The love that God is bringing to us is going to be the only thing that's going to hold us together. The world, they just won't love, and so they're at each other's throats all the time. It's only going to be by the grace of God with His love that we are going to be able to get through all of this, because the love also keeps us open to Him. We can't be tearing anything down. God's got to tear it down. This, this fight is not ours. It's His. . We just have to reach into God to, to keep the oneness going. It's the body of Christ. And that's the one thing that we need to reach into, is to find the body of Christ wherever God has put it, and to become one with it.
It's only going to be by the love of God that we can forgive each other, that we can walk in His presence as one. You've got to be building things up. Building the relationships in that oneness, in that unity, we have to hold on to Christ. It's going to be about the Lord Himself speaking through the family.
The family loves each other, and that's what holds us together. It's about opening up to what the Lord is speaking through His family, hearing the word of the Lord through the family.
Can't quote the scripture perfectly, but it talks about "being diligent to preserve the, the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace." And that's an initiative that we take. God's love is just breaking my heart. In this love is His great forgiveness. Every time I hear somebody accuse somebody of something, wrongdoing, whatever, I've got to look and see the, the pit - the human nature . We can't stand on our own merits and therefore we can't accuse . If it hurts the family, it's not God. It's just not. He's so magnificent. And so all, all encompassing that it actually challenges my faith. How can God save the world when you have all these horrible things that are happening out there? And then He reminds me where I was. And He goes: I saved you. I drew you out of many waters. It wasn't your doing. It wasn't your initiative. I drew you by My Spirit. And I met you and I revealed Myself to you. You don't think I can do that for everyone and anyone?
When I see a brother in need and they have problems, I want to be on my face before God for him. Because somebody was on their face before God for me. That's His love.
The love of the Lord is incredible. The love of the Lord is unsurpassed. It breaks my heart. Lord, thank you for Your love, for Your grace, for Your understanding, for Your compassion, for Your brokenness for us, because without that, we couldn't go on. The oneness, the love, the blessing of the Lord. It makes me just fall on my face and go, okay, Lord, what is in me that resists your love? Let it be gone. I just give myself to love You, Lord, to be broken before You. Just be humble before You. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord.
"For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." We've all read Paul's writings. Probably, if any of us had been on the earth at the time he was there and knew what he was doing as Saul of Tarsus, there wouldn't have been any grace coming from our heart, because he was out persecuting and seeing put to death, those that believed in Christ. And yet when God met him, now you go and read any of his letters,where he, he's saying to us: put aside criticism, put aside bitterness, put aside all of these things that come from division and then put on these things.
This whole thing is breaking my heart. You know, I was thinking about the, the shepherd . And how the shepherd would go after this little lamb that had lost its way. You're so inclusive, Lord, you're so inclusive. There can be something that upsets, upsets you like Ron was talking about earlier. And so you make a statement that's hurtful. So you go and you apologize.
The shepherd has to really help with that because we all have to love each other so much. The only way we can is when the Father comes through. We all make mistakes, and we can all get these funny ideas in our head, and only the Lord can transform us.
Love is a word that is very hard to define, and I find that pictures that are painted in the Scriptures help us with finding out really what love is.
And one of my favorites is in John the 10th chapter, verse 14. "I am the good shepherd, and I know Mine, and Mine know Me. Even as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father, I lay down My life for the sheep. And the other sheep I have which are not of this fold, I have to bring them as well. And they shall hear My voice, And there shall be one flock, one shepherd."
Because of this, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to receive it again. That's a vision of love that has been imparted to us by the Son and by the Father. This is one that really shakes me up. We exercise our authority, invested in us by His love to lay down our lives. We take the authority to take up our lives again and manifest His love in the earth to all of His creation.
The magnitude of that love, Ron's talking about that. There is a love of such great magnitude through Jesus Christ from the Father to love. It's not a question of understanding. It was conveyed to us on the cross.
