Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Sept 28, 2007 5:04:59 GMT -5
AN UNEARTHLY LOVE
by Max Lucado
Your goodness can’t win God’s love. Nor can your badness lose it.
But you can resist it. We tend to do so honestly. Having been rejected
so often, we fear God may reject us as well. Rejections have left us
skittish and jumpy. Like my dog Salty. He sleeps next to me on the couch
as I write. He’s a cranky cuss, but I like him. We’ve aged together
over the last fifteen years, and he seems worse for the wear. He’s a
wiry canine by nature; shave his salt-and-pepper mop, and he’d pass
for a bulimic Chihuahua. He didn’t have much to start with; now the
seasons have taken his energy, teeth, hearing, and all but eighteen
inches’ worth of eyesight.
Toss him a dog treat, and he just stares at the floor through cloudy
cataracts. (Or, in his case, dogaracts?) He’s nervous and edgy, quick
to growl and slow to trust. As I reach out to pet him, he yanks back.
Still, I pet the old coot. I know he can’t see, and I can only wonder
how dark his world has become.
We are a lot like Salty. I have a feeling that most people who defy and
deny God do so more out of fear than conviction. For all our chest
pumping and braggadocio, we are anxious folk—can’t see a step into the
future, can’t hear the one who owns us. No wonder we try to gum the
hand that feeds us.
But God reaches and touches. He speaks through the immensity of the
Russian plain and the density of the Amazon rain forest. Through a
physician’s touch in Africa, a bowl of rice in India. Through a Japanese bow
or a South American abraço. He’s even been known to touch people
through paragraphs like the ones you are reading. If he is touching you,
let him.
Mark it down: God loves you with an unearthly love. You can’t win it
by being winsome. You can’t lose it by being a loser. But you can be
blind enough to resist it.
Don’t. For heaven’s sake, don’t. For your sake, don’t.
“Take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s
love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the
depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of
God” (Eph. 3:18–19 MSG).
____________________________
From 3:16, The Numbers of Hope
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 2007) Max Lucado
www.maxlucado.com
by Max Lucado
Your goodness can’t win God’s love. Nor can your badness lose it.
But you can resist it. We tend to do so honestly. Having been rejected
so often, we fear God may reject us as well. Rejections have left us
skittish and jumpy. Like my dog Salty. He sleeps next to me on the couch
as I write. He’s a cranky cuss, but I like him. We’ve aged together
over the last fifteen years, and he seems worse for the wear. He’s a
wiry canine by nature; shave his salt-and-pepper mop, and he’d pass
for a bulimic Chihuahua. He didn’t have much to start with; now the
seasons have taken his energy, teeth, hearing, and all but eighteen
inches’ worth of eyesight.
Toss him a dog treat, and he just stares at the floor through cloudy
cataracts. (Or, in his case, dogaracts?) He’s nervous and edgy, quick
to growl and slow to trust. As I reach out to pet him, he yanks back.
Still, I pet the old coot. I know he can’t see, and I can only wonder
how dark his world has become.
We are a lot like Salty. I have a feeling that most people who defy and
deny God do so more out of fear than conviction. For all our chest
pumping and braggadocio, we are anxious folk—can’t see a step into the
future, can’t hear the one who owns us. No wonder we try to gum the
hand that feeds us.
But God reaches and touches. He speaks through the immensity of the
Russian plain and the density of the Amazon rain forest. Through a
physician’s touch in Africa, a bowl of rice in India. Through a Japanese bow
or a South American abraço. He’s even been known to touch people
through paragraphs like the ones you are reading. If he is touching you,
let him.
Mark it down: God loves you with an unearthly love. You can’t win it
by being winsome. You can’t lose it by being a loser. But you can be
blind enough to resist it.
Don’t. For heaven’s sake, don’t. For your sake, don’t.
“Take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s
love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the
depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of
God” (Eph. 3:18–19 MSG).
____________________________
From 3:16, The Numbers of Hope
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 2007) Max Lucado
www.maxlucado.com