Truth part 2
Here's the truth, as simple as I can put it: God is love and He loves you. Anything that disagrees is a lie. And anything you believe that disagrees is sin. That's why 1 John 3:9 is true, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Get it? Sin is unbelief. So by definition a believer cannot sin. How could you? And, listen, I'm not talking about questions. I'm not talking about needing God to prove Himself. God has never been afraid to prove Himself. Remember when Gideon needed a sign (or two) in Judges chapter 6? That didn't scare God. He was happy to give His servant what he needed. That's what strength is: doing what is necessary. Like I always say, "Gotta do what you gotta do." And if faith comes by hearing--and it does--and if the Word (singular) of God is Jesus... love... then I don't think God has ANY problem repeating Himself. He'll say "Let there be light" all night long. He'll say, "I love you" with every beat of His heart in your chest. Let me say it another way: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). And its my personal opinion that this verse says a lot about the so-called "doctrine of eternal torment otherwise known as hell" but I'm going to leave that alone for right now. For now I just want to say... God is in no hurry. In fact, He got what He wanted on the cross. All throughout the Old Testament He kept saying, "I want to be your God and I want you to be my people." Practically begging the people of Israel to let Him love them. Then, as He was lifted up on the cross Jesus drew ALL MEN unto Himself. INTO Himself. And He planted Himself into all men. God was in Christ on the cross reconciling us to Himself, right? That's the truth; we HAVE been reconciled. What needed to happen... happened. God proved Himself. Proved His love for us by giving His life to us. Dying for us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We believed the lie--that says we have to do in order to be--and killed ourselves trying to be someone we're not. But God would rather die than be without us. We were hiding from Him, afraid of getting in trouble. Afraid that God was going to "get us." Guys... on the cross God got us! But not in a negative way. In the best way. He got us in Him. He got Himself in us. He bridged the gap that WE had created by running FROM Him instead of TO Him. He drew us back to Himself by telling us the truth. By giving us something--someONE, Himself, LOVE--to believe in. By GIVING us what we were trying to earn. Because you can't earn it. Love is a gift. It is freely given. It must be received. Recieved and released. Because love is giving. You "get" it by giving it. You experience it when you share it. And since God wants us to love each other, but you can't give what you don't have, He had to first love us. He gave us what we needed. The ultimate truth of the universe: The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand. God loves you. He gave you everything you need. He gave you Himself. His love. His Spirit. His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life. He gave us everything He had and everyhing He is. Because He wanted us to have it. Because He wanted us to share it!