Recognizing and Believing the Sure, Steadfast and Eternal LOVE of God for Mankind!

08 Aug 2025 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 John 4:19.        We LOVE Him, because he first LOVED us.

And did the ‘TGIF’s! Thank God it’s Friday!’ ever go up this morning, but in a rather tired and halfhearted manner, as last weekend’s celebrations and this week’s work put a damper on the usual enthusiasm for the weekend. The great hope and expectation for this one is not to party, but to rest. (smile) Yes friends, if you want to call the tune, then you have to be able to pay the piper. And if you can’t, then you’ll simply have to suffer the consequences. Sermon done! (smile) 

And today we’re going to check out  a rather interesting poem from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin, simply titled ‘Who, Me?’  Yes, You! (smile) I don’t know if I’ve shared this poem before, but we know that they are all worth sharing over and over.

So please read with me: ‘Lord All of a sudden today you picked me up And hugged me And hugged me For no discernible reason. I was puzzled. After all – I hadn’t picked up my toys Or practiced my lessons Or brought You a daisy bouquet – Hesitantly, I asked why. You smiled and said I LOVE you, that’s all.  Then You added: I long to hug you more often. Why don’t You, Lord? You are too busy. Too busy, Lord? Too busy hugging yourself.’ 

Ah my fellow believers, can that admonishment apply to us? Are we too busy hugging ourselves, too taken up with our own cares and worries to pay any attention to our wonderful and ever-LOVING God? Somehow, I think that many of us are guilty of just such unwise actions. The cares and the materialism of this crazy world occupy too much of our time. We all feel so busy. But busy doing what?

Most of the time it’s not any earth moving circumstance, but simply something we feel we ought to do. On the other hand, how often do we feel like we should be hugging our great God eh? Certainly not enough! Meanwhile, He’s there  starving, longing for our affection. Remember He created us so that we could have good and constant communion with Him. But unfortunately, we’re not living up to our part of the bargain.

And the Bible verse for the poem is a simple but very telling one: The Book uses this translation: ‘We LOVE because He first LOVED us.’ But we like our good ole King James version which says: ‘We LOVE Him, because he first LOVED us.’ (1 John 4:19) Now that is such a very poignant and important statement; one that we should know and keep uppermost in our hearts, souls, bodies and minds at all times!

Why? Because it’s the very reason for our existence, our salvation and our eternal destiny! Remember we said that God created us because he wanted a people to LOVE and have constant communication with. And then, when we disobeyed His commands and thus brought sin into the world, He was heartbroken and therefore sought a way to return us to His flock. And that way was to Have His Son, Jesus Christ come to earth and selflessly offer His sinless blood as propitiation for our sins.

Why do you think the Lord did that eh? Why did He go to such great lengths to obtain a just and righteous reconciliation eh? Because He LOVED us! Else why would He break His own heart by sacrificing His only Son for a bunch of sinful ingrates eh? There’s only one logical answer; overwhelming LOVE for His sinful creation! And John explains that earlier on in the epistle, when he writes: ‘Herein is LOVE, not that we LOVED God, but that he LOVED us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ (1 John 4:10)  

Oh my fellow believers, that’s the greatest showing of LOVE there’s ever been, and will ever be! And I don’t understand why we don’t appreciate it so much more than we do. But that’s why the Lord gave us free will, so we could make our own choices, even though they may turn out to be the wrong ones. And how can we not appreciate and reverence these amazing words of Bruh Paul to the church at Rome eh?

‘For when we were yet without strength, in due time (at the right time) Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure (perhaps) for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth (demonstrated) his LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:6-8)

Oh my people, what else will it take for us to recognize and truly appreciate God’s great, undying LOVE for us eh? All through the Bible it’s said, written and actioned! So why do we still refuse to believe it and live like it mattered? Only each disbelieving individual and our all- knowing God know. Nuff said. Now it’s time to go to the throne of grace, through our Friday Chant, seeking divine help for our numerous problems.

Altogether: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough…  because our many serious problems are escalating instead of improving. And it’s obvious we can’t fix them on our own, so Lord, we’re desperately crying out for your help. Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat the simmering unrest in our land. We therefore ask you Lord to give our leaders the wise guidance to handle these unexpected storms properly. And please help the rest of us to be responsible and to stay safe amidst all the anxiety and confusion of these ungodly times.

We fervently pray too Lord that you’ll use the discontent and dissatisfaction in our land as a means of restoring faith in you. Return backsliders to your fold. Show them the error of their ways. And please introduce a new flock of believers, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. So that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, wake up and smell it sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’ 

Unfortunately though friends, it’s not only the sinful world that needs to wake up and smell the coffee, but also we underperforming supposed believers. And until we improve our witness for Christ, we won’t see much, if any divine help! Much LOVE!

…with all the positive evidence available…if you can’t believe God’s great LOVE for mankind…how can you believe anything else…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   16 February 2023   1 John 4:10.

16 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 John 4:10.       Herein is LOVE, not that we LOVED God, but that he LOVED us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And then it was Thursday…and I won’t even bother to tell you the several changes that have already occurred in the weather information on my computer in the couple minutes that I’ve been on it. (smile) Just suffice it to say that it now says ‘2C Cloudy,’ which seems reasonable when one looks outside. Now here’s a li’l something from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin that I found interesting, amusing and ever so appropriate for so many of us supposed believers. It’s titled ‘Who. Me?’ 

Please read with me: ‘Lord All of a sudden today You picked me up And hugged me And hugged me for no discernible reason. I was puzzled. After all – I hadn’t picked up my toys Or practised my lessons Or brought you a daisy bouquet – Hesitantly, I sked why. You smiled and said: ‘I LOVE you, that’s all.’ Then You added: ‘I long to hug you more often.’ Why don’t You Lord? ‘You are too busy.’ Too busy, Lord? ‘Too busy hugging yourself.’ 

Yes my fellow believers, in these ever so busy and turbulent times, we are so often too busy with our own selves and our frail, fickle lives, that we don’t find any or sufficient time for God, which always works to our detriment. And it seems to always amaze us when He moves in our lives without any pushing from us. But that’s simply because He LOVES us! He created us to have fellowship with Him. That’s the number One reason! And when we don’t come to Him for fellowship, for hugging and kissing, it hurts His tender heart, tears Him apart. 

Believe me, the Lord does have tender feelings like us. It’s just like when we LOVE fellow humans, spouses, friends and families, and they don’t return that LOVE, we feel hurt and rejected. It’s the same way our God feels when we don’t come to Him with our problems and for simple fellowship and communion. There’s nothing that would please our heavenly Father more than if ALL of His creation came to Him ALL of the time, bringing ALL of their hurts, fears, dreams and aspirations to His understanding and compassionate care. 

To Him that would be the ultimate solution, for then He could LOVE and hug and kiss and comfort and care for us the way He truly wants to. But if we only go to Him once in a blue moon, and then ask for selfish, carnal stuff, like  James 4:3 says, it breaks his heart, just like when our children turn away from us to outside friends for help in their troubles. 

The point is that we don’t seem to realize is how much our God, Father and Provider really and truly LOVES us. The Bible verse for our poem tells it to us in no uncertain terms though. The apostle John writes in it thus in his first epistle. ‘Herein is LOVE, not that we LOVED God, but that he LOVED us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ (1 John 4:10) 

And there ought to be no doubt about God’s great compassion and caring for us simply in the fact that He sent His ONE and ONLY Son to earth to die to save a bunch of shallow, prideful, stubborn and disobedient finite creations! There was absolutely no other reason for Him to do that, than His great unconditional LOVE for us. Jesus himself made that very clear when He proclaimed: ‘For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16) 

Now if you don’t believe that, then you’re insinuating that Jesus is a liar, which He most definitely is not. I don’t know why it’s so difficult for us to believe that our Creator, our heavenly Father LOVES us dearly, but so easily believe that deceitful, untrustworthy humans LOVE and care for us, when every day we see the lie in it. 

And there are so many scriptures which prove that our God LOVES us. One of the most telling being this one from the writings of Bruh Paul to the church at Rome. ‘But God commendeth (demonstrated) his LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:8) Now why would He do such an unorthodox and unusual thing if His heart wasn’t strong towards us eh? 

And Jesus said it to the disciples too. ‘Greater LOVE hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13) Now that is the ultimate act of LOVE; laying down one’s life for another. And that’s exactly what Jesus did for us at the request of His heavenly Father. Now doesn’t that show the ultimate in LOVE? It surely does! Why would a sinless man sacrifice His sinless self on an old rugged cross, bear the sins of the whole world through unbelievable ‘sufferation’ if He didn’t care greatly for them and their eternal souls eh? 

The Lord doesn’t even want one of His creations to end up in hell fire with Satan, that’s why He sacrificed His sinless Son, thereby giving us another option beside damnation and eternal separation from Him. And I really can’t understand why so many of us are reluctant, hesitant and downright opposed to accepting the option of eternal life with Jesus by simply believing in Him. It certainly boggles my imagination. And even supposing, now we just supposing, (smile) even if there was no heaven or hell and just death and everything’s over, it is still much preferable to live a good, decent, caring and compassionate life than an evil, hateful one. 

Anyhow, the options are there for us to choose, and both the Lord and I strongly recommend that we choose eternal life with Jesus, rather than eternal damnation with the enemy. And for those of us who agree with that, the Lord’s generously bestowed on us numerous Blessings that we call our Thursday Blessings, that enable us to do His earthly work. So, let’s declare (ah Lord eh!!!) and activate them. In loud and sincere voice. ‘I declare that I am blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for my life! I declare today that I am blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance! 

I am blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline! I am blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favour and fulfillment! I am blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection! I am blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life! I declare that any curse or negative word that’s ever been spoken over me is broken right now in the name of Jesus! I declare that everything I put my hands to, will prosper and succeed! I declare it today and every day! Amen!’ 

And with those sincere declarations (awright!!!) let’s go out and use those blessings just as generously with others as Jesus shared them with us, in His glorious name! Much LOVE!

…and now abideth faith, hope, LOVE, these three…but the greatest of these is LOVE… 

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 7 August 2018 1 John 4:19.

07 Aug 2018 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 John 4:19.   We LOVE him, because he first LOVED us.

Thank You Lord…thank You, thank You, thank you! And you all must be wondering what I’m thanking the Lord so profusely for eh? Well it’s for finally sending showers of blessings on my area yesterday. After a couple weeks of empty promises from the weather reporters about thunderstorms etc., yesterday afternoon they finally delivered. 

And I have to chuckle, as at one stage I went out on my front porch to witness the phenomenon, (smile) and was promptly driven back inside by two brilliant flashes of lightning. Then later in the night we got a couple of good showers, so much so that the ground is still wet this morning. 

And yuh know friends there’s no sound as soothing to the ears and the soul as that of showers of blessings cascading down from heaven to nourish the drought-stricken earth. And that didn’t happen by mistake or coincidence, but was planned by our wise and wonderful God. How great and thoughtful is He eh! 

And here is another instance of how great and wonderful and caring our God is. Check out this poem from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin. It’s simply titled, ‘Who Me?’ 

‘Lord All of a sudden today You picked me up And hugged me And hugged me For no discernible reason. I was puzzled. After all – I hadn’t picked up my toys Or practiced my lessons Or brought You a daisy bouquet – Hesitantly, I asked why. You smiled and said: I LOVE you, that’s all. Then you added: I long to hug you more often. Why don’t You Lord? You are too busy. Too busy, Lord? Too busy hugging yourself.’ 

And isn’t that the awful truth my brethren? We’re too busy hugging ourselves and going about our business to notice that the Lord is waiting in the wings to just take us up in His awesome embrace and shower us with some of His most wonderful LOVE, so that we can be joyful here on earth and be obedient to His holy will. 

And He doesn’t have any ulterior motives. He just LOVES us because we’re his awesome creation! Don’t we all hold dear the things we create? Of course! And so does our living God! Remember what the Good Book says? ‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.’ (Gen.1:31) 

Yes friends, God admired His handiwork, of which we were the most important aspect, so it’s just natural that He LOVES to LOVE us…if we’d only slow down and allow Him to. And the Bible Promise for that poem is also our Bit for today: ‘We LOVE him, because he first LOVED us.’ 

Aw my fellow believers, such touching, heartwarming and truthful words! Our Creator LOVED us from the moment He made us, before we were even aware of the emotion. He placed that emotion of LOVE in us as the centerpiece of our very existence. 

And John earlier explains the whole scenario in these few choice words of gospel truth. ‘Herein is LOVE, not that we LOVED God, but that he LOVED us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ (1 John 4:10) Now that’s what you’d call REAL LOVE! 

And the scholars offer this explanation. ‘4:10. No human LOVE is the standard for understanding God’s great compassion, but God’s own action on man’s behalf.’ 

Yes my brethren, our puny and finite minds cannot understand God’s action, of sending His Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to die on our behalf, piling our sins on Him as the great scapegoat, so that we could be reconciled to Him, have fellowship with Him, and once again become righteous in His holy eyes. But nonetheless, it is the standard to which faithful believers and followers of His marvellous Son, Jesus Christ are expected to follow. 

As John says: ‘If a man say, I LOVE God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that LOVETH not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he LOVE God whom he hath not seen?’ (1 John 4:20) 

Now that’s a very good question my people. How can we LOVE something or someone we’ve not seen, and hate what or whom we’ve seen? In this context about LOVING God, it’s just impossible! But we do it nevertheless and unfortunately show ourselves to be hypocrites of the highest order. 

But here is the final word on the situation as John tells it. ‘And this commandment have we from him, That he who LOVETH God LOVE his brother also.’ (1 John 4:21) 

And the scholars spell it out in simple language for us: ‘4:19-21. Our LOVE, if it exists and mirrors God’s LOVE at all, is not our own but God’s doing. The epitome of hypocrisy is the claim to LOVE God while withholding LOVE from others. For Jesus Himself commanded that he who LOVES God is to demonstrate this through LOVING others.’ 

And with that reminder tugging at our heartstrings my precious people, let’s go home declaring our Tuesday Mantra, proudly letting the world know who and whose we are. 

Now, in strong voice, with sincere hearts: ‘I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with the world.  Amen!’ 

And if we truly believe that, then we need to go out and share the awesome LOVE and friendship of Jesus with others. Only then will we be His true disciples! Much LOVE!

…in God’s universe…everything hinges on…LOVE and LOVING…