Lately I've been reading through a book on loan from a friend: "Classic Sermons on the Love of God," compiled by Warren W. Wiersbe. I recommend it to anyone, but especially those who are really struggling, as I have, to grasp what it means to be loved by God.
Today I was reading Chapter 6, a sermon by George Campbell Morgan entitled "Amazing Love!" Excellent. The conclusion of his thoughts really jumped out of me and I knew I had to share them. Though much more powerful in the context of the entire sermon, I'm sure they will be thought provoking at least.
"Amazing love! Why did He love me? I really do not know. But He did, and He does. Why should He care for me? I have been so selfish, so impure in my thinking and desire. Why, I cannot tell. But this I know, He loves me. You may persuade me on many things, and you may dissuade me from some convictions, but I challenge you to dissuade me here. My Friend loves me, I am in His love as well as in His power. I am in His love as well as in His light. You ask me how I know it. I take you, not to the infinite spaces where stars march in rhythmic order, not to the hedgerow where God smiles in flowers, but to the rough and brutal cross of Calvary, to the hour of the dying of the Christ. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." My friends, such love is royal, and royal love makes claims upon loyalty. What shall I do in answer to that love? We have often sung together:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!
"Have we not sung that wrong in two ways? Have we not sung it first as though we would say, "I cannot give Him so great a thing as the realm of nature; I can give only myself to Him?" That is wrong. He counts you, bruised and broken, sinful, dying man, more than the whole realm of nature. When one day He held the infinite balances in His hand, He said, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36). That is His estimate. God so loves you that He would not feel Himself enriched if He could save the whole realm of nature and lose you. How do I know that? Because He gave something infinitely more than the whole realm of nature, He gave Himself in His Son for you. If you want to know your value by the measurements of love, God measured you by Himself. When next you sing that verse, do not sing it as though you had nothing to give--if you have yourself to give. If you have yourself to give, give yourself.
"That is all He wants. Have we not sung that verse wrongly in the next place by singing, "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all," without the answering abandonment? My brother, my sister, answer that love tonight, not only by singing of its demands, but by giving all you are to it. Give yourself, with all your wounds and bruises, with all your weakness and frailty. Answer that love, and that love will remake you until at last you shall be meet for the dwelling of the saints in light. May God in His infinite grace speak this word to us as no human voice can speak it."Labels: books, quotes, reflections