A word from our Pastor…
God’s Unexpected Love
Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD your God is
with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in
you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you
with singing.”
What five statements demonstrate that
God’s love for you is really beyond explanation?
He is
with me.
He is
mighty to save me.
He
takes great delight in me.
He
quiets me with His love.
He
rejoices over me with singing.
God
contemplates His beloved Church . . . with overwhelming joy. And
then there pours from His heart and lips such joyous shouting
that the heaven of heavens re-echoes with His jubilation, His
glad singing (Bible Commentary The Minor Prophets, p. 381, by
Theodore Laetsch).
I have been married over 35 years and I
think I got the better deal... I am blessed beyond any hopes and
dreams. Members of St. John are called the Bride of Christ. Now
who got the better deal? You or the Lord? We would most likely
say that we all received the better deal. That’s a
reasonable response; however, when reading Song of Solomon 4:9-10
and Zephaniah 3:17, what do you think? I still believe we got
“the better deal,” but there is no doubt that because
of Christ we are unimaginably precious and beautiful to God.
Romans
9:15-16, “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on
whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have
compassion.’ 16It does not,
therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's
mercy.”
One very large denomination openly states
that if anyone does not believe that the sinner does not
cooperate with God in the matter of salvation, let him be
“anathema” (damned). This belief is held by many people
today who say, “God has to do His part, and we have to do
our part” regarding salvation. Paul says that salvation
depends only on God’s mercy and not on man’s desire or
effort. If salvation depended in any way on man’s part
(synergism), what haunting question would always be present? Have
I done “enough” on my part? The assurance of salvation
would always be in doubt. Isaiah 43:25, “I (the noun
‘I’ repeated to make it emphatic), even I, am He who
blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers
your sins no more.” Why does the Lord blot out your
transgressions and remember your sins no more? For His own sake.
You do not deserve His love, not even primarily to promote it for
your happiness and salvation, but for HIS sake, to promote His
glory and unlimited love.
1 John
4:10, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our
sins.”
In Wales Christians sing a
nineteenth-century hymn by William Rees:
Here
is love, vast as the ocean, Loving kindness as the flood,
When
the Prince of life, our ransom, Shed for us His precious blood.
Who
His love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise?
He
can never be forgotten Throughout heaven’s eternal days.
On
the Mount of Crucifixion Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through
the floodgates of God’s mercy Flowed a vast and gracious
tide.
Grace
and love, like mighty rivers, Poured incessant from above,
And
heaven’s peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in
love.
May
God’s “unexpected” love bless us in this New Year.
May we thank Him daily for his love in sending us His
only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
In service to the KING of kings,
Pastor Mueller
“For I resolved to know nothing while
with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Cor.
2:2)