Jesus Loves You

I John 4:10: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The one thing in my ministry that I have tried to get over to people and I hope that I have, is the Love of God. We should realize that every time we see the shape of a Cross that is the Lord telling us that He loves us. 

Many times, when someone is going through difficult times they want to talk to me. I have been amazed that so many times people don’t want to talk about solutions to their problems, but the conversation comes around that what they doubt is the Lord loves them.   

To many think that because they are going through problems the Lord is punishing them and they ask what have I done wrong. Problems are part of life and ever since Adam and Eve messed up problems are a part of life. But sometimes the Lord is allowing things to come into our life because He is pruning us for greater things and responsibilities. It also could be, if you read II Corinthians 1 that the Lord allows us to go through things so we would be able to help someone else. 

The last prophet was John the Baptist, one of the greatest men to ever lived and Jesus said that John was. John the Baptist called Jesus “the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”. The Lord had shown John how he could recognize the Messiah. He told him the one you baptize that comes to you and you see the Holy Spirit descending down on Him, that’s the one. 

So, when John baptized Jesus, the heavens opened up, and the Holy Spirit descended down on Him and He heard God the Fathers voice, that this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, John knew Jesus was the Messiah.   

And yet we see John in prison and he sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the one or do they look for another? John was in a terrible situation that was not going to get any better for Herod would have John beheaded.   

Jesus’ answer to John was to go and tell in Luke 7:22 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” But John did not hear what he was hoping to hear and that was Jesus telling him that he was going to get out of prison. 

The Bible tells us that “God’s ways are not our ways; neither are His thoughts our thoughts.” Jesus had one more thing to say and it was Luke 7:23 “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” 

How many times have we prayed for something to work out in a particular way and it didn’t work out that way. Sometimes for the better but sometimes we are left wondering why the Lord didn’t answer the way we thought He should.  

We are back to the realization that the Lord love us and that no-good thing will He withhold from us. When the day we get to Heaven and all things are revealed to us, we will understand why things worked out the way they did. 

Pastor Lee Cruse there is an old song we used to sing that had chorus in it, that we would understand in the by and by and we will. One thing that we will finally comprehend is just how much the Lord loves us.