Good morning,
When God created the earth, he didn’t make it to be a perfect place. God, in his wisdom, made our earth to be a place where people, created in his own image, would be able to discover how love and relationship would work in the face of real challenges and painful choices. For those of us who have been able to read and study the Bible, we soon discover that in every era of life, from the beginning of time, trouble was always just waiting around the corner. Ever since the first man and woman were created, we have all had to face the fact that we are required to decide whether to trust and love the God who gave us life or believe that we could control our lives ourselves with some help from the gods we chose for ourselves. God has always chosen to love everyone who has been given the gift of life, now we have to choose to love him in return. The most loving thing that God has done for us is to send his own Son to live and die and live again in order to suffer in our place to pay the price for our sins. God knew we would sin, so he chose Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, to pay for our sins so that Jesus’ precious blood would be the eternal proof of his love for us. Now it’s our turn to run from his love or to return our love to this perfect Holy God.(1Peter 1:18-21)
So now those of us who claim to love and trust God face the responsibility of trusting and obeying his guidelines out of love and not out of self control. Real love for God and for the people around us can only come from us when it comes from our hearts as a work of the Holy Spirit. Now it is our turn to genuinely love the sinful people all around us as Peter pointed out when he wrote, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.(vs.22) Our generation has become more and more aware of the fact that we are surrounded by hatred and haters all the time. Even our churches are not safe places from this powerful force that is trying to change our focus from our Savior’s love to our personal safety. What our God longs for us to do is to really believe that, For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end.(v.23) Our Enemy is doing his best to get us to think of life as the time we have here on earth, but the truth is that, Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. Because of our heart based love for God, we have been given eternal life. We will some day trade in these earthly bodies, but will immediately be given a new eternal one. For the people around us the Bible tells us, "People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.”(vs.24,25) Dear Lord, please help us to be eternal lovers with your love and not fading flowers with fear and hatred as our guides.
1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the Scriptures say, "People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. 25 But the word of the Lord remains forever.”
Roy Wisner
