God's Love

Our heavenly Father's love for His children is so wide, long, high, and deep that we can never fully grasp its extent (Eph 3:18). God's love for us is constant and everlasting. He will love us forever. But sometimes we shelter or store up emotions that try to tell us otherwise.

We often relate divine love with our behavior in our minds and thoughts. When we feel we've been good, we believe we are loved. But let us make a mistake and we will question just how much He cares for us. After a string of missteps, we might come to the conclusion that He disapproves of us far more than He loves us. (That's our way of thinking.) Some of us even think that God's judgment hangs over us like a cleaver over the chopping block.

The truth of the matter is, there is no condemnation for any believer (Rom 8:1). Everything that would condemn us before Almighty God was placed squarely upon Jesus at the cross. In the Father's heavenly courtroom, His Son Jesus was found guilty in our place so we could be set free from condemnation forever! It's as if God stamped "Paid in Full" on the record of our sin-debt. No matter when the transgression occurred ... whether before salvation or years off in the future ... our transgressions and sins are fully paid by the blood of Christ. No believer is indebted to God for our sins.

God does not excuse our sin. He is a loving heavenly Father, and He will use discipline to bring us back to godly behavior (Heb 12:7). He also allows us to suffer the full consequences of sin; but divine condemnation is not one of them if we open our hearts and minds to the message of the gospel. Receive God's love today, if you haven't already done so. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just say, "Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God and that You died in my place, taking my sins upon yourself. You were then buried for 3 days and rose to life again. Thank you and come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. Amen.

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I'm off to a late start today. I don't even have my chores done but I am getting my blog out. I had actually sat down and written "No Blog Today" but then I got to thinking that it doesn't take long to type my blog and I might as well just do it. So this is the product of my thinking this morning.

Did that last paragraph make sense? Sometimes I wonder. The thing is that my brain can think so much faster than my fingers can type. And it doesn't help that I have Mario climbing in and out of my lap while I'm sitting here writing this email. Silly cat! I wish he knew how hard it is to type with a big cat in your lap. My left hand functions pretty much normally but the right hand is really hindered with his head draped across it the way he does. He just loves to sit in my lap. There's beautiful sunshine here and snow in Georgia so I best get on with my day. (I don't know what snow and sunshine has to do with anything; it just sounded good.) I need to run out to the Post Office to mail a couple sympathy cards, since I send out the cards for my church. I think I need to call Joann and find out if we're going to have a memorial for Leta. It's the responsibility of the deacons to organize the memorial if we're supposed to have one.

Yesterday's meeting went by without a glitch. Everyone was there except for Joan. We're all really concerned because she seems to be forgetting things. Evelyn called her and reminded her of the meeting (and lunch) on Tuesday and she forgot by Wednesday. She said she had something else that she had to do but I think she's just trying to cover up her forgetfulness because surely she would have told one of us that she wasn't going to be able to make it for the meeting. She forgot she was supposed to help prepare and serve communion a couple times and she misses the deacons meetings if she isn't reminded the evening of the meeting. I called her last night to check on her and she said Shirley had already called to check on her but she seemed to appreciate the concern. But she's been forgetting big things, like going to church on Sunday. I don't know if she forgets that she's supposed to go or if she forgets what day it is but she's forgotten to go to church a couple of times. Everyone has noticed and we're all just very concerned for her, what with her living alone. She told me that she has a doctor appointment today so maybe the doctor will be able to tell something. I hope she remembers to go. She took a trip after Christmas and when she came back she just didn't feel well. Not really sick, just not normal. Hopefully she's just got a bug of some kind that has her thrown a little off kilter. We all fear those days ahead when our memories aren't what they should be.

Michael's neck is still bothering him quite a bit. It's been four days now, I think, that he's been pretty well laid up with it. He won't go to the doctor because he says what could a doctor do? And he's got a point. He says it's muscular so he's taking his Soma and codeine and just trying to wait it out. But it's sure causing him a lot of pain and discomfort. I wish there were something that I could do to make it go away and leave him alone.

Well, the sun just went away. Must be some clouds floating around out there. I have no plans for the day. So I think I'll spend some time cleaning and then do some writing later this afternoon. I guess I should go and get busy doing something. My bed isn't made and I'm not even dressed. I hate it when I over sleep. Sure messes up my day. So I'm going to say this is enough for today and get around and get busy doing things that need to be done. I think I'll fix myself a half a bagel for breakfast/lunch and get busy so until tomorrow ...