FROM HEAVEN...WITH LOVE
The
churches of Christ Greet You (Romans 16:16)
"I love you! I love you! I love you!” This is the message from heaven God sends to you. Please notice carefully the many ways that God has shown us His love!
God has shown His Love through His Good
Provisions
God has said, "I love you," through the beauty of
the morning, the lovely hues of evening, the refreshing showers of
rain, the world
adorned with flowers, the blades of grass, the fluffy clouds, the
radiant sun, the mellow eyed moon, the stars of evening, and every
beautiful thing that fills your life.
The Holy Spirit revealed, “But God did things to prove that
He is real: He does good things for you. He gives you rain from the sky
and good harvests at the right times. He gives you plenty of food and
fills your hearts with joy” (Acts
God has shown His Love through Punishment
"But," you may object, "I have sorrow in my life and do not and cannot see in the things about me the love of God." From heaven God may be saying, "I love you," by withholding things you want and through chastising you, even as a parent says, "I love you," to his child when he refuses to give him a wasp, a snake, or a spider desired by the child, and when he punishes his child for playing in the street, for handling a loaded gun, and for seeking to touch a hot stove. Jesus said, "I correct and punish those whom I love. Be serious. Change your heart!” (Rev. 3:19). "The Lord disciplines the one He loves. He whips every person He accepts as a son” (Heb. 12:6).
Your sadness in life may also come because your
lack of love for God causes Him NOT to give you good things you could
have if you
loved Him. “How do I know if I love God,” you ask? You love God when
you
keep His commandments (John
God may be chastising you because He loves you or
because you do not love Him (you are not keeping His Word). Even though
you reject His love, He still extends His goodness to you, more than
you deserve, in an effort to turn you to Him. Hear the Holy Spirit: “Do
you look down on the
wealth of God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience? Surely you know that
God’s
kindness is meant to lead you to a change of heart” (
God has shown His Love through Jesus
Through sending His Son from heaven God has said to you, "I love you." You were found loving sin and hating God, turning from good and seeking wickedness. Your life was filled with some of these sins: "... filled with all kinds of wrong, with evil, greed, and depravity. Full of jealousy, murder, fighting, tricks, malice....(and you were included among these) gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insulters, prideful, boastful, inventors of evil, those who do not obey their parents, promise breakers, the stupid and heartless, those who show no pity to others” (Rom. 1:29‑31). And you could be described by some of the following terms: "sexual sinners, worshippers of false gods, adulterers, perverts, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers" (1 Cor. 6:9‑10).
The Bible says, "No one is good – not even one
person!” (Rom.
Again, Paul wrote, "It is rare when someone dies
for another person – even for a good person. However, some do dare to
die for a good man. But God reassures us of His love for us in this
way: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us! (
God has shown His Love to the Obedient
God withholds His love from you if you do not
respond to this expression of His love. "The person who commits himself
to the Son has eternal life, but the person who does not obey the Son
will not see
eternal life. Instead, God’s punishment stays on that person” (John
If you will let God's love for you move you to do
His will, He will love you and continue with you with His tender loving
care. Jesus said, "If anyone loves me and obeys my teaching, my Father
will love him. We will come and live with him” (John
God has said to you, "I love you," through His
good provisions,
through His chastisement, and through sending His Son, but abiding in
His
love is up to you. If you would abide in His love you must return His
love
through humbly doing His will (cf. Matthew
God has shown His Love through His Commandments
To those still in sin and not His children, God in love has sent His Son from Heaven to tell you what you are to do to have eternal life. Jesus said, "I have not spoken on my own. The Father Himself sent me. He told me what to say. I know that His command is eternal life. I am saying exactly what the Father said to me” (John 12:49‑50). God requires these below things of you before He will forgive your sins and save you:
1. Hear the word of the Lord. "Every person
who listens to my words and obeys them is like a wise man who built his
house upon rock” (Matt.
2. Commit to or believe in Jesus Christ. "Every
person who commits himself to Jesus will be forgiven through the
authority of Jesus. All of the prophets say that this is true” (Acts
3. Repent of sin. "Change your hearts!
Come back to God, so that He may wipe out your sins. Then the Lord will
give you times of spiritual rest” (Acts
4. Confess faith in Jesus. “If you confess
with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord” and if you believe in your heart
that God raised Jesus from death, you will be saved. To become right
with God a person believes with his heart. Declaring it openly, that
person comes unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9‑10).
5. Buried and risen in baptism. "The
person who believes it (the Gospel) and is immersed will be saved, but
the person who doesn’t believe it will be condemned” (Mark
If you will do these above five things, God will
remove your sins and receive you as one of His own (cf. 2 Tim.
God has shown His Love by giving Us Newness of Life
After your response to God's love has led you to obey Him that your sins may be forgiven, you are to continue to keep His commandments that you may remain in His love. Your life is to be new and different, patterned after the life of Jesus. “Through immersion, we were buried with him into death. Christ was raised from death through the glory of the Father. In the same way, we will live a new life” (Rom. 6:4). "Since you were raised with Christ, search for things that are above, where Christ is sitting at God’s right side. Think about things that are above, not things on the earth. Since you have died, your life has been hidden away with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1‑3). "If a person claims that God lives in him, then he ought to live as Jesus lived” (1 John 2:6).
God has shown His Love through the avenue of Worship
Because of your love for God you will want to
continue in faithful service to Him until death shall take you from
this life to bring you to a higher service of God. Jesus said, "Be
faithful, even if you must die. I will give you the crown of life”
(Rev. 2:10). A part of your faithful service to God is regular assembly
with fellow Christians to worship God. “Do not quit meeting together,
as some people are in the habit of doing. Instead,
encourage one another even more, since you see the day coming closer”
(Heb.
Those walking in newness of life will seek to
worship the Father as He desires to be worshiped. If you love God, you
will not want to worship in any other way than according to His will.
Worship that is pleasing to God must be in spirit and in truth: “But
the time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will
worship the Father in the true, spiritual way. The Father is searching
for this kind of people to worship Him. God is
spirit. The people who worship God must worship Him in the true way and
with
the right spirit” (John 4:23‑24; cf. John
Your approach to God in worship is to be through
praying (Phil. 4:6), singing (Eph.
God has shown His Love for His People
Those who obey God are His people, the ones He
saves from their sins. God from heaven says concerning them, "I love
you. I appreciate you. I saved you from your sins because you are
mine." The angel of the Lord told Joseph, “…You will name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins" (Matt.
This is the body of people, the church, heaven loves and for which Jesus died. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved those called out by God (the church). He gave his life for them. He used a washing of water through the message to make God’s people holy. He wanted to give to himself a glorious group of people called out by God – a community that does not have stain or wrinkle or any such thing. Instead, he wanted them to be holy and spotless" (Eph. 5:25‑27).
This community of believers is to love one another
and work together in harmony. "Since God loved us that much, dear
friends, we ought to love each other, too” (1 John
You are God's acceptable children when you love one another and work in harmony for the good of all God's children. Then you are God's and He loves you.
Do You Abide in This Love?
What about your life? Are you one who has turned
away from God's love or are you living in His love? Do you let your
selfish motives keep you from doing those things pleasing to God or
does your unselfish love for Him cause you to fulfill His every desire? The Holy Spirit wrote, “When a
person is in Christ Jesus, it doesn’t matter whether he is circumcised
or not. The only thing which is important is faith – the kind of faith
which works through love” (Gal. 5:6).
You alone can determine your standing with God.
Either you are in His love or you are NOT in His love. If you turn in
disobedience from God's love, His wrath is on you. If you through love
do His will, He loves you. You should not turn away from this love, but
rather you should obey God and abide in His love. If you are not
abiding in His love, right now is the time to enter into His love by
loving Him and obeying His commandments. How can you turn away from one
who has
so earnestly cried from heaven? "I love you! I love you! I love you!”