Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, Saying, Yea, I have LOVED thee with an everlasting LOVE: therefore with LOVING-kindness have I drawn thee.
Oh Friends, it’s more LOVE today! Whoopee! LOVE; that beautiful thing which makes our world go round. Oh how I wish I had a big blanket of it that I could just throw over the entire world, and zap! Miracle of miracles! We’d all be living in total LOVE right now, and not have to wait till some time in the possibly distant future when Jesus returns. Now wouldn’t that be nice…? Ahh, nice is too small and simple. We need words that conjure up a bigger, brighter picture; like fireworks, awesome, most excellent, outstanding, overwhelming. Words that convey the great transformation that would be required. Hn, hn! So I’m a dreamer. Then I might as well dream big dreams. Oh, I almost said something about impossible, but the Spirit gently nudged me, reminding me that nothing’s impossible with our God. Sorry Lord. Please forgive me for that almost faux pas. But tell me people, am I simple, crazy, or just plain brilliant, since I find it so much easier to LOVE than to hate? Who knows? Anyway, as I’ve said before, anger and resentment make me physically sick, but once I get them off my chest, I’m whole and beautiful again. So I really can’t understand those persons who thrive on the negative emotions. And as Ethel Barrymore reputedly said; ‘The more things you LOVE, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you have left when anything happens.’ And it’s certainly true. If we LOVE only one thing or person, and we lose it or them, then we have nothing else to fall back on, to cling to, to help us get over the tragedy of our loss. But if we LOVE several, or many things and people, then those other LOVES will be there to assist us in our grief. My brethren, we can’t run away from the fact that we all encounter tragic circumstances and difficult times in our lives, but we also have the ability, the wherewithal to overcome them and move forward. And won’t you know, it is LOVE that gives us the dynamic power to overcome our loss, because it’s the strongest emotion in our arsenal. It’s stronger than hate, anger and resentment because it doesn’t blur our mental capacity and rush us into hasty, unwise decisions like the negative emotions do. Oh Friends, that’s why the Lord has been able to put up with our stupid, sinful shenanigans over the ages; because ‘I have LOVED thee with an everlasting LOVE.’ That required of Him, mucho, mucho patience and repressing plenty, plenty anger. And don’t fool yuh fat, the Lord does get angry, check the Good Book, He’s the one angry most of the time, and He’s been displeased so often with His people in the Old Testament, that it ain’t funny. But He’s always managed to bridle it, so that He didn’t totally destroy them. And hear a li’l secret; He’s angry now too, so let’s hope He can contain it like then, else crapaud smoke we pipe. Even when He decimated the earth with the great flood, He kept a handful of His most excellent creation; Noah and his kin, to jump start the whole situation again. ‘Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable (honoured), and I have LOVED thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not for I am with thee…’ (Isa.43:4-5) Oh Friends, that’s LOVE; TRUE LOVE! If His anger had completely overwhelmed Him, we wouldn’t be here now to tell the story. So why are we that afraid of LOVE eh, of commitment, cause that’s what it is? Our majestic God isn’t. It might be true that LOVE caused the first heartache, so what? Hearts mend. And by the same LOVE that broke them in the first place. That’s the awesome power of God’s emotion; the ability to not only hurt, but even more importantly, also to heal. Granted, it needs patience and time to recover from often inconsolable grief, many rivers of tears and heartbreaking anguish, but in the end it usually turns out okay, sometimes even better than before, if we stick to our guns (metaphorical ones) and keep LOVE first place in our hearts, which means keeping God there, since He is LOVE, and therefore, like Him, also able to talk about everlasting LOVE. Now that’s surely a Bruh Paulian sentence. (smile) If we can do that, then we can also say, ‘therefore with LOVING-kindness have I drawn thee.’ Listen up my people: please understand that LOVE and kindness come with a covenant relationship. The bonds of affection are so strong that in Jonathan’s covenant with Bruh David it stipulated that Bruh David and his descendants ‘shall not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord even require it at the hand of David’s enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear (vow) again, because he LOVED him: for he LOVED him as he LOVED his own soul.’ (1 Sam.20:15-17) Yes mih people, that’s what it means by entering into covenants or relationships with LOVING-kindness. Even our enemies are supposed to show it. And the Lord painted a beautiful picture of His great LOVE for a faithless, fickle Israel, after they’d gone a whoring behind useless idols and man-made gods. ‘I drew them with cords of a man (gentle cords), with bands of LOVE: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws (necks), and I laid meat unto them (stooped and fed them).’ (Hos. 11: 4 ) Oh Friends, such was the LOVE of our merciful, forgiving God to our ancestors, and since He is unchanging, it means His LOVE for us is still as constant and strong today as it was back then. So let’s all give Him the praise, glory, obedience and LOVE that He so richly deserves nuh, for we’ll never find another like Him. He’s the One and Only God of the Universe! Till next time then, God willing of course, Much LOVE!…LOVE given…is LOVE received…so let’s give plenty…cause no one wants to live…in a world without LOVE…
Oh Friends, it’s more LOVE today! Whoopee! LOVE; that beautiful thing which makes our world go round. Oh how I wish I had a big blanket of it that I could just throw over the entire world, and zap! Miracle of miracles! We’d all be living in total LOVE right now, and not have to wait till some time in the possibly distant future when Jesus returns. Now wouldn’t that be nice…? Ahh, nice is too small and simple. We need words that conjure up a bigger, brighter picture; like fireworks, awesome, most excellent, outstanding, overwhelming. Words that convey the great transformation that would be required. Hn, hn! So I’m a dreamer. Then I might as well dream big dreams. Oh, I almost said something about impossible, but the Spirit gently nudged me, reminding me that nothing’s impossible with our God. Sorry Lord. Please forgive me for that almost faux pas. But tell me people, am I simple, crazy, or just plain brilliant, since I find it so much easier to LOVE than to hate? Who knows? Anyway, as I’ve said before, anger and resentment make me physically sick, but once I get them off my chest, I’m whole and beautiful again. So I really can’t understand those persons who thrive on the negative emotions. And as Ethel Barrymore reputedly said; ‘The more things you LOVE, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you have left when anything happens.’ And it’s certainly true. If we LOVE only one thing or person, and we lose it or them, then we have nothing else to fall back on, to cling to, to help us get over the tragedy of our loss. But if we LOVE several, or many things and people, then those other LOVES will be there to assist us in our grief. My brethren, we can’t run away from the fact that we all encounter tragic circumstances and difficult times in our lives, but we also have the ability, the wherewithal to overcome them and move forward. And won’t you know, it is LOVE that gives us the dynamic power to overcome our loss, because it’s the strongest emotion in our arsenal. It’s stronger than hate, anger and resentment because it doesn’t blur our mental capacity and rush us into hasty, unwise decisions like the negative emotions do. Oh Friends, that’s why the Lord has been able to put up with our stupid, sinful shenanigans over the ages; because ‘I have LOVED thee with an everlasting LOVE.’ That required of Him, mucho, mucho patience and repressing plenty, plenty anger. And don’t fool yuh fat, the Lord does get angry, check the Good Book, He’s the one angry most of the time, and He’s been displeased so often with His people in the Old Testament, that it ain’t funny. But He’s always managed to bridle it, so that He didn’t totally destroy them. And hear a li’l secret; He’s angry now too, so let’s hope He can contain it like then, else crapaud smoke we pipe. Even when He decimated the earth with the great flood, He kept a handful of His most excellent creation; Noah and his kin, to jump start the whole situation again. ‘Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable (honoured), and I have LOVED thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not for I am with thee…’ (Isa.43:4-5) Oh Friends, that’s LOVE; TRUE LOVE! If His anger had completely overwhelmed Him, we wouldn’t be here now to tell the story. So why are we that afraid of LOVE eh, of commitment, cause that’s what it is? Our majestic God isn’t. It might be true that LOVE caused the first heartache, so what? Hearts mend. And by the same LOVE that broke them in the first place. That’s the awesome power of God’s emotion; the ability to not only hurt, but even more importantly, also to heal. Granted, it needs patience and time to recover from often inconsolable grief, many rivers of tears and heartbreaking anguish, but in the end it usually turns out okay, sometimes even better than before, if we stick to our guns (metaphorical ones) and keep LOVE first place in our hearts, which means keeping God there, since He is LOVE, and therefore, like Him, also able to talk about everlasting LOVE. Now that’s surely a Bruh Paulian sentence. (smile) If we can do that, then we can also say, ‘therefore with LOVING-kindness have I drawn thee.’ Listen up my people: please understand that LOVE and kindness come with a covenant relationship. The bonds of affection are so strong that in Jonathan’s covenant with Bruh David it stipulated that Bruh David and his descendants ‘shall not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord even require it at the hand of David’s enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear (vow) again, because he LOVED him: for he LOVED him as he LOVED his own soul.’ (1 Sam.20:15-17) Yes mih people, that’s what it means by entering into covenants or relationships with LOVING-kindness. Even our enemies are supposed to show it. And the Lord painted a beautiful picture of His great LOVE for a faithless, fickle Israel, after they’d gone a whoring behind useless idols and man-made gods. ‘I drew them with cords of a man (gentle cords), with bands of LOVE: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws (necks), and I laid meat unto them (stooped and fed them).’ (Hos. 11: 4 ) Oh Friends, such was the LOVE of our merciful, forgiving God to our ancestors, and since He is unchanging, it means His LOVE for us is still as constant and strong today as it was back then. So let’s all give Him the praise, glory, obedience and LOVE that He so richly deserves nuh, for we’ll never find another like Him. He’s the One and Only God of the Universe! Till next time then, God willing of course, Much LOVE!…LOVE given…is LOVE received…so let’s give plenty…cause no one wants to live…in a world without LOVE…
SCRIP-BITS 