Confident Love Even to the Very End!The Word of the Kingdom is LOVE.
Our greatest place of security should be found in the Love of God, yet it is important for us to realize that the fact that God loves us is incomplete until it is received. God showed us His love by loving us enough to die for us and reestablishing within us the ability for a relationship. But a relationship is incomplete unless both parties enter into the vow/commitment. God loves us to a degree that is beyond our comprehension to understand or to reciprocate. Yet God ignites our love by His spirit in our hearts that our soul can respond to Him bringing alive the covenant that has been made. 1Jn 4:17 (printed below) shows that the love of God should enable us to the point of understanding that there is no reason for fear. That the only fear is a fear and awe of respect towards God. But no other fear (fear as a degree of torment) should be in a believer’s life.
A boldness comes from the understanding that we have been invited into a kingdom where no judgment can be measured against us as long as we remain in the kingdom, partaking of the fruit of the kingdom. Which means that we can stand bold in the day of judgment knowing that the blood of Christ will be our sufficient plea. In this one aspect of God’s love for us as well as the many other facets of His love shows us that we can be confident in His love.
Being a pastor over the last 20 years I have seen and counseled so many who aren’t confident in their covenant relationships. Marriages where people are together, yet their hearts are far from each other. They lack confidence in each other as well as in their demonstrated love. God wants us to understand the confidence that we can have in His love and have it translated into our relationships here on this earth. As we can learn to have confidence in the love that abides in the heavenly kingdom of God, we can then begin to pull down into our own lives and relationships, that same kind of unconditional love. It’s easy to be confident in God’s love for us and we know in our own hearts whether we love God or not. If we do, it is easy to be confident in our love towards God. But God has asked us to go further and translate that love into our daily relationships with others. God has asked us to not only have faith and love in Him but to have faith and love in others. I know with many hurts and pains that have been caused in relationships, trust seems almost impossible, yet God has demonstrated His love towards us that while we were yet failures (sinners) Christ loved us. That while we were unfaithful and even haters of God, He died for us/sacrificed for us. I know that this is hard to realize that it isn’t enough to just love God, but to love others with the same kind of love that He has loved us.
John 6:24 states that because of our faith and love for Christ as we believe in Him there is no judgment against us. This means that His mercy has taken away all past and present judgments that we may live. God is not only asking us to receive His love but to demonstrate His love to others. He has given us both the grace to receive His love and to show His love towards others. Have the God kind of love you enter into a place where you begin to cease judging one another’s motives and begin to see one another with a pure heart. God does not keep a record of wrong, love doesn’t keep a record of wrong and you cannot keep a record of wrong. We are called to set people free as Christ has set us free and to be confident in them as God has been confident in us. As you read the scriptures below you will have a better understanding of what I am talking about. The greatest thing we have is love for God and each other. But we have to begin to have confidence in one another. Setting people free from the sins of their past that you could live in a true covenant relationship being confident in God’s love that dwells in all of His people.
1 John 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. NKJV
1 John 4:17-19
Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life"
John 5:24
Current Ministry and Family Update:
This is a day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I began the day by meeting with a crew that we had hired that was taking down a very large tree between the church property and the neighbors home. It was very difficult not only because of the cost, but I didn’t want to take the tree down. Our neighbor was complaining of sap falling from it on to his side of the fence. He asked us to cut it down and to be honest with you, it didn’t want to because I liked the tree and it wasn’t a nuisance for us and I didn’t want to spend the money to cut it down. We drug our feet for awhile, but God convicted me about it and challenged me to be a good neighbor. Sometimes it costs you to be a good neighbor. So we began the day by having to remove a large tree near our playground area, but it did seem to make our neighbor happy because the sap from the tree won’t fall on his side of the fence anymore. It is challenging sometimes when you have to yield to others for their benefit when you cannot find any benefit of your own, only a sacrifice, but when it is over you find that the benefit is in your heart. Then the rest of the day made me realize just how old I am getting. A couple of people came to help us move 42,000 lbs of food by hand. One of our volunteers ending up having to leave after getting his toes smashed. Please pray for him, his name is Dale, he accepted the Lord the night before. It was a tiring but very exciting day. We were able to set aside large amounts of food for our weekly hot meal to the homeless ministry (Field of Dreams), our Cottage Grove women’s shelter (Love Links) and for our Masters Commission students. We were also able to share large amounts of food with The Prayer house in Salem for their upcoming missions trip and their food box ministry as well as River of Life for their community outreach feeding program that feeds over 2500 families per month. And believe it or not, we still had food left over to share with the Eugene Mission. It was a long day, yet my heart wanted to leap out of my chest knowing how much good will come from this food and how thankful I am that God used us. Once we were finished moving the food, Decatur Alabama’s Masters Commission (who we are housing at our church for 4 days while they are doing ministry) showed up. It was great to see them. They are wonderful kids and they made us miss our Masters Commission more (if that’s even possible). I ate my only meal of the day on the run and only had about an hour with my wife before I had to leave to drive to Portland to pick up Krispy Kreme Donuts for our fundraiser that starts at 6:00 am. It was around 2:00 am by the time that I got home. Please pray that today’s fundraiser will be a blessing the Masters Commission that is here and to our own church ministries that are here. No matter what you go through today, remember that God made this day for you. He desires for you to be confident in His love and to confidently reach out and love others. Especially when they don’t deserve it. Both Kristy and I love and appreciate all of you who are so faithful to this ministry. Love, Pastor Aaron and his family of 5 1/2
A boldness comes from the understanding that we have been invited into a kingdom where no judgment can be measured against us as long as we remain in the kingdom, partaking of the fruit of the kingdom. Which means that we can stand bold in the day of judgment knowing that the blood of Christ will be our sufficient plea. In this one aspect of God’s love for us as well as the many other facets of His love shows us that we can be confident in His love.
Being a pastor over the last 20 years I have seen and counseled so many who aren’t confident in their covenant relationships. Marriages where people are together, yet their hearts are far from each other. They lack confidence in each other as well as in their demonstrated love. God wants us to understand the confidence that we can have in His love and have it translated into our relationships here on this earth. As we can learn to have confidence in the love that abides in the heavenly kingdom of God, we can then begin to pull down into our own lives and relationships, that same kind of unconditional love. It’s easy to be confident in God’s love for us and we know in our own hearts whether we love God or not. If we do, it is easy to be confident in our love towards God. But God has asked us to go further and translate that love into our daily relationships with others. God has asked us to not only have faith and love in Him but to have faith and love in others. I know with many hurts and pains that have been caused in relationships, trust seems almost impossible, yet God has demonstrated His love towards us that while we were yet failures (sinners) Christ loved us. That while we were unfaithful and even haters of God, He died for us/sacrificed for us. I know that this is hard to realize that it isn’t enough to just love God, but to love others with the same kind of love that He has loved us.
John 6:24 states that because of our faith and love for Christ as we believe in Him there is no judgment against us. This means that His mercy has taken away all past and present judgments that we may live. God is not only asking us to receive His love but to demonstrate His love to others. He has given us both the grace to receive His love and to show His love towards others. Have the God kind of love you enter into a place where you begin to cease judging one another’s motives and begin to see one another with a pure heart. God does not keep a record of wrong, love doesn’t keep a record of wrong and you cannot keep a record of wrong. We are called to set people free as Christ has set us free and to be confident in them as God has been confident in us. As you read the scriptures below you will have a better understanding of what I am talking about. The greatest thing we have is love for God and each other. But we have to begin to have confidence in one another. Setting people free from the sins of their past that you could live in a true covenant relationship being confident in God’s love that dwells in all of His people.
1 John 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. NKJV
1 John 4:17-19
Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life"
John 5:24
Current Ministry and Family Update:
This is a day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I began the day by meeting with a crew that we had hired that was taking down a very large tree between the church property and the neighbors home. It was very difficult not only because of the cost, but I didn’t want to take the tree down. Our neighbor was complaining of sap falling from it on to his side of the fence. He asked us to cut it down and to be honest with you, it didn’t want to because I liked the tree and it wasn’t a nuisance for us and I didn’t want to spend the money to cut it down. We drug our feet for awhile, but God convicted me about it and challenged me to be a good neighbor. Sometimes it costs you to be a good neighbor. So we began the day by having to remove a large tree near our playground area, but it did seem to make our neighbor happy because the sap from the tree won’t fall on his side of the fence anymore. It is challenging sometimes when you have to yield to others for their benefit when you cannot find any benefit of your own, only a sacrifice, but when it is over you find that the benefit is in your heart. Then the rest of the day made me realize just how old I am getting. A couple of people came to help us move 42,000 lbs of food by hand. One of our volunteers ending up having to leave after getting his toes smashed. Please pray for him, his name is Dale, he accepted the Lord the night before. It was a tiring but very exciting day. We were able to set aside large amounts of food for our weekly hot meal to the homeless ministry (Field of Dreams), our Cottage Grove women’s shelter (Love Links) and for our Masters Commission students. We were also able to share large amounts of food with The Prayer house in Salem for their upcoming missions trip and their food box ministry as well as River of Life for their community outreach feeding program that feeds over 2500 families per month. And believe it or not, we still had food left over to share with the Eugene Mission. It was a long day, yet my heart wanted to leap out of my chest knowing how much good will come from this food and how thankful I am that God used us. Once we were finished moving the food, Decatur Alabama’s Masters Commission (who we are housing at our church for 4 days while they are doing ministry) showed up. It was great to see them. They are wonderful kids and they made us miss our Masters Commission more (if that’s even possible). I ate my only meal of the day on the run and only had about an hour with my wife before I had to leave to drive to Portland to pick up Krispy Kreme Donuts for our fundraiser that starts at 6:00 am. It was around 2:00 am by the time that I got home. Please pray that today’s fundraiser will be a blessing the Masters Commission that is here and to our own church ministries that are here. No matter what you go through today, remember that God made this day for you. He desires for you to be confident in His love and to confidently reach out and love others. Especially when they don’t deserve it. Both Kristy and I love and appreciate all of you who are so faithful to this ministry. Love, Pastor Aaron and his family of 5 1/2
posted by Aaron Taylor at 9:39 PM
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