Christianity Oasis Forum

[kimberly]

1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is love.

When I was full of anger, resentment and bitterness, I did not know God. I hated me, my life, and my situation. I did not know God. I was frustrated, depressed, and despondent.

Then, I met God. He took all my sorry mess---He accepted my plea for forgiveness. One Sunday evening as I sat on my bed crying and feeling worthless, He moved into my heart as I asked Him to.

From then on, He began to change me. He didn't scold, or rant as I imagined God did. He taught, and explained, and encouraged.

He did this through His Word, and others. He used dreams, and images, and thoughts. He was gentle and personal.

He was love. The truest love I have ever experienced. I began to trust in Him, I decided that no matter what, I would believe in Him.

I have never regretted that decision.

What's your experience with His love? In this thread, Let's talk about God's love---what it means to us, the scriptures that show it to us, the ways He uses it for our good.

Let's ask questions, share thoughts and ideas about this emotionally healing love, how to find it, how to receive it, how to believe in it.

There are Love Letters from God all throughout the bible. Have you found any?

Until next time, Kim

[kimberly]

wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

[kimberly]

James 1:5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

"I pray and pray, but nothing happens."

"I believe in God, but I never feel Him or hear Him."

"If God loves me so much, why doesn't He fix my problems?"

Have you ever made any of these staements, or thought them to yourself? I have. When I was young in the Lord, I assumed it was God's job to fix everything that was wrong in my life.....including my attitude.

Actually, God doesn't have a 'job' to do. The job was mine, once He helped me realize where I was wrong, and how my attitude was keeping Him from helping me.

If I say one one hand that I love and believe in Him, and then say something like, "but He never answers my prayers", I am being a double-minded person. As you can see from the 'love letter above, (James 1:5-7), a double-minded person receives nothing from God.

Doubt is sin. ( Romans 14:23) Doubt is there when we say"but God never hears," or...."never answers". The bible tells us He does hear. But when we are expressing doubt, we are removing ourselves from His ability to help us.

The good news is, we can repent, ask His forgiveness for our doubt, and receive it. Once god showed me what I was doing and my wrong attitude towards Him, I did ask Him to forgive me, and saw a turn-around in my situations.

Double-mindedness is a wisdom problem. (James 1:5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. The wisdom of God is found in the bible, and in prayer. God gives it freely....we only have to ask. Once I sought His wisdom on my attitude, my emotions, and my behavior, I began to understand how to change them.

I made a decision to belive from the minute I prayed that God answered me, and began to watch for the answer. I allowed God to move in His time, not mine. My attitude had to chamge from "it's all about me"....to- "it's about God's will for me."

What love I find in James 1:5-7! God loves us so much, He wants to be able to do anything for us. He desires we have His wisdom, and will give it to us just for the asking. He wants us to be doubt free and stable minded.

Our Father loves us more than we can imagine.

Dear Father, we love you. We make a choice to believe in You and trust Your wisdom. We thank You for giving us wisdom in abundance in Your Word, it's there for all who want it. Thank You for the answers to our prayers, we know You hear us when we pray. Thank You, we are doubt free ans stable minded, in Jesus name, amen.

[kimberly]

Have you ever felt like this?.....

"despised and rejected by men", as thought you were...a "man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering".

Many times in your life, perhaps, you have felt no one cared. Maybe it even felt as though others hated and despised you. You were sad, and suffered many hurts. Have you been there?

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

This is a piece of love from God, the prophet Isaiah telling of Jesus, and all He would go through...for us.

God planned it so that Jesus would know first hand anything man would ever feel. Any suffering there was. It included being hated, rejected, and thought of as a liar, a fraud, and a nobody.

It included bodily pains and wounds, mental suffering, emotional traumas and stress. He was deserted by His friends, spat on, accused unjustly, and put to death while being made fun of.

We have all suffered in some of these ways. The love letter part of the scriptures in Isaiah 53 is this:


5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

Jesus has obtained healing for any wound, any hurt, any sorrow or suffering we might go through. His willingness to take our punishment has provided us with a peace we can only get from Him.

Go for this piece of love he has provided. Put it into your heart and let it erase anything you have there that is sorrowing you. He's overcome it for you.....let Him minister that healing to you as you let go of the hurt.

Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Our own way won't deliver us like His way will. God did it so we could be free. Accept the love that is offered!

[sandrad05]

I know this is two months later after you sent this message but, it's better late than never.
Isaiah. 43:1
"But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, and he that formed thee,
Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name: thou art mine"

To me this verse says it all about the way God feels about us. He created me. In a sense when we bear our children, at the very first moment of their creation, we love them. and when they are born, it does not matter if they are beautiful, or the uglyest baby in the nursery. It doesn't matter if they are missing parts, deform, whatever we love them. Just as they are. And if we can love our children like this how much more does our God love us?

He formed me, he created me just as I am by his loving hand i am created, Who can gain say God? He thinks his creation is worthy, beautiful and valuable.

If I know that my God, and Father loves me what have I to fear? He took a broken vessel that no one wanted and made it new and filled it with new wine. ( That's me) ( That's you ). He redeemed me, that My God!

But the part that grabbed me and kept me was the next sentence:
" I have called thee by name"
To me to call someone by name means you know them, there is a personal relationship with that person. He knows my name out of billions and billions of people, he knows my name. You have to care about someone to remember their name out of so many people.
For me this one sentence called me into a personal relationship with him.
Because he let me know he desire it first. There is another verse that relates to this. "he loved me first"

And then My God used a sentence that is prosessive! "THOU ART MINE!

I belong to the Almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth. The great I AM.. He is possessive over me. He sents out a message to all. She is mine! What have I to fear? I belong to the most HIGH God!

This verse is My Father proclaiming his love for his child.

To anyone who reads this verse he is saying Thou art mine. I think every thing he wants us to know about how he feels for us is compacted into this one small verse.

Thank you for letting me share:
Sandrad

[mcpeak]

For many years I tried to feed the hunger I have inside. It is like there is a hole right in the middle of my soul that demands something. For many many years I did not understand what this void, this hole was for or what to put it in to make it satisfied. I tried all sorts of things. In my younger years as a teenager I tried to fill this void with drugs and when I got a little older I added alcohol. No matter how much poison I poured into this hole it was never full or satisfied. A few years later I tried filling this void with sex. I thought that it was beginning to work but I was very wrong. Many years later after realizing all of the bad things I tried to fill this void with were not working I thought about trying something good. I asked God for forgiveness, asked Him to please take me and do what He wanted because I obviously had been doing everything wrong and was at a point that I couldn't go on any further on my own. I began to read my Bible and go to church and listen to Christian radio and cd's. I began to notice something very wonderful. The void that I had been feeding for so long was now starting to feel good! Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. God made me. He made all of us, right? Well, He didn't just make my ears and one foot, He made my entire body AAAAND He also made that hole in my soul. He made it for a very special reason. To PUT HIM IN IT!!!!! That is what it was designed and made for and ONLY what it was made for. Just like my stomach I now know that I must feed this hole with God's Word on a daily basis or it will begin to start the hunger pains again. Thank God for finally helping me see what I was so blind about for so very long.

[Dora]

Oh WOW! I just found this thread.

Where have I been?

All these are absolutely amazing words!

Sparked a fire with in me this morning.

Thank you all for sharing. Hope there is more shared.

What an absolutely terrific thread.

[akita777]

Well it looks like this thread as not been touched in a long while but it touched my heart so I thought I would respond. God loves me first of all, in that he gave his only begotten son for my sins. He loves me and I know it because he is patient with me and cares for me even when I doubt. He loves as I am not as I should be. He is teaching me not to doubt his promises. I do doubt and that is my downfall. Also, I listen to the lies of the enemy that says that I am not a Christian but just a fraud. And God still loves me. It's hard for me to accept this because I don't love myself that way. I am harsh and critical to myself and God is gentle. I guess I have lot's to learn about love because I don't know if I have ever really felt it before. I desire to feel the Holy Spirit in me and for me not to ever doubt again...Forgive me Lord for doubting your love for me. Teach me to accept your love so I can love others in the same manner....Steve

[stephaniej1007]

Hi Kimberly and everyone that is reading this thread.

I accepted Jesus as my savior when I was a freshman in college in 1996. It wasn't until 2005 that I really understood what God's love really was.

I had a rough childhood, maybe not as rough as others but, I was very bitter, and angry and resentful. I always felt like no one really loved me, and no one really cared about me. I kind of felt like I was the black sheep in my family. I always felt really alone. Because of this, I wanted to find that special someone who would love me. I thought I had finally found the person who really loved me. I turned my back on God. I wanted to be with this person because I thought that I had finally found what I was looking for. To make a long story short, my "fiance" turned his back on me. He abandoned me and my son in a city that I really didn't know anyone.

I remember being in so much pain. First I was mad at God because I thought He was jealous just like the scripture said. I told God that He just couldn't take it that someone else loved me besides Him. In the middle of my pain and anger and ranting and raving, God spoke to me in my bed. He told me that He would not have me go through so much pain and not bless me. At that moment, all the anger and rage I had for God turned to total disbelief. My heart melted. "What kind of God is this?" I asked myself. I looked inside myself and I realized that the only person I had betrayed was God. I turned my back on Him and all He wanted to do was bless me. I couldn't believe it. From that day on, I knew that God loved me. I understood He was not like me and I was glad.

Even right now, I am going through something that is so painful. But, you know what? I believe God and I trust Him. I trust Him. He has never let me down. He has always been there for me and there is nothing anyone can say to me to make me think that He does not love me. I will forever give Him the praise and the glory!

By the way, now I am married to a wonderful man of God and I know why God did what He did. He wanted me to have the best and I have the best.


Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others]. 1 Peter 4: 8

[Pert]

Wonderful story. I'm glad that happened for you and you're able to experience Him. :-)