Followup to Yesterday

Wow...so yesterday had a lot of ups and downs. It seems like Satan would attack, God would prove His great love for me, Satan would attack, God would prove His great love for me, etc...

Earlier in the day, I thought of the verse about how "God does not forget about the sparrows and are we not more valuable than they?" (Luke 12:6-7/Matt. 6:26).  Later in the day, I read a chapter in "Captivating" called "Healing the Wound"--I'd meant to read it the day before, but things hadn't worked out. The first verse they mentioned? The verse about how God cares about the bird of the fields--and aren't we more valuable than they are? Wow...God's reminder of His love for me. So, while I blogged yesterday, I listened to "How He Loves" by David Crowder Band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUbImPNsmng) over and over for the whole 2 hours of writing and Bible study.  I was just trying to let this great truth sink in--it's so great that my feeble little mind can barely begin to grasp it, but God is making it a new reality to me in ways that I've never understood before. It is freeing, liberating, healing... Knowing God as passionately loving me--changes my world. He doesn't love me in an abstract way the way I might endeavor to love a stranger or in my imperfect human way I love those that I'm close to. He loves me knowing all--despite all. He loves me jealously. God does? Yes. The Creator of the Universe/The Perfect One/The All-Powerful One loves me as His dearest possession. Almost too good to believe, but so true! He desires for me to bask in His love and the ensuing Peace that He gives.

 After I finished blogging, I had to leave to go buy some food (since I hadn't eaten all day). I suddenly thought, "How strange it will be to leave this room where this song has been playing for the last 2 hrs and go out to my car where it won't be playing at all." Then I thought, "What if God had it playing on the radio when I get out there?" And you know what? It was. :) Was it a coincidence? Oh no! Because I didn't even leave right away...a friend messaged me and I talked a little while before I left the house. More evidence of His great love...and how He wants me to experience it--even in the smallest ways. 

Then the sermon I heard last night was all about Love, too. Based on Leviticus with analogies to the life of Jesus. Highlights: 

"Relationships based on Love are Costly"--Israelites had to sacrifice the "best/most expensive" lamb to God to show that He was their priority/love. 

"Every single moment you deserve to have ME [God] judge you. Sacrifice keeps this at bay. [Later the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus, keeps it at bay for forever!]

"Life can only be paid for in its own currency."--The "why" to Jesus' death on the cross. Also the "why" to our inability to pay for our own sins and to save ourselves. Isaiah 64:6 says that "All our works are as filthy rags"--wrong currency!

"If our relationship is to be TOTAL, then I [God] will accept no less than total sacrifice."

"Your own actions concerning the lamb WERE not the lamb! Often our faith is in our faith, which is wrong."--Basically, the people worried about if they positioned their hands on the lamb right or if they put enough weight on it to be forgiven, but God says that it was the lamb's character (if they picked the costly/spotless/perfect one) that caused Him to accept the Sacrifice. Analogy to Jesus as the PERFECT LAMB/SACRIFICE where our own efforts to save ourselves fail. Jesus is the one doing it right!

"It's not a relationship of toleration. HE LOVES YOU DEEPLY!"