Here is a beautiful flash presentation.  While I am tickled that you watch it on my site if you go to the original website you can watch it in full screen, high quality mode and it is even more awesome.  God bless!

Toby Mac sings a song called Made To Love. It says, “I was made just for you, made to adore you.”  The song has some special memories for me.  I have always loved the lyrics and energetic tune since I first heard it but there was one occassion that lifted the song from a favorite to a part of a fond memory.

When I was in my early 40’s I decided to return to college and finish my Theology degree.  I had started my degree earlier then changed to a business major.  I regretted that decision for years and finally decided to go back and complete what God called me to do.

At 40 something I was the oldest student in all my classes and I wanted to get to know people and make friends.  I had many acquaintances and met very nice people but just not really close to anyone.  Then I took  a class that required a group of us to travel an hour away twice a week or more, depending on how bad you wanted to impress the teacher.

Over the days we got closer as a group and then one evening on the way to our church meeting Made To Love came on the radio and it happened… we all began singing from the top of our lungs and I knew I was part of the group.  Sometimes a song can bring pure joy to a persons heart and that was what happened.  Not worrying about how we sounded or worrying someone else in the car would think we were goofy we all accepted each other and sang our hearts out.

The lyrics of this song also taught me an important lesson.  I have been a strong believer in “Soul sleep.”  This means that when you die you sleep in the grave.  If you look up all the texts in the Bible about sleep you will find a large number of them refering to death.  Jesus, when he was told that Lazarus was dying told His disciples that Lazarus is sleeping.  When they said that it was good for him to sleep Jesus corrected their understanding by saying that Lazarus is dead.  Jesus considered death to be like sleep.   Also if we die and go straight to Heaven then why have a resurrection?

This song made me think… “Why did God create man?”  If God knows everything and He does, He knew they would sin and then He would destroy them with fire.   Did God create mankind to destroy them?   NO He created mankind to love them.  He created mankind knowing Jesus would have to die and save as many as possible.  The thought that God created mankind to burn for all eternity does not make sense.  The idea that God created man to love Him and save as many as possible does make sense.

Some day I will talk a little about the disgusting!!! despicable!!! teaching that God burns people for all eternity.   That is not the character of God and DOES NOT make sense when you read that, “the wages of sin is DEATH,” Romans 6:23 and “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” 1 John 5:12

But, that is for another day… today… we were born to love God!  Made to adore Him!

Then God smiled and the light broke and the darkness rolled up on one side and the light stood shining on the other and God said, “That is good.”   This is a beautiful poem about the creation.  I don’t often think of God as smiling.  I don’t know why.   Jesus said, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  Luke 15:7 and 10

Another text shows us a little of the joy God feels for us.  “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”  Zephaniah 3:17

God smiles and He smiles at you and me when we turn around and like the prodigal son return to Him.

Want more of Phipp’s rich voice? Click on the image on the left to go to Amazon.com and get “Just As I Am and other Favorite Hymns of Billy Graham ”

Some of the most profound, or most spiritual things are simple. Sitting in the silence of a new morning, as the sun quietly brightens your surroundings and warms the air. The simplicity of a child’s kiss on your cheek. A smile from a friend in the middle of a busy day. Simplicity.

“It is in the quiet crucible of our personal private sufferings
that our noblest dreams are born and Gods greatest gifts are given,
and often given in compensation for what we’ve been through.”

- Wintley Phipps

This is simply beautiful. Pastor Whintley Phipps gives a little history lesson followed by one of the most moving renditions of Amazing Grace I have ever heard.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ” John 3:16

God would rather die then live without you.  I can not understand a love like that.  I love my children and would do anything for them.  I would never let anything happen to them … if I could prevent it.  There have been times over the years that they have been sick and it broke my heart to watch them hurt.  My youngest got sick with Kawasakis disease when he was 3 or 4 years old.  I remember his temperature went up and would not come down.  His eyes got red, his lips cracked and pealed, his tongue was red and bumpy, and he would lay still - very still for long periods of time.  If I would pick him up to comfort him he would cry out in pain.  I desperately wanted to do anything I could to take the pain away.  I prayed that God would let me suffer - not my son - please Lord let me take his place.

On the one hand God loved you so much that he was willing to do anything to take away your sin and suffering.  He lifted you off your sick bed and laid down in your place.  Sin is a terminal illness and Jesus died your death.

On the other hand God loved you so much that he allowed his one and only son to be beat and whipped, spit upon, mocked, nailed to an old rugged cross, lifted up, exposed to ridicule and his heart pierced with a spear.

If someone hurt one of my children I would be angry.  If they beat him and whipped one of them I would be furious and someone better hold me back because someone is gonna pay.

Not God.  No lightning bolts, no fire from heaven, He watched as His most loved son was brutally tortured and killed.   He had to endure the pain of watching His son suffer and die so you and I can be forgiven and reunited with the family of God.  What love.  What inestimable love.

“For God so loved the world. . .” - John 3:16

In the book The Road Less Travelled M. Scott Peck makes the profound statement that, “Life is difficult!” While that simple statement is considered profound it is perhaps also very self-evident. Others have said the same thing in many ways. You often hear people say that, “times are tough” or to paraphrase another statement, “stuff happens and then you die.” I remember a quote from a particularly bleak scene in the movie Ran by Akira Kurosawa. I can’t describe the scene to you, life has robbed me of many of the memories of younger days, but the words have always stuck with me, “Man is born crying. When he’s cried enough, he dies.” Yes, life is difficult, and unfair, and often cruel. It was never God’s intention that life be this way.

When God created mankind He placed them in a beautiful garden. A garden full of delites for all the senses. God created man out of a heart full of love. He provided a warm safe place for man to grow, delicious food, friendly animals, green grass and blue skies and no sickness or death. That was God’s plan for mankind, for you and for me. But the children that God created chose to listen to a voice of doubt and distrust and they turned their backs on the loving Father who provided them with everything good. Sin entered the world. A curse entered the world. Life became very difficult.

As we look around our world today there is no doubt that compared to that edenic perfection, our world is cursed. Hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires ravage the landscape while broken families, crime, addiction, loneliness, sin, guilt and shame ravage our hearts. The very people who should love us the most are often the very ones who hurt us the most. How many rapists and murders tell the story of physical, sexual and mental abuse they suffered as a child. How many people around us are the walking wounded born of a loveless home.

This broken, dysfunctional world was never God’s plan for mankind. Never God’s plan for you.

While life is difficult God has not left us alone and He has left us love letters in nature and in the words of scripture.

“Nature and revelation alike testify of God’s love. Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator’s love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. In the beautiful words of the psalmist– ‘The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.’ Psalm 145:15-16” Steps To Christ

“The world, though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with roses.

“God is love” is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green — all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy.” Steps To Christ

Nature declares the glory and love of God for us and scripture whispers words of love to our broken hearts.

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” - Isaiah 49:15-16

This blog is about God’s love.

If you do not know God — He is whispering to your heart — I love you.

If you are a child of God and have committed your life to Him — He invites you to come closer and fall deeper in love everyday.

To all of us — living on a broken planet — living difficult lives — He says I have not forgotten you. I have plans for you, plans to restore you now and forever.