God's Love

For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.

      Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.

      May your glory shine over all the earth. Psalm 57: 10-11

This morning’s topic is on God’s love.  God's love is limitless, cannot be measured and never ends, for God IS love. In scripture, God's love is defined: 

 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8

Now, let us begin to digest in our minds what that truly means. We read in scripture the Greek words for the various forms of love as "eros", "phileo" and "agape" love. When we think about these types of love, we realize that God is all of them and more. God IS love. We need to begin to realize that God IS love and that we cannot begin to put a limit on His love and when we do this, we will start to know how blessed and loved we really are. I thought of the highest mountain on the planet Earth and my thoughts went to that of Mount Everest in Nepal.  Here is some information that may amaze you:

Facts About Mt. Everest:

Tallest mountain in the world.
Number of people to attempt to climb Mt. Everest: approximately 4,000.
Number of people to successfully climb Mt. Everest: 660.
Number of people who have died trying to climb Mt. Everest: 142.
Height: 29,028 feet, or 5 and a half miles above sea level. This is equivalent to the size of almost 20 Empire State Buildings.
Location: part of the Himalaya mountain range; straddles border of Nepal and Tibet.
Named for: Sir George Everest, a British surveyor-general of India.
Age: approximately 60 million years old.
Other names: called "Chomolungma" by Tibetans and Sherpas, which means "Mother Goddess of the Earth."
Countries visible from the summit: Tibet, India, and Nepal.
First to climb to summit: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953.

Now that you have wrapped your brain around this information, I want you to realize that in only our human measurements and that God’s love is “as high as the Heavens”. How high are the Heavens? It is not measurable, for the universe goes on and on and on! Now, when we think of the Heavenly universe as having no end, it is limitless - then we can just begin to understand the love that God has for us. Are you with me? Can you truly understand how treasured we are? We are so beautiful in His sight and we are those treasures that He delights in. Think of a time when you went to the beach and began looking in the sand, and as you sifted all the sand between your fingers, you find those hidden treasures of small shells, bits of  polished glass pieces and how you delighted on finding those amist the sand. I think that is how God looks at us, with such pleasure and He cherishes us so! It humbles me this morning to know that He looks down and smiles, sings and delights over us. We are ALL his treasures! He calls us His sons and daughters, but more than than, He sees us as the Princes and Princesses in His Kingdom. What a honor, what a blessing, what love  that God has for us. After all, He IS love and His love not only cannot be measured but it is “unfailing”. It never stops!! Although we stumble, fall or just do something stupid, His love never stops. He loves us so!! May I always remember that God’s love is limitless and it is unfailing. God’s IS love and no matter where I go, whatever I do, He is with me, loving and delighting in me. He is doing the same for you – today and everyday of your life!
Question: Are you sensing God's love today?

Clean Laundry

"Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life." (Psalm 51:7) The MSG

(Written by Jade Akita - Visiting Blogger)
When I was a child, my grandma showed me how to wash out those tough stains from our clothes.  She had a wooden board that had ridges on them.  When you had to wash the laundry, you would scrub the article of clothing on the ridges with soap.  When the stains were "stubborn", you had to work that piece of clothing on those ridges and really scrub at it.  Nowadays we have the good old washing machine.  In the washing machine there is an agitator which pulses the clothes in order to clean it.  However if you have a stain on your clothes, more than likely the stain will still be there when it comes out of the wash, but the article of clothing will be clean and it will smell fresh.  You see, in this Psalm, we are to soak in the laundry of God.  We are to soak in God's Word.  Although we may pray and ask God to make us clean, to make us pure and holy to do His work, all we are really doing is agitating the "dirty laundry", but the stains are still there.  We must really have at the stains...allowing God to take control and to get to the root of our stains, working those stains out so that our hearts may be truly cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We all can learn that, God is the only one who can wash us clean and make us pure.  We must cleanse ourselves daily!
Question: What do you need to wash out of your life?

Creation

Apapane - Native Hawaiian Bird

for every animal of the forest is mine,
   and the cattle on a thousand hills. 

I know every bird in the mountains,
   and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you,
   for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Psalm 50:10-12 

There is a bird here in Hawaii called the Apapane. These birds live in the high mountainous regions and they are not yet on the endangered list but, they are few in numbers. They are known for their magnificent red feathers and the males are known for having a variety of songs. These birds were used to make feather cloaks, leis and other adornments in the ancient days of Hawaii. The birds dwell in the canopy of the forest and never dwell at the forest floor. They are only one the many species of birds that God created. Can you even begin to wrap your mind around the variety of birds in existence? There are about 9,703 species of birds divided up into 23 orders, 142 families and 2.057 in general. Birds can be found on all major land masses from the poles to the tropics as well as in or over all our seas and oceans and their accompanying islands. The total number of birds on the planet is very difficult to estimate because their populations fluctuate seasonally, but scientists have suggested that there may be between 100,000 and 200,000 million adult or near adult birds on the planet at any one time.  Now, does that now give you just one small glimpse of what God can do when it comes to creation? Now this is only birds! We are one of those creations and we are his masterpiece! He created everything else for us to be in charge of, to manage and I believe to enjoy. We are to have a spirit of awe in His creations. We also need to see that He is the creator and everything in this world, He made! It brings me to my knees this morning, as to the splendor that He has created and how much I appreciate what He has done! He is amazing! I fall on my knees in joy, love and appreciation of God, the Creator. He owns everything and everything is His! I want to sit in this spirit of appreciation and just thank Him – not for what He does...but who He is!

Question: Can you get into the spirit of appreciation for creation, right now?

Going Down

 "I waited patiently for the Lord,

he turned to me and heard my cry,

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand. " 

Psalm 40:1-2

 This Psalm begins with the scene of a person in a “pit”. It is like those old movies where we saw people being pulled down by quicksand. I remember seeing movies about quicksand and how people could easily be sucked into the muck and mire. All they need to do is to walk into the mud and there it is, they get caught and then they begin to sink. They are trapped. We too can venture into that muddy place in life. We can begin to entertain those thoughts of despair, discouragement and depression. I just prayed for a lady yesterday and this is where the lady was, she was stuck in the quick sand and in a pit. We needed to deliver her from those demonic spirits that had pulled her into that sinking sand. She felt so much better after the deliverance prayer, but she had to renounce those lies, lies that she was not worthy, that she will never get out and that there was no hope for her. Those are lies from the pit of hell. What does God’s Word say? There is hope, there is always light and love. We don't need to sink into that quicksand and believe the lies of the enemy. We need to keep our feet on the solid ground and know that the promises in God’s Word, is the foundation for which we stand. When we begin to doubt, then we sink into the quicksand of despair.  We need to watch for those signs...”beware of quicksand” and avoid those areas. We do this by acknowledging when we begin to entertin those thoughts and as soon as we begin to have the emotions of despair, discouragement, depression, fear....we renounce it and begin to praise God and speak His scripures (power verses) out loud. That is the weapon that will come against the enemy...the sword of truth! May we fight the spiritual battle with the promises from God’s Word. No pit dwelling for me!! I will be on guard for those “signs” and to not go there in my mind so that I will not begin to sink. I also will tell others about the trap of the enemy, that wants us to agree with him and begin to sink into that pit of despair.

Question: Are you in a pit and need to get out? Have you believed lies from the enemy and need truth?