The Depth of the Father's Love Is Overwhelming

We often sing a song in corporate worship entitled, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”, the text is awfully powerful.  I think that the text is so powerful because it calls us to grips to the depths of God’s love.  The only way that we can remotely understand and comprehend the depths of that love, is through the understanding of the depths and severity of our own sin.  The text actually combats our natural and sinful inclination in which we are tempted to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.  Though while none of us would readily admit it, we more often than not, live our lives as if we have something to offer God, that there is something that God somehow needs from us.  While the reality is, as the song says, we are “wretch”, people of a despicable character, who undeserving have been made a treasure. 

Furthermore, the reality that this text continues to reveal, is that this undeserving grace did not come without a price, it did not come without a cost.  There was much pain physically and emotionally, as God who was fully human experienced not only physical torture, but humiliation as well.  This grace did not come without a price, it was our guilt upon His shoulders, it was our mocking voices who were crucifying Him, it was our sin that brought Him death, which brought us life.  This is the depth of the love of the Father, this is the depth of our wretchedness, this is the depth of our salvation. 

Therefore as redeemed wretches, what can we boast in apart from Jesus Christ?  Apart from Him we have nothing to offer, we bring nothing to the table; we brought guilt upon His shoulders, He gave us life.  Why should we gain this undeserved grace, this reward?  Our only response can be that Jesus Is Lord!  Christ died for the ungodly. 

Anthony Carter states this point well in an article at Ligonier.org:  “All because of the love of God. Christ left heaven. He laid aside glory, concealing His majesty. He subjected Himself to the creature’s scorn, outcast from a world He created. He suffered demonic attack, lies, and public ridicule. Friends forsook Him. He was brutally beaten, stripped, and put to open shame. Spat upon and slapped, publicly and shamefully executed, He assumed the guilt and punishment for every sin we ever committed. He reconciled us to God and secured our acceptance before God. Why? Because justice demanded it and our justification required it. Because He loved us even before we ever knew Him or understood what He was doing.

Thankfully, now we do.”

How Deep The Father’s Love for Us!

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6-8

     

Who Determines Right & Wrong?

Let me first preface this article with saying I think that it is important as Christians that we be knowledgeable of the non-Christian agenda in the world today. We must know who the people are that we are trying to reach before we can ever reach them. Not that we ever lower the standards of a life that Glorify's God for the sake of being relevant, but at some point and time we have to go where to where the lost are for the sake that some may come to faith and Christ can pull them out of the bondage to sin in which they are enslaved.

With that being said I want to throw a new word out for you that most of you may not be familiar with: "Open-Marriage". This is a word that I was not familiar with until recently. An Open-Marriage can be defined as a marriage in which the partners agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual relationships, without this being regarded as infidelity. You may say, "THAT'S CRAZY!" like I did when I first heard of this arrangement but the fact of the matter is these types of "agreements" are on the rise.

The hope/reasoning in the "open-marriage" agreement is that a large portion of marriages fail because of the lying and distrust that goes along with being unfaithful sexually in the marriage. Therefore if we just accept that we can be with other sexual partners and don't have to lie about it then at least our marriage will last and not be filled with lies and distrust.

The first time that I heard about an "open-marriage" agreement was actually at a church - Fellowship Church in Dallas. Last September there was a filming of a Nightline Debate "Are We Born To Cheat". One of the panelist had found the answer through an open marriage agreement. The second time I have heard about this agreement was through an article on CNN where a lady was being proposed to join an open-marriage agreement. The lady did inevitably turn the agreement down but I just want to throw out some quotes from her rationality of whether or not to participate in this type of relationship:

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"Telling the truth shows your partner respect, as does following agreed upon rules -- for example, keeping your partner in the loop as to where you have been and who you have been with."

"The goal of an open marriage is to never have to lie -- to create an environment where you can be open about anything.."

"Basically, the thought is that if you truly love your partner, you want them to live their fullest life -- flings and all. Flings are simply superficial sensory delights. There's no difference between your partner enjoying a pizza with anchovies without you and your partner enjoying a blonde with blue eyes without you."

"In a good open marriage, you are simply creating a buffet of sexual experiences, so nobody feels like they are starving for new sensations. This honesty enables couples to avoid the emotional downward spiral of hidden affairs because the need for secrecy is removed."

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This is where the world is in it's rational. This is a generation who has grown up in broken homes and seen how their parents marriages didn't work and now are striving for answers to how to just make a marriage work. This is a world who has turned to the movie theater to define "love".

True biblical love is a verb. It requires action through the form of service and selflessness. The only way that we can understand how a marriage is to work is through looking at God's relationship with us. God has taken us - sinful and dirty - and made us His Sons and Daughters. If God could do that for imperfect you and I then we love our spouse in-spite of our imperfections.

Who Determines Right and Wrong? God.

How will they know if we don't tell them? Better yet how will they know if we don't show them? The world is not looking to the church for answers today - why would they? Our divorce rate is as high if not higher than the world around us. Everyday you hear of leaders in the church who have fallen to sexual temptation and their marriage is in shambles - Why would the world listen to the church if we can't live what we believe? There is a far deeper problem in the church today in the lack of intimacy that we have with the Father.

Look at how God has loved you, sinful and unclean - and love others, including your spouse in the way that God first loved you.