What You Do Not Know About Love Can Kill You!

Did you know that God has a love affair with you? After Yahweh God sent Moses to deliver the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and set them on their way to the Promised Land, He gave them as a commandment, to always remember how much He loves them. Here is how the word of God puts it: "Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." [HCSB Deuteronomy 6:4-9] That is why from the times of Moses until today, practicing Jews still wear a little box called a “phylactery” on their wrists and forehead, and they recite daily the above Scripture called the “Shema” (Shema means listen or hear in the Hebrew language). In Matthew 23:5, Jesus called the Pharisees “hypocrites,” because they would carry bigger phylacteries than the common people as a sign that they loved God more. The best known verse in the Bible is John 3:16, For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. [HCSB] John, who called himself at the end of his gospel “the disciple Jesus loved,” [John 21:20], understood that the love of God was central to the word of God specifically and to life in general, and that love was only demonstrated in God sending His Unique Son to reconcile mankind to Himself, for mankind had been separated from Him through sin. He reiterated that message in a letter he wrote to the Church, saying, “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” [HCSB 1 John 4:9] Beloved, this love of God is serious business. Most of us live our daily lives not realizing what that love entails. There are a few key words in the above paragraph that must be explained in order for the meaning of God’s love to be clearer. They are: love, reconcile, separated, and sin. First, love is a powerful force of attraction between God and His Son. The only reason we have the ability to love is because the Creator of the universe put it in us (1 John 4:19). When God created mankind, he created them in His image, meaning that this love held us together with Him in a powerful bond that allowed us to continually be in God’s presence. However, the first couple’s (Adam and Eve’s) disobedience (sin) broke that bond, and death (spiritual and physical) came, threatening to separate us from God forever. It took an amazing act of love on the part of God in sending His Son to earth to break the power of sin, to reconcile us with Him. God made an enormous sacrifice in that He had to separate Himself from His One and Only Son, made of the same fabric as He, in order to reunite (reconcile) us with Him. However temporary that separation was, it hurt God. Furthermore, since breaking away from God is punishable by the ultimate penalty of eternal isolation for the simple fact that life is only found in a relationship with God, the Creator, God suffered even more, for His own Son had to take upon Himself the punishment that was duly reserved for mankind. The Bible is very clear about all this. When some of the angels, which are powerful creatures of God, rebelled led by Satan, God punished them by creating hell for them (Matthew 25:41), which is a place where souls will remain in eternal fire, away from God’s presence. Contrarily to popular belief, hell was created for them and NOT for mankind, but sadly, some people will choose to follow the devil there. Moreover, we read in the Bible that whenever people thought they had seen God, they were always afraid, because they thought they would die, because sinful man cannot withstand God’s presence (Exodus 20:19; Numbers 17:13; Judges 6:22,23). You see, beloved reader, Many people misunderstand God’s plan. They think that Christians worship a mean and capricious God who is constantly playing Gotcha! They also think that God lurks around waiting to catch people in their sins in order to send them to hell. That could not be further from the truth. On the contrary, God is patiently and actively seeking to save people (Deuteronomy 4:31; 2 Chronicles 30:9; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 78:38; 103:8; 145:8; Jonah 4:2; 2 Peter 3:9), and not hurt them as some would have people believe. Please do not misconstrue the truth I just shared to mean that God does not punish people. In His love, He does punish people. However, in His love also He does provide a way out of the punishment if we care to believe. John 3:16 tells us that “everyone who believes in Jesus will not perish, nor will be destroyed, but that person will have eternal life.” The requirement for all human beings not to be destroyed is to believe in what Jesus came to accomplish on this earth, which was to offer Himself as a sacrifice, because it takes a sacrifice to pay for the violence that was done to our original loving relationship with God, and it will also take an enormous sacrifice from God to fix things back up. There is no other choice for mankind but to accept Jesus and His sacrifice, for sin shall not enter the presence of God (Hebrews 12:14). If we say we have no sin, we become liars and therefore sin anyway, because all people are sinners (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). There is absolutely no way around it. This is an incredible amount of information that I just shared with you right now. It is up to you to use it to your benefit. If you are still confused about your purpose on this earth, go to God in prayer, and ask Him to guide you. He promises not to cast away those who come to Him in repentance. Satan is looking for companionship on his way to hell. The apostle Peter calls him “a roaring lion seeking to devour who he can” (1 Peter 5:8). Pray that God may break any bond you have with Satan and protect you from his sharp-clawed paws. Look around you, or on TV, or on the internet, and notice what is happening in the world. You can trace every terrible event to an absence of love, a lack of love, or an inability to love. The family – the basic unit of society – is being destroyed, because husbands do not know how to love their wives, wives do know how to love their husbands, parents do not know how to love their children and vice versa. Love is a multi-billion-dollar business. The best songs are either romantic songs about love, or they are about hearts broken by love. Magazines and tabloids make billions following who is falling in or out love. Romantic movies are not about to get out of fashion as Gone With the Wind stills warms people’s heart every Christmas season. On the other hand, thefts are perpetrated because the thief has no love for his fellow man. Rapes are committed because the rapist hates his victims. Some employers exploit their employees because they do not care much for their welfare. Dictators mistreat their fellow countrymen because they do not care a bit about their wellbeing. Gang members and religious sects create their own marginal social subculture because both are made of leaders who believe they can provide an alternative to love to followers who cannot identify true love. Every ill in the world can be traced, as I stated earlier, to an absence of love, a lack of love, or an inability to love. Ultimately, it is all rooted in a misunderstanding of God’s love for His own Son and for the human beings He created. What you do not know about love could kill you… literally… and spiritually. Do not be left in the dark.