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Consider God’s Love By Joel Horn Have you heard, have you understood or have you ever considered the magnificent love that God has for us? In the words of a famous song, by the Beatles: “All you need is love”. Indeed, it seems that the greatest need of mankind is the need to be loved. But where can be love be found? Who can love the unlovable? Who can love that reaches to the farthest degree without conditions? Who can love endlessly into depths that are greater than the deepest oceans? Does anyone come to mind? When we think about God what most often comes to mind? Many things may come to mind, some truthful some not, but the first thing that should come to mind is love. In relation to his attributes, the first and most primary attribute is love. God is love. Love is the basic attribute of God, it describes His very nature and love is the definition of who God is. In I John 4:8 and verse 16 we read: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” “…God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” |
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God Loves Me, God Loves Me Not By Joel Horn God’s Love and Justice - A Point of Tension As one ventures into the study of God’s character or contemplates the moral attributes of God, such as: God’s love, justice, righteousness, holiness, faithfulness, or persistence it can become apparent that there exists interrelationships between these attributes. The existence of interrelationships can easily be misinterpreted as contradictions or points of tension that may cause doubt as to the believability of what is being taught. For example, how can God allow sin and evil and yet not be the cause of it, since God is the Creator? Conversely, how can free will exist if God does not allow for the existence of sin? How can I truly possess free will when my free choice, given to me by my Creator, my condemn me to an eternal punishment in hell? On the other hand, without the free will to choose between an eternal life with God in heaven versus an eternal life separated from God in hell, wouldn’t I be without a choice at all and if love is non-reciprocal then it is not love at all because I am forced to “love” God for an eternity in heaven whether I want to or not. There are other points of tension, more silly in nature, such as: “Can God create a rock that is too big too lift?” that may seem to be important but is usually just a diversion tactic to win an argument or to side some issue that is of greater importance. |
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For God So Loved the World… By Joel Horn “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Most of us have heard of this verse quoted at one time or another. Living in America, we have heard Billy Graham on TV, during one of his evangelistic crusades, quote this verse. Some of us even remember seeing someone holding up a sign, at a sporting event, such as the Superbowl or the Olympics that says, “John 3:16”. We, in American society, have seen it so much and probably understand so little, that we poke fun at it, as an all-star wrestler did by quoting, “Austin 3:16”. And, maybe we deserved it by not speaking in more explicit terms in regards to the gospel, but rather dusting our culture with cliches and references, like “John 3:16”, that people don’t understand or relate to. So, just what does it mean that “God so loved the world”? |
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Once An Enemy but Now the Friend of God Written by Joel Horn Reconciliation is wonderful whenever we are fortunate enough to experience it. Reconciliation is the act of restoring or renewing a friendship. It could mean that you were never friends before but then became friends. Or it could mean, and most of the times does mean, that you were really good friends before, something terrible happened, the friendship is damaged or utterly ruined, but now it has been restored. It is a wonderful story when two old friends who separated over differences with deep resentment then come together, work it out and restore the friendship they once enjoyed. This is reconciliation. Unfortunately, reconciliation doesn’t always occur. We live in a world where “mommy doesn’t love daddy anymore”, siblings haven’t spoken to each other in 20 years, brother against brother, father against son, a “dog-eat-dog” world has become the norm, where friendships are awkward to establish, difficult to maintain, and almost impossible to restore once it has been violated through some act of betrayal. Yes, we are so familiar with this kind of world that we are almost comfortable with it. “Don’t trust anyone”; “Watch your back”; “The only one you can trust is yourself”; and “If you want it done right, then do it yourself”; are all catch-phrases that we are so familiar with it has become a way of life, an important survival instinct for us. Yes, in some areas of our world it really is that bad. But in other areas friends are made, and relationships are established for a lifetime. In either case, no matter what world you may be experiencing now, you know what I am referring to, when I talk about reconciliation. |
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