Hey Friends,
This is Odie reporting in from the BoggsMobile. I hope you are doing well this week. Thank you for stopping by to visit with me for a few moments.
Happy early Valentine's Day to all of you! Let's talk a moment or two about love.
God Loves You
Today I want to focus on the love of God! I had a dream a few weeks ago that caused me to think a lot about the love of God. Here is the setting of my short dream.
We were singing in a church service. I do not know many of the details of the service. The one thing that I vividly remember, I was crying tears of joy. My heart was overwhelmed by the fact that God loves me!
When I awoke from my short dream, my mind was drawn to the familiar passage of John 3:16.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
This was one of the first verses that I memorized as a child. I know that I learned it before I could completely understand the meaning of this scripture. It can be easy to dismiss this verse as an elementary verse or think of it as a verse for new believers.
As I have grown older and deeper in my faith, I can see the extraordinary power in these words. Three things stood out to me as I studied this verse. I wanted to share them with you today.
1. Our Awesome God
I was born into a Christian home. Therefore I have known of God my whole life. God is not just a fictional character that we find in stories. He is not just a figment of my enormous imagination. God is real and He is Awesome!
God is our Heavenly Father. He is the reason that all of us are alive today. God is familiar with every intricate detail of lives. He existed and knew us before the being of time, as we know it today.
I am in awe of the awesomeness of our God. We can see His greatness all through the Bible. It is there from the very first words of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 is another verse that I learned as a child.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
This scripture is the foundation of our Bible. I see the awesomeness of God through every line in chapter one. We read the mind blowing account of creation in just 31 verses. God is the resounding theme of Genesis chapter 1. God is mentioned in almost every verse.
I can think of many people, things, places, events, or food that I consider awesome! It all pails in comparison the how awesome My God is. Nothing or no one else can be more awesome than God. He created a world in six days. He loves me unconditionally, knows me better than I know myself and so much more. He is truly incredible!
2. God's Amazing Love
Here is one of the definitions of love that I found in the dictionary.
Love- " A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child or friend."
I have been blessed to be surrounded by love all of my life. My parents love each other and they love me. All though I have made it difficult for them to love some days.😊 I have always been surrounded by family and friends that love me.
The love that I have experienced for 36 years is like this, I love somebody and that love is reciprocated back to me. There are many hurting people in this world. They have not experienced that type of love in their lives. That thought breaks my heart!
If you find yourself in that category, please know that I am not trying to hurt you today! I want you to experience the amazing love of God. God is not a respecter of persons. He loves all of us!
God's amazing love is the greatest and most powerful love that we can experience. His love is life changing.
I want to look back at John 3:16 for another moment. I want us to personalize this verse. Bro. Jimmy Milikin preached it like this, "God loves your little world."
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Put your name in this scripture. This is how I look at it, For God so loved Odie that He gave His one begotten son, that Odie could believeth in Him, that Odie should not perish, but Odie can have eternal life.
When I personalize this verse, I see my Awesome God. I marvel at His Amazing Love for me.
3. God's Astounding Gift
I think we can all feel special when we get a gift. I love to give gifts even more than I enjoy receiving them. The search for the perfect gift excites me! God gave all of us the perfect gift. It fits and works for everybody. No returns are necessary!
What is the gift? God gave us His only son, Jesus. Dad often says, " God gave us the only thing that He one only had one of, His Son." Any other gift God could have just spoken more into existence or created again. Giving us His only Son was a gift that hurt Him.
Jesus came into this world as a baby. He left the splendor of Heaven and came to earth to live as a man. He lived during difficult days. Jesus did not experience an easy life! His life was lived for a purpose.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved
John 3:17
Jesus is why we can honestly know our Awesome God and experience his Amazing love. He willingly laid down His life on the cross so we could have eternal life.
All of us are sinners and we have sinned. Before Jesus came and died on the cross, there was no way to forgive our sin debt. The book of Romans says the wages of sin is death. Jesus changed that for us! Now we do not have to die. The debt for our sins was paid on the cross.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Today my heart is grateful for the Astounding Gift that God gave us. When I was a girl, I received the gift of salvation. I am still reaping the benefits of that gift 30 plus years later. This gift never wears out!
God loves you today, my friends. You can receive the gift that is waiting for you at this very moment. The is no need to wait another second. Please call out to God! I want everyone to experience my Awesome God, His Amazing love and His Astounding Gift.
Thank you for reading the thoughts of my heart for this post. I am praying for all of you today!
Odie
