Greetings, Zane.
Well, we made it from New York to Katherine and Joe’s place in Crane, Missouri, with just one night in a motel along the way, arriving here yesterday afternoon about 5:30pm. Fun reunion. Then this morning, over a brunch, we had some renewed fellowship with the Rojaks—missionary friends who were with us in Vanuatu—now serving in Papua New Guinea.
We joined in a little exercise with the many mini horses here overseen by Katherine’s mother-in-law—taking them into the town of Crane to familiarize them with walking in that setting in preparation for their participating in an up-coming parade. So I’m sticking on one photo showing your cousin, Nita, with one of the horses (“Royal”) in a little exposure to a creek running through a little park.
It’s difficult to identify a particular passage of the Bible that we can hold up as THE ABSOLUTELY MOST IMPORTANT. But I would at least insist that this 8th chapter of Romans is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! I haven’t fully done so yet, but I think it could be a very worthwhile discipline for all of us to commit the entire chapter to memory.
Hope you’re doing well in all the sectors of your life. Please do not allow the priority for your being to be compromised or neutralized—please live with a passionate HEART AFTER GOD.
Love and prayers—Tua/Ray.
I know we have addressed this before—but I have to confess again that I get a little nervous when I hear people using a popular expression, “God’s UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.” Yes, “God so loved the world.” But that sure doesn’t mean that everyone in the world automatically gets the full benefit of that love. The full benefit is very CONDITIONAL—the condition being “whosoever believeth in Him” (John 3:16). And believing in Him includes fulfilling the top requirement (Supreme Commandment) of the entire revealed Word of God—to passionately LOVE GOD. (See Matthew 22:34-40)
This is born out in our reading of Romans 8. Consider carefully the focus scripture above. Who is it that God works everything out for the good of? “Those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Please, please, please get this straight. God accomplishes the full benefit of His love in the lives and destinies of only ONE kind of people—those who respond to His love call and practice the Supreme Commandment—those who LOVE HIM.
I want us to review the last portion of this chapter. It is indeed a wonderful crescendo of Biblical Truth. But it also contains this implicit warning that we must not overlook.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).”
Did you hear that? HALELUIA! Absolutely NOTHING can externally separate me from the love of God—with ONE glaring exception—ME—my internal NON-LOVE—my failure (indifference, neglect, or refusal) to LOVE GOD and embrace His Supreme LOVE GIFT—Christ Jesus as Savior and ongoing Lord.