 Meditations on the Love of God These meditations are on the Love of God and were part of September 2004 meditations. Type out the entire month and enjoy them any month. We pray that you will get a good view of God's love from many different authors. Day 1 "This is my commandment, That ye love one another." John 15:12 God is love. His whole nature and perfection is love, living not for Himself, but to dispense life and blessing. In His love He begat the Son, that He might give all to Him. In His love He brought forth creatures that He might make them partakers of His blessedness. Christ is the Son of God's love, the bearer, the revealer, the communicator of that love. His life and death were all love. Love is His life, and the life He gives. He only lives to love, to live out His life of love in us, to give Himself in all who will receive Him. The very first thought of the true Vine is love - living only to impart life to the branches. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. He cannot impart Christ's life without imparting His love. Salvation is nothing but love conquering and entering into us; we have just as much of salvation as we have of love. Full salvation is perfect love. Excerpt taken from The True Vine by Andrew Murray, pg 97-8 Day 2 "This is my commandment, That ye love one another." John 15:12 Jesus said: "A new commandment I give unto you"; "This is my commandment" - the one all-inclusive commandment - "that you love one another." The branch is not only one with the vine, but with all its other branches; they drink one spirit, they form one body, they bear one fruit. Nothing can be more unnatural than that Christians should not love one another, even as Christ loved them. The life they received from their heavenly Vine is nothing but love. This is the one thing He asks above all others. "Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples...love one another." As the special sort of vine is known by the fruit it bears, the nature of the heavenly Vine is to be judged of by the love His disciples have to one another. See that you obey this commandment. Let your "obey and abide" be seen in this. Love your brethren as the way to abide in the love of your Lord. Let your vow of obedience began here. Love one another. Let your intercourse with the Christians in your own family be holy, tender, Christ like love. Let your thoughts of the Christians round you be, before everything, in the spirit of Christ's love. Let your life and conduct be the sacrifice of love - give yourself up to think of their sins, of their needs, to intercede for them, to help and to serve them. Be in your church or circle the embodiment of Christ's love. The life Christ lives in you is love; let the life in which you live it out be all love. Excerpt taken from The True Vine by Andrew Murray, pg 98 Day 3 "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, Even as I Have Loved You." John 15:12 EVEN AS I - Is it not a vain thing to imagine that we can keep His commandments, and love the brethren, even as He kept His Father's, and as He loved us? And must not the attempt end in failure and discouragement? Undoubtedly, if we seek to carry out the injunction in our strength, or without a full apprehension of the truth of the Vine and its branches. But if we understand that the "even as I" is just the one great lesson of the parable, the one continual language of the Vine to the branch, we shall see that it is not the question of what we feel able to accomplish, but of what Christ is able to work in us. these high and holy commands - "Obey, even as I! Love, even as I" - are just meant to bring us to the consciousness of our impotence, and through that to waken us to the need and the beauty and the sufficiency of what is provided for us in the Vine. We shall begin to hear the Vine speaking every moment to the branch: "Even as I. Even as I: My life is your life; you have a share in all My fullness; the Spirit in you, and the fruit that comes from you, is all just the same as in Me. Be not afraid, but let your faith grasp each 'Even as I' as the divine assurance that because I live in you, you may and can live like Me." Excerpt taken from The True Vine by Andrew Murray, pg 102 Day 4 "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, Even as I Have Loved You." John 15:12 Love one another, even as I have loved You. - "Ye, even as I." How are we to begin if we are really to learn the mystery? With the confession that we need to be brought to an entirely new mode of life, because we have never yet known Christ as the Vine in the completeness of His quickening and transforming power. With the surrender to be cleansed from all that is of self, and detached from all that is in the world, to live only and wholly as Christ lived for the glory of the Father. And then with the faith that this "even as I' is indeed what Christ is ready to make true, the Vine will maintain that very life in the branch wholly dependent upon Him. Excerpt taken from The True Vine by Andrew Murray, pg 103 Day 5 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10 How clearly we are taught here the place which good works are to occupy in the life of the believer! Christ as the beloved Son was in the Father's love. He kept His commandments, and so He abode in the love. So the believer, without works, receives Christ and is in Him; he keeps the commandments, and so abides in the love. When the sinner, in coming to Christ, seeks to prepare himself by works, the voice of the Gospel sounds, "Not by works." When once in Christ, lest the flesh should abuse the word, "Not of works," the Gospel lifts its voice as loud: "Created in Christ Jesus unto good works." To the sinner out of Christ, works may be his greatest hindrance, keeping him from the union with the Saviour. To the believer in Christ, works are strength and blessing, for by them faith is made perfect, the union with Christ is cemented, and the soul established and more deeply rooted in the love of God. "If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him." "If ye keep my words, and my Father will love him." "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." The connection between this keeping the commandments and the abiding in Christ's love is easily understood. Our union with Jesus Christ is not a thing of the intellect or sentiment, but a real vital union in heart and life. The holy life of Jesus, with His feelings and disposition, is breathed into us by the Holy Spirit. The believer's calling is to think and feel and will just what Jesus thought and felt and willed. He desires to be partaker not only of the grace but also of the holiness of His Lord; or rather, he sees that holiness is the chief beauty of grace. To live the life of Christ means to him to be delivered from the life of self; the will of Christ is to him the only path of liberty from the slavery of his own evil self-will. Excerpt taken from Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray, pg 153-4 Day 6 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10 To him who is seeking to abide in Christ's love, the command to abide is precious. As much as the promises, the command to abide in Christ's love is the revelation of the divine love, guiding into the deeper experience of the divine life, a blessed help in the path to a closer union with the Lord. He sees how the harmony of our will with His will is one of the chief elements of our fellowship with Him. The will is the central faculty in the Divine as in the human being. The will of God is the power that rules the whole moral as well as the natural world. How could there be fellowship with Him without delight in His will? It is only as long as salvation is to the sinner nothing but a personal safety, that he can be careless or afraid of the doing of God's will. No sooner is it to him what Scripture and the Holy Spirit reveal it to be - the restoration to communion with God and conformity to Him - than he feels there is no law more natural or more beautiful than this: Keeping Christ's commandments the way to abide in Christ's love. His inmost soul approves when he hears the beloved Lord make the larger measure of the Spirit, with the manifestation of the Father and the Son in the believer, entirely dependent upon the keeping of His commandments. Excerpt taken from Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray, pg 154 Day 7 "The Lord appeared...saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love..." (Jeremiah 31: 3) When you love another person, you do good to him - and you do good to him according to the best that is in your own nature. Therefore consider these things of the Lord God and His love for you. Since your soul's Spouse, who walks and lives within you, is omnipotent, He gives you omnipotence as He loves you with all His might! And since He is Wisdom, you perceive that He is loving you in the highest and best ways - knowing His ways are above those of mere men. Since He is holy, He loves you with a love that is at work to set you apart for Himself. Since He is righteous, He will love you in a way that leads you in His paths of righteousness. And more - He that loves you is merciful, compassionate, meek. He is altogether strong, sublime, and delicate. He is a Lover who is clean, pure, and forever true. He loves you liberally, without self-interest, and with every intention to do good to you. The One who loves you is humility itself. He thinks of you and cares for you with the highest esteem. He even makes Himself your equal, and joyfully shows you every expression of His grace. The One who revealed Himself to Moses says to you: "I am yours. I am for you. It gives me the greatest delight to bring all that is in my name - I AM - and give it all to you. My desire is to be yours." How can anyone gives words to the sheer delight of knowing you are so loved, so lifted up by the Lover, and held in such tender esteem? -excerpt taken from St. John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love Stanza 3 Day 8 "Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends." John 15:13 Our relation to Christ is one of love. He has shown us what His love was in its heavenly glory; the same love with which the Father had loved Him. Here we have it in its earthly manifestation - laying down His life for us. Christ does indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of all He is and does for us as the Vine is love. As we learn to believe this, we shall feel that here is something which we not only need to think and know about, but a living power, a divine life which we need to receive within us. Christ and His love are inseparable; they are identical. God is love and Christ is love. God and Christ and the divine love can only be know by having them, by their life and power working within us. "This is eternal life, that they know thee"; there is no knowing God but by having the life; the life working in us alone gives the knowledge. And even so the love; if we would know it, we must drink of it living stream, we must have it shed forth by the Holy Spirit in us. Excerpt taken from The True Vine by Andrew Murray, pg 105-6 Day 9 "Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends." John 15:13 The life is the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man gives his life, he holds nothing back, he gives all he has and is. It is this our Lord Jesus wants to make clear to us concerning His mystery of the Vine; with all He has He has placed Himself at our disposal. He wants us to count Him our very own; He wants to be wholly our possession, that we may be wholly His possession. He gave His life for us in death not merely as a passing act, that when accomplished was done with; no, but as a making Himself ours for eternity. Life for life; He gave His life for us to possess that we might give our life for Him to possess. This is what is taught by the parable of the Vine and the branch, in their wonderful identification, in their perfect union. Ity is as we know something of this, not by reason or imagination, but deep down in the heart and life, that we shall begin to see what ought to be our life as branches of the heavenly Vine. He gave Himself to death; He lost Himself, that we might find life in Him. This is the true Vine, who only lives to live in us. This is the beginning and the root of that holy friendship to which Christ invites us. Let us wait for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to reveal it. Let us trust His infinite love, which gave its life for us, to take possession and rejoice in making us wholly its own. Excerpt taken from The True Vine by Andrew Murray, pg 107 Day 10 "Follow the way of love...Let love me your greatest aim ... Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire the love of God - make it ... your great quest." (1Corinthians 14:1) The light of God's Spirit is not the light of cold truth, which leads to the law and to judgment. It is a living flame of love. For love is the spirit of our soul's true Spouse... This flame of love is sent down to us from the Father of Lights (James 1:17). Isn't it love that bathes our soul, kindling a sense of awe and wonder at the glory of God? In this way, He refreshes us within by revealing His loving and gracious nature. What I have just described is, in fact, the way the Holy Spirit begins His work in the soul. It is love that causes us to rise up from spiritual sleep and open ourselves to God. Love is the call; and love is the transforming power. As we have said, God begins His greatest work when the inner man is open to Him. He touches us with His Spirit, and His touch sends our "flames" that we perceive in flickers of holy awe, wonder, overwhelming beauty. God works to draw our will into His own, so that we come to want with all our heart to be made one with that flame - and the flame is love. This is how the very life of God enters into us - when our old selfishness is consumed in the unquenchable love of the Father. excerpt taken from St. John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Stanza1 Day 11 "Follow the way of love...Let love be your greatest aim ... Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire the love of God - make it ... your great quest." (1Corinthians 14:1) The more we allow love to enter, the more we grow to love others with our whole will - even when they treat us miserably. In fact, God's aim is to change us from within so that it is the easiest thing for us to act in love at these times, whether we are overwhelmed with feeling for a person or not. Speaking and responding in love is most precious, because that's when we are fully open to God, obeying an action that originated in His heart. This is how His Spirit continually flows into this world - through us - to overcome the world's meanness. I tell you, acting in love when others are not acting in love toward you - this is of the highest value to your soul. It is worth more than all the other works of faith you may have done, no matter how great they appear. Love is the highest aim, the greatest practice you can cultivate in your soul. It is the path on which you walk as closely as is possible to those who are already living in the life eternal. excerpt taken from St. John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Stanza1 Day 12 "Follow the way of love...Let love be your greatest aim ... Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire the love of God - make it ... your great quest." (1Corinthians 14:1) The more we follow this path of love, the more our old self is consumed and dies - and the more God himself will be kindled in us. God in us ... His love will leap like flames of light and warmth through our words and actions, consuming our old vindictive ways of treating people... Some only have a taste for power and superiority. Some believe they must defend themselves at all costs. Their highest aim is to protect their flesh - that is, their pride, position, and security in possessions. These people do not have a healthy taste for the ways of God. To them,, the way of love is bitter and foolish. Do not be like them. Meditate on what I have told you, until the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of your soul, and you are convinced that what I am showing you is the path from death to life - the way of life that makes you spiritually alive in God. My Father, Creator of Love and Light, how subtly I position myself at the center of all things. And there, with defensive words or punishing silences, I barricade and protect myself against others ... and mostly against you. As I open to you, I ask you to wake all the darkened ways of my heart and consume any evil in me with your cleansing fire. Do not stop until you have reached the darkest, innermost place, so that I can see the truth ... and learn how to live free from my self. excerpt taken from St. John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Stanza1 Day 13 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10 If you would abide in Jesus, be very careful to keep His commandments. Keep them in the love of your heart. Be not content to have them in the Bible for reference, but have them transferred by careful study, by meditation and prayer, by a loving acceptance, by the Spirit's teaching, to the fleshly tables of your heart. Be not content with the knowledge of some of the commands, those most commonly received among Christians, while others lie unknown and neglected. Surely, with your New Covenant privileges, you would not be behind the Old Testament saints who spoke so fervently: "I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right." Be assured that there is still much of your Lord's will that you do not yet understand. Make Paul's prayer for the Colossians yours for yourself and all believers, "that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Remember that this is one of the great elements of spiritual growth - a deeper insight into the will of God concerning you. Imagine not that entire consecration is the end - it is only the beginning - of the truly holy life. We need to be ever more and more "renewed in our minds to prove what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God." (Romans 12:1) Keep the commandments dwelling richly within you, hid them within your heart, and you shall taste the blessedness of the man whose "delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth meditate day and night." Love will assimilate into your inmost being the commands as food from heaven. They will no longer come to you as a law standing outside and against you, but as the living power which has transformed your will into perfect harmony with all your Lord requires. excerpt taken from Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray, Day 24 Day 14 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10 If even for a moment the commandments of God appear grievous, just remember whose commandments they are. They are the commandments of Him who loves you. They are all love, they come from His love, they lead to His love. Each new surrender to keep the commandments, each new sacrifice in keeping them, leads to deeper union with the will, the spirit, and the love of the Savior. The double recompense of reward shall be yours - a fuller entrance into the mystery of His love - a fuller conformity to His own blessed life. And you shall learn to prize the words as among your choicest treasures: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." excerpt taken from Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray, Day 24 Day 15 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10 Jesus knew what it meant to abide in his Father's love. Again and again throughout the Gospels we see him withdrawing from people to be with God; and even as he went about his everyday activities he seemed to carry on a running conversation with God in his heart. We can do the same thing - although it will mean arranging our lives in such a way that there is never a moment when we need be out of contact with our Father. Admittedly, that will be difficult, but not impossible, for God does not ask the impossible of us. Here again we come upon the marvelous mystery of his living in us and our living in him: God himself will give us the grace and the power to abide in him. Abiding, in itself, is something we cannot do without him. We can't help but wonder how we shall manage to do what God asks of us in this sense if abiding means that we must think of God all the time. After all, we have responsibilities: a family, interests, etc. If abiding means withdrawing from these concerns, we would have to live a cloistered kind of life, and God does not call us away from this world, but rather into it. Can we possibly abide in God even in the midst of our everyday life? Yes - and there are helps along the way. Brother Lawrence shared his method of abiding in his beautiful book, Practicing the Presence of God. Even while performing the humblest, most tedious tasks, this committed man was aware of God's nearness. Not that he was unaware of the presence and needs of others; he simply kept himself open to God and to the strength that flowed from the Vine into the branch. We can follow Brother Lawrence's example, no matter where we are or what we are doing. It doesn't mean that we have nothing else on our minds and in our hearts, but that underneath everything else that claims our attention is the steady, constant awareness of God. excerpt taken from Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread by Colleen Townsend Evans, pg 55-6 Day 16 I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee. And I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, 0 virgin of Israel. (Jeremiah 31:3) As soon as man thinks with even a little attention of the divinity, he feels a certain delightful emotion of the heart, which testifies that God is God of the human heart; and our understanding is never so filled with pleasure as in this thought of the divinity, the smallest knowledge of which, as says the prince of philosophers, is worth more than the greatest knowledge of other things; as the least beam of the sun is more luminous than the greatest of the moon or stars, yea is more luminous than the moon and stars together. And if some accident terrifies our heart, it immediately has recourse to the Divinity, protesting thereby that when all other things fail him, It alone stands his friend, and that when he is in peril, It only, as his sovereign good, can save and secure him. excerpt taken from Francis deSales, Treatise on The Love of God Day 17 These are the words of God, by which he promises that the Saviour coming into the world shall establish a new kingdom in his Church, which shall be his virgin-spouse, and true spiritual Israelite. "No man can come to me except the .Father, who hath sent me, draw him." (John 4: 44) For if the Father had not drawn us we had never come to the Son, our Saviour, nor consequently to salvation. There are certain birds, which Aristotle calls apodes, because having extremely short legs, and feeble feet, they use them no more than if they had none. And if ever they light upon the ground they must remain there, so that they can never take flight again of their own power, because having no use of their legs or feet, they have therefore no power to move and start themselves into the air: hence they remain there motionless, and die, unless some wind, propitious to their impotence, sending out its blasts upon the face of the earth, happen to seize upon and bear them up, as it does many other things. If this happen, and they make use of their wings to correspond with this first start and motion which the wind gives them, it also continues its assistance to them, bringing them by little and little into flight. The angels are like to those birds, which for their beauty and rarity are called birds-of-paradise, never seen on earth but dead. For those heavenly spirits had no sooner forsaken divine love to attach themselves to self-love, than suddenly they fell as dead, buried in hell, seeing that the same effect which death has on men, separating them everlastingly from this mortal life, the same had the angels' fall on them, excluding them for ever from eternal life. But we mortals rather resemble apodes: for if it chance that we, quitting the air of holy divine love, fall upon earth and adhere to creatures, which we do as often as we offend God, we die indeed, yet not so absolute a death but that there remains in us a little movement, besides our legs and feet, namely, some weak affections, which enable us to make some essays of love, though so weakly, that in truth we are impotent of ourselves to detach our hearts from sin, or start ourselves again in the flight of sacred love, which, wretches that we are, we have perfidiously and voluntarily forsaken. And truly we should well deserve to remain abandoned of God, when with this disloyalty we have thus abandoned him. But his eternal charity does not often permit his justice to use this chastisement, but rather, exciting his compassion, it provokes him to reclaim us from our misery, which he does by sending us the favourable wind of his most holy inspirations, which, blowing upon our hearts with a gentle violence, seizes and moves them, raising our thoughts, and moving our affections into the air of divine love. excerpt taken from Francis deSales, Treatise on The Love of God Bk 2 Ch 9 Day 18 "No man can come to me except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him." (John 4: 44) Now this first stirring or motion which God causes in our hearts to incite us to our own good, is effected indeed in us but not by us; for it comes unexpectedly, before we have either thought of it or been able to think of it, seeing we are not sufficient to think anything towards our salvation of ourselves as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor. iii. 5), who did not only love us before we were, but also to the end we might be, and might be saints. For which cause he prevents us with the blessings of his fatherly sweetness, and excites our souls, in order to bring them to holy repentance arid conversion. The prince of the Apostles, stupefied with sin in the sad night of his Master's passion, no more thought of sorrowing for his sin, than though he had never known his heavenly Saviour. And as a miserable apode fallen to earth, he would never have been raised, had not the cock, as an instrument of divine providence, struck his ears with its voice, at the same instant in which his sweet Redeemer casting upon him a gracious look, like a dart of love, transpierced that heart of stone, which afterwards sent forth water in such abundance, like the ancient rock smitten by Moses in the desert. But look again and see this holy Apostle sleeping in Herod's prison, bound with two chains: he is there in quality of a martyr, and nevertheless he represents the poor man who sleeps amid sin, prisoner and slave to Satan. Alas! who will deliver him? The angel descends from heaven, and striking the great Saint Peter, the prisoner, upon the side, awakens him, saying: Arise quickly! So the inspiration comes from heaven like an angel, and striking upon the poor sinner's heart, stirs him up to rise from his iniquity. Is it not true then that this first emotion and shock which the soul perceives, when God, preventing it with love, awakens it and excites it to forsake sin and return unto him and not only this shock, but also the whole awakening, is done in us, and for us, but not by us? We are awake, but have not awakened of ourselves. It is the inspiration which has awakened us, and to awaken us has shaken and moved us. I slept, says that devout spouse, but my beloved, who is my heart, watched. Ah! see that it is he who awakens me, calling me by the name of our loves, and I know well by his voice that it is he. It is unawares and unexpectedly that God calls and awakens us by his holy inspiration, and in this beginning of grace we do nothing but feel the touch which God gives, in us, but without us. excerpt taken from Francis deSales, Treatise on The Love of God Bk 2 Ch 9 Day 19 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Genesis 1: 27 OF THE AFFINITY THERE IS BETWEEN GOD AND MAN "AS soon as man thinks with even a little attention of the divinity, he feels a certain delightful emotion of the heart, which testifies that God is God of the human heart; and our understanding is never so filled with pleasure as in this thought of the divinity, the smallest knowledge of which is worth more than the greatest knowledge of other things; as the least beam of the sun is more luminous than the greatest of the moon or stars, yea is more luminous than the moon and stars together. And if some accident terrifies our heart, it immediately has recourse to the Divinity, protesting thereby that when all other things fail him, It alone stands his friend, and that when he is in peril, It only, as his sovereign good, can save and secure him. "This pleasure, this confidence which man's heart naturally has in God, can spring from no other root than the affinity there is between this divine goodness and man's soul, a great but secret affinity, an affinity which each one knows but few understand, an affinity which cannot be denied nor yet be easily sounded. We are created to the image and likeness of God: - what does this mean but that we have an extreme affinity with his divine majesty? "Our soul is spiritual, indivisible, immortal; understands and wills freely, is capable of judging, reasoning, knowing, and of having virtues, in which it resembles God. It resides whole in the whole body, and whole in every part thereof, as the divinity is all in all the world, and all in every part thereof. Man knows and loves himself by produced and expressed acts of his understanding and will, which proceeding from the understanding and the will, and distinct from one another, yet are and remain inseparably united in the soul, and in the faculties from whence they proceed. So the Son proceeds from the Father as his knowledge expressed, and the Holy Ghost as love breathed forth and produced from the Father and the Son, both the Persons being distinct from one another and from the Father, and yet inseparable and united, or rather one same, sole, simple, and entirely one indivisible divinity." excerpt taken from Francis deSales, Treatise on The Love of God Bk 2 Ch15 Day 20 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Genesis 1: 27 But besides this affinity of likenesses, there is an incomparable correspondence between God and man, for their reciprocal perfection: not that God can receive any perfection from man, but because as man cannot be perfected but by the divine goodness, so the divine goodness can scarcely so well exercise its perfection outside itself, as upon our humanity: the one has great want and capacity to receive good, the other great abundance and inclination to bestow it. Nothing is so agreeable to poverty as a liberal abundance, nor to a liberal abundance as a needy poverty, and by how much the good is more abundant, by so much more strong is the inclination to pour forth and communicate itself. By how much more the poor man is in want, so much the more eager is he to receive, as a void is to fill itself. The meeting then of abundance and indigence is most sweet and agreeable, and one could scarcely have said whether the abounding good have a greater contentment in spreading and communicating itself, or the failing and needy good in receiving and in drawing to itself, until Our Saviour had told us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Now where there is more blessedness there is more satisfaction, and therefore the divine goodness receives greater pleasure in giving than we in receiving. excerpt taken from Francis deSales, Treatise on The Love of God Bk 2 Ch15 Day 21 "Sir, give me this water, that I may thirst never again." (John 4: 15) Our emptiness has need of the divine abundance by reason of its want and necessity, but God's abundance has no need of our poverty but by reason of the excellency of his perfection and goodness; a goodness which is not at all bettered by communication, for it acquires nothing in pouring itself out of itself, on the contrary it gives: but our poverty would remain wanting and miserable, if it were not enriched by the divine abundance. Our soul then seeing that nothing can perfectly content her, and that nothing the world can afford is able to fill her capacity, considering that her understanding has an infinite inclination ever to know more, and her will an insatiable appetite to love and find the good; - has she not reason to cry out: Ah! I am not then made for this world, there is a sovereign good on which I depend, some infinite workman who has placed in me this endless desire of knowing, and this appetite which cannot be appeased! And therefore I must tend and extend towards Him, to unite and join myself to the goodness of Him to whom I belong and whose I am! Such is the affinity between God and man's soul. excerpt taken from Francis deSales, Treatise on The Love of God Bk 2 Ch15 Day 22 God is a loving Father, and being a Father, He begets a Son - and the whole of His will is replete with His fatherliness and breathes the life of His Son into every soul that does the will of the Father who is in heaven. We must never forget this - God never ceases to be our Father, and He never ceases to be the Father of Christ. And the will of God represents God's plan to bring forth men in Christ, and to bring forth Christ in men. For that reason we can be sure that by doing the will of God we are bringing forth Christ in our own soul, and entering into a still closer union with His Mystical Body. Indeed the very phrase in the Scripture that speaks of entering into life by keeping the commandments is pregnant with meaning. For that is the way we make ourselves perfect members of the Body of Christ and find our life in Him. excerpt taken from This Tremendous Lover by Eugene Boylan, pg 89 Day 23 "Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? ... But in all these things we have overcome because of him, that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." (Romans 8: 35-39) Christian spirituality and Christian morality is essentially positive and dynamic, an incorporating and building up of each of us in Christ. And the whole scheme as far as any one person in the state of grace is concerned, depends only on two wills: the will of God and his own will. It does not matter what other men will, what they do to him; if a man only cleave to God by his own will, God will sanctify him. By doing the will of God then we are formed into Christ, we are "digested" by Him, we are received into Him and transformed into Him, as the food is taken by the roots and transformed into the vine. When we do the will of God, Christ, our High Priest, takes us into His hands, and blesses us, and says: "This is My Body," and offers us up to His Father in Himself, and receives us into communion with Himself. The perfect union with Christ is to do the will of God for the love of God. There is nothing higher than that. Therein lies all holiness and all happiness; therein lies all that we may ever become, all that we ever dreamed of being; for it renews us in Christ and unites us to Him who is our God and our all! excerpt taken from This Tremendous Lover by Eugene Boylan, pg 196-7 Day 24 "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" Ps 8:4 Every act of the spiritual life is performed in partnership with Jesus, and there is no comparison between His share and ours; what we contribute is but a tiny drop of water in the chalice full of the rich wine of His immeasurable love of God. Yet that little drop of our own is of supreme importance. For even though it be true to say He has done everything for us, yet there is one thing He cannot do without our cooperation; He cannot make what He has done ours, unless we also do our own share. We do our share by doing the will of God. It does not matter how trivial the action done is; if it be done according to the will of God it is done in union with Jesus, and then all His is ours. By putting ourselves thus in union with Him, we are united not only with Him, in all the actions of His own life but we also are united with every member of Christ in that all is being done in any part of the world at the moment, or was done at any time in the past. excerpt taken from This Tremendous Lover by Eugene Boylan, pg 199 Day 25 An active faith is necessary to see in all things God's hand. And it may be admitted, that there are times when one's faith may have to be exercised by a vigorous and deliberate effort. The malice of men is so obvious in what befalls us, the course of events is so opposed to what we were quite certain were God's designs for us, the pain and the sorrow inflicted upon us or upon those we love by special trails are so keen, that we find it hard to convince ourselves that God "knows what He is doing." This is just the point. God does know what He is doing, and knows it full well. It is perfectly designed to accomplish His purpose. But His purpose is unknown to us. Our Lord warned us: "I am the vine, you are the branches...I am the true vine: and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away; and everyone that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth much fruit." (John 15: 1-5) This purging or pruning action of the Father is what disconcerts us. We see an orchard in full bloom, and what has a more delicate charm? And yet those flowers must disappear if the branches are to bring forth fruit. There are many flowers in our life that seem of great value to us. In God's sight they are only flowers, and in His mercy He removes them that we may yield Him fruit. He alone knows the deep desires of our hearts, and He alone can satisfy them. We must trust Him absolutely if we wish to achieve our heart's desire. We are not only the children of God, but we are members of the Mystical Body of His well beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Every single thing that happens is part of a plan for the development of that Mystical Body. The Three Divine Persons are continually directing events towards that end. The Father in His ruling of the universe is continually being a Father to the Body of His Son. The Holy Spirit is continually moving each of us interiorly that we may live the life of the Son. The Son Himself is continually pouring His grace into our soul that we may share His own life. Is it any wonder that all things work together for the good of them that love God? excerpt taken from This Tremendous Lover by Eugene Boylan pg 214-5 Day 26 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:7 "God is love" is the bold assertion of this text. The biblical writer is not content merely to write that God is loving or that God loves. He takes the radical plunge and says that God is love. How are we to understand this? If God literally is love, does that mean that there is an absolute identity between God and love? If such an identity existed then the words "God is love" could be reversed without changing the meaning - Love is God. Turning the words of Scripture around in this fashion does serious violence to what the Bible is teaching and should not be done. There can be no love in this world without God. God is the source and fountainhead of all love. Even the love of pagans for each other is a reflection of the ultimate Source of love. Yet we still cannot say that love is God because we experience types of love that are ungodly. Though God is love, He is more than love. To say simple that He is love is to reduce Him to but one of His attributes. The temptation to reduce God to love alone is strong, especially when we fear His wrath or seek to flee from His justice. If we could strip God of all His attributes except for love, we would have nothing to fear from the Last Judgment. But to separate the love of God from His other attributes is impossible. God will not tolerate it. The love of God is a holy and righteous love. But His love does not compromise His integrity. except taken from The Character of God: Discovering the God Who Is by R.C. Sproul pg 150-1 Day 27 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:7 God's love is uncompromising. God does not bend His own character to accommodate us. He has no need to impress us. His love never compromises His holiness or His righteousness. His love is a pure love that cannot be contaminated by our distortions of love. People use love as an excuse for all kinds of sin. Adultery usually begins with a declaration of love. But the love of God is not adulterous and is not bound by the selfish forms of love that we mix with out human love. God's love rises above pettiness. In the declaration "God is love" we find a Hebrew mode of expression, a literary device that shows supreme emphasis. To say that God is love is to say that love is so much a part of the character of God and He is so loving that to express the depths of His love we must say He is love. Love, agape love, is such an integral part of God's character that John sees an intimate relationship between knowing Go and expressing this kind of love ourselves. We are commanded to love one another because love is of God. John says "He who does not love does not know God" (1 John 4:8) To know God is to learn about agape, a special kind of love that goes beyond mere friendship. It is a spiritual love, the kind of love Paul describes in the great love chapter of the Bible - 1 Corinthians 13. To know God is to know Him in His love. This is not an abstract concept of philosophers. God is not naked thought. He is the Lover of my soul and the One whom to know is to love and to learn how to love. except taken from The Character of God: Discovering the God Who Is by R.C. Sproul pg 151-2 Day 28 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:7 When the Bible speaks of God's love it invariably reaches the subject of God's sacrificial kindness. The love of God is the love of a God who gives. The most famous verse in the Bible underscores this fact: "God so loved the world that He gave" (John 3:16) This giving of His only begotten Son on our behalf is the dearest expression of the love of God we can find. John wrote, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). Here John spoke of "manifesting" something. To manifest something is to make it plain, to show it clearly. God doesn't merely talk about being loving; He puts His love to the test by showing it in a way that is undeniable. He shows His love by giving. What God gives and to whom He gives it further manifests His love. God is a gift-giving God, but His supreme love is shown by His supreme gift - His only begotten Son. Elsewhere Scripture says that there is no greater love than a love that willingly lays down its life for a friend. To sacrifice your life for your friends is the "greatest" display of love we can show. Or is it? Jesus took it one step further by giving His life for His enemies. The love of God reaches out to us while we are alienated from Him. We have no love for Him, and our hearts are stony and cold. We love ourselves and our things. There is no affection in our hearts for God. The supreme irony is that although God is altogether lovely, as fallen creatures we do not love Him. He is worthy and deserves our love. We owe Him our love, yet we do not love Him. On the other side, we are altogether unlovely by His standards. There is nothing in us to commend us to God, and He certainly does not owe us His love. But the staggering fact remains, He loves us. He loves us to the extent that He gave His only begotten Son for us. except taken from The Character of God: Discovering the God Who Is by R.C. Sproul pg 151-2 Day 29 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:7 The Bible reveals that God's love is a forgiving love. The love we experience from humans if always clouded by fear. We never know for sure that the love we are receiving will last. We watch couples break up, friendships shatter, and families tear apart. No love that we experience on earth is totally and absolutely secure. We seek to tighten our commitments by formalizing them with sacred and solemn covenants. But even these covenants sealed with holy vows fall short of giving us the absolute security we seek. Vows can be broken. Love can be broken. We can be broken. The love that has the power to forgive is as priceless as it is rare. This kind of love keeps on loving even when that love is not returned. This is the love God showed to His people Israel in the Old Testament. It is the kind of love a faithful spouse may give to an unfaithful spouse. The Bible story of the marriage of Hosea to a harlot is an object lesson of God's love for us. The God of Israel is a God of forgiving love. except taken from The Character of God: Discovering the God Who Is by R.C. Sproul pg 154 Day 30 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:7 There is no hate in heaven. When every other spiritual gift has passes away, there is one that abides. Love endures forever. In my Father's house, there is no lack of love. And this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that "God is love"; and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all-sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and overflowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love. (Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits, pgs 215-216) The love of God is an expression of all that He is. His love transcends the petty and the fickle. His is a love that will not let us go, a love that fulfills its commitment. God does not divorce His bride. His love is as He is, from everlasting to everlasting, absolutely secure. except taken from The Character of God: Discovering the God Who Is by R.C. Sproul pg 159 Please Email Us With Any Comments or Feedback At ©2005 CopperCountry.com,Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. |
