Christianity Oasis Forum

[morningrain]

I read this from a sermon by Octavius Winslow. Want to share this portion of the sermon.


As a revelation of the love of God, His Word is inexpressibly precious. We want to know more than the mind of God. We are sinners, and we want to read His heart His loving, gracious, sin-forgiving heart. We want to know, not only what His thoughts and purposes are, but what are His feelings towards us. Does He love us? Does His justice smile on us? Does His heart expand with mercy, and glow with affection towards us ? The Bible alone supplies the answer to these momentous questions. There we read as we read it tableted in no part of this vast and beautiful universe  "GOD is LOVE." And when we approach the subject yet closer, penetrate more deeply into the heart of God, what a transcendent, marvellous unfolding of His love is presented in the gift of His beloved Son! Read the declaration, often read before, yet to read again and again with deepening wonder, gratitude, and praise  "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

How precious ought that Word to be to our hearts which contains such declarations and reveals such truths as these! Well may the apostle exclaim, "Here in is love!" as if he had said, and he might have added, "and nowhere else but here!" Nowhere in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth; no star, no flower, no creature, so reveals, expresses, and embodies the love of God as the gift of His dear Son to die for our sins. Oh, what love is this! "God so loved the world!" So loved, that He gave Jesus! Jesus is the most precious exponent of God's love; Jesus descends from the bosom of His love; Jesus draws aside the veil of His love; Jesus is God's love expressed, God's love incarnate, God's love speaking, laboring, dying, redeeming! Beyond this it would seem impossible that love could go. Oh, let every affection of our heart, every faculty of our soul, every power of our mind, every action of our life, embody as its grateful response the words of the adoring apostle, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!"


This bring to mind a poem many of us may have read...

I asked Jesus,
"How much do You love me?"

"This much"
He answerd. Then He stretched out his arms and died.

[Dora]

Wow to read Gods heart.

Would that not heal every speck of pain we carry with in us.

We would know how fully he loves us and our purpose would be exposed, giving us such great peace and pleasure to continue forward.