True Love

Happy Sunday!

Since today is a day that is focused on Love, I would just like to encourage you about how much you are loved!

John 3:16 says, "For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life."(Voice).  Did you get that? Love is expressed.  I once had a bracelet that said, "The love in your heart wasn't put there to stay. Love isn't love until you give it away."  Love is a verb, an action word.  Don't tell me that you love me, and then leave me guessing because of the way you treat me.  God demonstrated his love.  Romans 5:6-7 says, "Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him."(Message).

There are scriptures that say, God did things before the foundation of the world.  He is never caught off guard!  He knows what you will need, long before you need it!  When Abraham called God, Jehovah Jireh, he was saying God is the God that sees and provides even before there is a need.  In Mark 4:35, Jesus boarded a ship headed for the other side of the lake.  We know the story very well.  A storm arose.  The disciples were fearful and accused Jesus of not caring about them, not loving them enough to save them.  Jesus rebuked the wind, and commanded the water to be peaceful.  Did you know that Jesus was on a mission?  He wasn't just crossing the lake because he loved to sail on moonlit evenings!  His entire life was focused on doing what his Father told him to do.  In John 5:30, he said, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."(KJV).  Jesus was sent by God across the lake.  What was he going to the other side to do? So glad you asked!  In Genesis 49 Jacob called his son's together to bless them before he died.  In verse 19, he blessed his son Gad, "Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last."(KJV).  When Jesus got to the other side of the lake, the Bible says, he landed in the country of the Gadarenes.  The Gadarenes were the descendants of Gad.    Immediately, one person in particular ran out to meet Jesus.

Mark 5:1-9 says, "Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.  And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”(KJV).  Jesus crossed the lake to fulfill a prophecy, a blessing spoken by God through Jacob hundreds of years earlier.  A legion is 2000 soldiers or more.  This man was overcome by a "troop" of demons, but Jesus came to rescue him.  You know the rest of the story, and if you don't, read it for yourself.  Jesus cast the demons out.  Later that day, the man was clothed, and in his right mind.  The man wanted to follow Jesus. Mark 5:19-20 says, "However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled."(KJV).

God loved this man so much that he instructed Jesus to make a special trip to his home town.  He loved Jacob enough that after hundreds of years, he made sure the prophecy was fulfilled.  God loves you as well!  He has great plans for your life!  He has an inheritance and a Blessing that can change your life!  His Blessing empowers you to succeed. With His Blessing there is nothing you will ever face that you cannot overcome!  The demon possessed man was delivered and went out preaching in the ten cities in the region.  No doubt the stories about his past were well known.  The people had a living, breathing example of what the power of God could do in the life of a believer.  That's what God wants to do in your life!  He wants the world to know that NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE!  He loves you with an everlasting love.  Whether you have a valentine or not, nothing can compare to the love God has demonstrated to you.  Believe it. Receive it.

Love and prayers, Cynthia