© 03 Colin Melbourne
The Spirit of God yearns for believers to comprehend the love of Christ, to encompass its height, depth and breadth, and know the unreachable limits of divine love. Holy Bible Eph. 3:17-19 KJV;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Love At First Sight?
Saints, do you recall the first touch?
When you were still in your sins, plumbing their foetid depths, and He came by.
How you recoiled from His laser beams of love slicing through your defences.
It was new and dangerous, if you got too near it could cost everything. So you pushed Him away, revelled in squalor, and uneasily justified a sinful lifestyle.
You ran and hid, but no matter where, His Spirit met you at every turn.
Finally, you relented, repented, and received the LORD of Glory, and yielded the most precious thing you own to Almighty God in the Flesh: Your life, your heart, your soul, your love.
Oh praise God for His patience and grace!
How those new eyes wept realizing it was you who struck the blows that bruised His cheeks and hammered the nails into the Hands that lift helpless sinners from Hell’s mouth.
But all was now lovely, the old had gone, His love had come home to your heart.
Remember that first love, the first taste of Heaven on Earth.
All desire for sin was replaced by peace like a river, and joy unspeakable.
He hasn’t changed Beloved, and He won’t be satisfied until He has you continually overflowing with His life, love, and power. Give Him what He paid for.
Your life is not your own, He bought it with His Blood.
You ask, ‘How do I get there?’
Just the same as at the beginning; repent and trust in Jesus, depend upon Him, yield all to Him and His Spirit, and you’ll know no failure.
May God show you that it is impossible to fail when you follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
He leads in triumph to victory, not into sin, failure and despair.
Misery follows doubt, rebellion, and disobedience: joy is the fruit of living faith in Christ.
The Lord of Love said, Jn. 14:15a,23-24 KJV;
If ye love me, keep my commandments. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
Isn’t that beautiful, so simple, so clear.
Christ Doesn’t Send Valentine Cards
The world confuses romance with love, but they are light years apart.
There’s no romance in love, and no love in romance.
The enemy of your souls bewitches and seduces the unwary into the snares of romance.
Be clear on this and you’ll not get suckered along with the world.
Romance is by definition; imaginary, of the mind, unreal, ephemeral, fickle and vain.
Love is the pure undefiled yielding of yourself to another, and knows no sacrifice.
Romance is utterly selfish: love is selfless.
Romance is here today, gone by lunchtime: Real love is eternal; it endures from eternity to eternity.
Romance says, ‘Please me or I’m gone’: Love says, ‘Wherever you go, I go’.
There’s nothing imaginary or fickle about love, it’s real, unchanging, and never fails.
Human ‘love’ falls short of the mark at every measure.
If you are looking for love in anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ you will surely be dismayed.
Mum Needs a Heart Transplant
Even a mother’s love for her baby is limited.
When she gets hungry enough, she’ll sell the child, and besieged mothers have even been known to eat their offspring.
When her child doesn’t please her she’ll disown it. Indeed, in much of the world there’s a thriving trade in babes and children, and it’s not new.
Humanity is utter failure, and doomed, that is why you must be born again. Not born of the flesh once more, but born of God’s Spirit.
Everyone needs to have a heart-transplant; their old heart of stone swapped for the tender heart of Christ. The only surgeon capable of this is Almighty God, He does it when a sinner genuinely repents and receives the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. God’s Spirit comes into the core of their being. With it comes the love of Christ, the life of Christ, eternal life.
This is the real thing, the commitment of God’s life to you forever. Is there anything more precious, anything more lovely?
His Banner Over You
God promises believers, Heb. 13:5, Mtt. 28:20b KJV;
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Some believers reading this are going through severe trials, family conflicts, relationship difficulties, financial or health problems.
They feel crushed, helpless, defeated, frightened and heartbroken.
Is that you? Have you got your nose in the cobwebs?
No matter how dark your midnight hour, how awful your predicament, you are not alone.
The Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you says He will never leave or forsake you.
The hired hand quits at the first hint of trouble, and is gone when the money runs out. But The Good Shepherd never deserts His flock, He labours for love, and when we are at our worst, He is at His best. Ro. 5:8b KJV;
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Since He died for you when you were a sinner, what would He not do for a righteous child of God? Ro. 8:32 KJV;
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
You are not alone, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are ready to fix whatever problem you face and lift you over every obstacle as you trust and obey. SS 2:4b KJV;
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Look up; God’s Son is shining on you, pointing you to Love’s victory. Gal. 5:6b, Jn. 14:15a;
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. If ye love me, keep my commandments.
The doctors say you’re going to die of incurable cancer.
God says, Mtt. 8:17, 1 Pe. 2:24;
Jesus Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. And by whose stripes (wounds) ye were healed.
Whose word are you going to believe?
Which sword cuts the cancer out of your body: the surgeon’s clumsy scalpel or the Sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, that penetrates between soul and spirit?
The one you love has bruised your cheek, follow your Saviour, turn to them your other.
Your spouse is pressing for divorce, steadfastly refuse; press closer to the Lord of love. Have faith in Him, and He will reconcile the irreconcilable.
Let me say, without wanting to bring condemnation to anyone, that this love never signs a divorce certificate, never goes to the divorce courts. This is love, this is divine, and it never fails: Never.
Like Father: Like Son
Vicious enemies have come for your life, respond in kind, and you will utterly fail. Cursed is the one who depends upon the arm of flesh. Instead, embrace your cross like the martyrs of old, love your enemies to death, and Almighty God will use the whole thing for His Glory.
Evil empires have crumbled because true believers did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death, and loved their foes with the love of Christ.
The Fire always falls on a life sacrificed through God’s love.
You belong to the One who redeemed you with His Life, and set you free from bondage and slavery to sin so that you can follow Him.
There’s honour in obedience because of duty and obligation, but perfect obedience is that which flows unforced from a heart filled with love. It drives out fear; fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of death. It bestows complete confidence before God, because in this world we are like Him. 1 Jn. 4:16b-17 KJV;
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
As you look into the motives and works of man, even the apparently ‘noble’ ones, you will discover a veneer of ‘goodness’ hiding a hideously corrupt core.
It was that way from birth.
Sentimental sinners recoil, ‘But it’s such a sweet innocent baby’.
Not so, it is born a child of the devil. That is a Bible fact, Jer. 17:9 KJV;
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
God declares the unregenerate human heart to be the most deceitful thing in existence.
What a tragedy. That which man relies upon for his guidance, motives, and actions is the most treacherous of all things.
Sinners don’t realize this, but oh how the saints recognize the truth of this divine word.
That is why you must be born again by receiving a new heart, the heart of God, or you will never see the Kingdom of Heaven.
When the radiance of His limitless Love enters a born again child of God, only then can they begin to comprehend what Love is.
The Love that stunned the creatures around the Throne when the Lamb of God arose, and departed on His mission; your redemption.
Behold The Lamb of God
‘Why is He leaving the glories of Heaven to descend into that filth?’
‘Why not simply judge the fallen creation, and make a new one? He could do it with a word.’
‘Why is He willing to sacrifice His spotless life to make a way for them to return?’
The simple answer is one small word: Love.
Jesus Christ is Almighty God in the Flesh. God is Love, and Love thought you were worth giving up Heaven for.
Through Adam, you plummeted below Love’s standard, but instead of judging and destroying you, Love chose to redeem you. He doesn’t want another; He wants you.
The Lord Jesus Christ wants you so much; He was willing to give up everything He had, including His life, to bring you home. He thinks you are worth it.
That is Love, the Love of God, 1 Jn. 4:9-11 KJV;
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Look at His face, not those idolatrous religious icons, I mean close your eyes, get in the Glory, and look into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in His eyes, look into His heart, and you’ll discover nothing but the pure limitless love of Christ for His creation.
In those final agonizing moments on the Cross, His heart didn’t break; it literally exploded inside His rib cage. When He’d given up His life, a Roman spear thrust into His chest brought forth a flow of blood and water (serum) (See Jn.19:34). It came from the bleeding heart of God, split asunder for us. Gaze into its farthest reaches, and you will behold the glorious light of God’s pure, Unfailing Love for you.
Beloved, will you repent and let Him bring you home today?
He said, If ye love me, keep my commandments.
How will you know His Commands?
© 03 Colin Melbourne
