“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.” -Psalm 139:1-3
To be loved but not known is superficial. To be known and not loved is our great fear-but to be known and loved, that transforms you. -Tim Keller via Twitter
“And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali; for I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.” -Hosea 2:16-17
That day has come. We view our God no more as Baal, our tyrant lord and mighty master, for we are not under law but under grace. We now think of Jehovah, our God, as our Ishi, our beloved husband, our lord in love, our next-of-kin in bonds of sacred relationship. We do not serve Him less obediently, but we serve Him for a higher and more endearing reason. We no longer tremble under His lash but rejoice in His love. The slave is changed into a child and the task into a pleasure.
Is it so with thee, dear reader? Has grace cast out slavish fear and implanted filial love? How happy are we in such an experience! Now we call the Lord’s day a delight, and worship is never a weariness. Prayer is now a privilege, and praise is a holiday. To obey is heaven; to give to the cause of God is a banquet. Thus have all things become new. Our mouth is filled with singing and our heart with music. Blessed be our heavenly Ishi forever and ever.
[from Faith’s Checkbook by Charles H. Spurgeon]
“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” -John 13:1
This fact is essentially a promise; for what our Lord was He is, and what He was to those with whom He lived on earth, He will be to all His beloved so long as the moon endureth.
“Having loved”: here was the wonder! That He should ever have loved men at all is the marvel. What was there in His poor disciples that He should love them? What is there in me?
But when He has once begun to love, it is His nature to continue to do so. Love made the saints “His own”–what a choice title! He purchased them with blood, and they became His treasure. Being His own, He will not lose them. Being His beloved, He will not cease to love them. My soul, He will not cease to love thee!
The text is well as it stands: “to the end.” Even till His death the ruling passion of love to His own reigned in His sacred bosom. It means also to the uttermost. He could not love them more: He gave Himself for them. Some read it, to perfection. Truly He lavished upon them a perfect love, in which there was no flaw nor failure, no unwisdom, no unfaithfulness.
Such is the love of Jesus to each one of His people. Let us sing to our Well-beloved a song.
[from Faith’s Checkbook by Charles H. Spurgeon]
Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. -Matthew 9:13
“Sinners are not loved because they are attractive; they are attractive because they are loved.” -Martin Luther via LiberateNet’s Twitter
“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8
“God doesn’t love us because we are valuable; rather, we are valuable because God loves us.” -Britt Merrick (Inspired by Tozer)
New Life Baptist Church 