On my very first deputation with fellow-students of the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow, I was not the leader, or the preacher. I was not charged with reading the Scriptures, or praying. My part in the team was to be the soloist. Possibly, that was considered to be the safest thing for me to do! The song that I chose for that evening, in a building close to Anniesland Cross, was "I am His, and He is mine", written by George Wade Robinson, and more often referred to by its opening words:
Of course, love is the foundation, the core, the whole edifice, of the Christian faith. That is because “God is love” (I Jn.4:8, 16). That is His essential Being. Without God, true love would not exist and, if one may say so with all reverence, without love, God Himself would not exist. And God loves you!
His love is an “everlasting love” and compels Him to act strongly and lovingly on our behalf. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins.” (I John 4:10). Jesus prayed, “I in them and Thou in me, … that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me and hast loved them even as Thou hast loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me where I am, …” (John 17:23-24). The Father will never allow those who are truly His to part from Him or our Saviour. These precious facts are taught to us by the “inspired” (literally “God-breathed”) Scriptures: “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”(II Tim.3:16), and by “... the Spirit of truth [Who] will guide you into all the truth;” (John 16:13). God the Father drew us to Himself “... in love: Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself” (Eph.1:5). Writing to his fellow-believers, the apostle John assured them: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (I Jn.3:1). In His grace, we come to Him, experiencing sweet forgiveness and everlasting love. Cradled in the security of His undying love, we have peace. “Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee.”(Is.26:3). Speaking through His prophet, Jeremiah, Father God said to the Children of Israel: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.” (Jer. 31:3). I believe, firmly, that these are words that every disciple of Jesus may take unto him/herself. Are you able to do so?! |
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