26 GMT -8
It is a great mistake to believe that because God revealed his love for us in time and space, the Trinity of divine persons who manifest that love has no existence beyond that temporal and spatial framework. But wrong though it is to think that way, the idea was widely entertained in the earliest centuries of Christianity, and it is easy to understand why. Christians had inherited the monotheism of the Old Testament, and in the polytheistic environment to which they were called to bear witness, any suggestion that there might be more than one God had to be strenuously resisted. Under no circumstances could they afford to define the eternal, absolute being of God within the limits imposed by the temporal and contingent world in which they lived. It seemed natural to them that when God worked in the world he did so through intermediaries like angels, who shared enough divine characteristics to be in communication with him but who were also capable of adapting themselves to the finite circumstances of the created order to which they essentially belonged. These Christians understood that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were closer to God than angels were, but they did not know how to identify them with the infinite being of God, which to their minds was not capable of adjusting itself to the limitations of time and space. This difficulty led them to think of ways to explain how God could be present in the world by his Son and his Spirit without compromising his transcendent divinity Thats what I was going to say.  The Trinity Teaches Us that Unity and Love Go Together There are many more truths that the Trinity can teach us about human relationships. One of the most important truths the Trinity teaches us about relationships is that unity and love must always go together. The oneness of God and the love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not separate. God’s love unifies and because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are perfectly one they can love each other perfectly. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:14) |
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Post by civic on Jul 3, 2023 5:12:42 GMT -8
Here is the Calvinist Abraham Kuyper that I'm adding to my thesis paper that God is love and the nature of the atonement.
“Before God created heaven and earth with all their inhabitants, the eternal Love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shone with unseen splendor in the divine Being. Love exists, not for the sake of the world, but for God's sake; and when the world came into existence, Love remained unchanged; and if every creature were to disappear, it would remain just as rich and glorious as ever. Love exists and works in the Eternal Being apart from the creature; and its radiation upon the, creature is but a feeble reflection of its being.
Love is not God, but God is Love; and He is sufficient to Himself to love absolutely and forever. He has no need of the creature, and the exercise of His Love did not begin with the creature whom He could love, but it flows and springs eternally in the Love-life of the Triune God. God is Love; its perfection, divine beauty, real dimensions, and holiness are not found in men, not even in the best of God's children, but scintillate only around the Throne of God.
The unity of Love with the Confession of the Trinity is the starting-point from which we proceed to base Love independently in God, absolutely independent of the creature or anything creaturely. This is not to make the divine Trinity a philosophic deduction from essential love. That is unlawful; if God had not revealed this mystery in His Word we should be totally ignorant of it. But since the Scripture puts the Triune Being before us as the Object of our adoration, and upon almost every page most highly exalts the mutual Love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and delineates it as an Eternal Love, we know and plainly see that this holy Love may never be represented but as springing from the mutual love of the divine Persons.
Hence through the mystery of the Trinity, the Love which is in God and is God obtains its independent existence, apart from the creature, independent of the emotions of mind and heart; and it rises as a sun, with its own fire and rays, outside of man, in God, in whom it rests and from whom it radiates.
In this way we eradicate every comparison of the Love of God with our love. In this way the false mingling ceases. In principle we resist the reversing of positions whereby arrogant man had succeeded in copying from himself a so-called God of Love, and into silencing all adoration. In this way the soul returns to the blessed confession that God is Love, and the way of divine mercy and pity is opened whereby the brightness of that Sun can radiate in a human way, i.e., in a finite and imperfect manner to and in the human heart, to the praise of God. “From his book on the Work of the Holy Spirit Volume 3, Second Chapter Love- xviii Love in the Triune Being of God “
hope this helps !!!
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