Yesterday in Thailand,
… before I went Bungy Jumping…
some people in my squad went to a local church.
It. Was. So. Good.
It was a bilingual service, with the pastor speaking in English before it was translated.
The church had probably between 400 and 500 people in the congregation. That is totally different to me, coming from little village churches, where my team (six girls) made up like half of the congregation.
They had been going through a series for the last month. Yesterday was the final sermon in the series. The series is titled ‘One Way Love’.
Jesus.
His love for us is one way. Meaning that His love for us is not a lets-meet-halfway-in-the-middle love. We don’t need to do ANYTHING to be totally, utterly, completely loved by our Father! He loves us regardless of anything. Doesn’t matter if we do something or not-
He loves us.
The passage that the pastor used in talking about this love was 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 eternal life.”
“Sometimes the most familiar passages bear the greatest truths.”
There is nothing we can do to make that love come
He loves us.
In America, we are so used to “two way love”, having to do something in order to receive something good.
“Eat your spinach and you can get dessert”
“Don’t cry and I’ll give you a lollipop”
In the case of the prodigal son, “Buy me stuff and I’ll be your friend.”
In Cambodia, it was “Princess, brush your teeth and you can have some candy.” Lol. That one was for my team… Let’s see if they read it.
We are so used to needing to earn something good in return that we have a hard time just ACCEPTING the Father’s love.
He loves us.
He meets us right where we are.
He loves us.
He has always loved us and always will. There is nothing that we can do to earn His love. We don’t sin less to find favor and love with God. We don’t live a good life to get our Father to love us.
He loves us.
He loved us before we existed.
He loved us when we didn’t even know about Him.
He loved us when we didn’t love Him.
He loved us when we chose the lifestyle that went against Him.
He loved us when we turned our backs on Him.
He loves us still when we turn our backs on Him.
He loves us while we are sinners.
We don’t stop sinning to earn His love, He loves us and we get a desire to stop sinning because we begin a relationship with Him.
What would the world look like if we all pursued loving each person the way GOD loves them?
It would be so crazy amazing!
So, next time you really don’t want to love someone: you want to gossip about them, you want to judge them, you want to ignore them (maybe another racer? lol), you want to laugh at them, you want to make fun of them, or whatever unloving thing you want to do… try to look at that person and see them through the eyes of Christ. He intensely loves that person. He loves them just like He loves you.
Fully.
Completely.
Utterly.
Incomprehensibly.
and that love? It is enough!
What if we all viewed one another with God’s One Way Love?
I challenge us to try.
<3 Ash
