Jesus Loves Me….
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 09-09-2013
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All my life I have been taught that, “Jesus loves me”. How do I know? Because the bible tells me so. And it does in fact say that. There is the song that all vacation bible school students sing about that so we learn it at a very early age. Chances are pretty good that if you attended church in the early years of your life you sang that song also. I love it and believe it. One other thing that I have been taught and I believe it very strongly also is, “FEAR THE LORD THY GOD”. I think that there are times we forget that scripture as it does not sit well with us. But if you believe the bible, you believe that God made this universe, and you believe that Jesus loves me, then you must believe that we should fear the might of the Lord our God. He also said that “my words shall not return to me void.” He said it, he meant it, and my friends, you better believe it. It is so…. A federal judge can make a ruling, a house of congress can make a ruling, the senate can make a ruling and all the country can say, now we can do it. If God says it is wrong, it is wrong, government cannot over rule God’s law. Many think that it can, but it does not work that way. Obedience to the “word of God” is one of our obligations as a believer. “Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Give unto God that which is God’s.” I think that means money or loyalty…..That said, still “Jesus Loves You”……Pete Hester
Amen to all you have said here. I’d just like to make one comment. If you study the Hebrew rendering of “Fear the Lord…”, you will find that “fear” is not a cringing fear like that of a homeowner cringing and shaking in his/her bedroom as an armed intruder is breaking into his home or of a woodsman cringing unarmed just before a ferocious bear is about to eat him. “Fear”, as it is used in the Old Testament connotes a healthy respect for the awesome power, understanding, knowledge, and pervasiveness of one’s Maker. This is all it means. Respect! Not a cringing fear! It is out of this respect that one learns about God. We do not learn about God from a cringing fear. In fact, it is impossible to learn anything from a cringing fear just as it is impossible to survive a ferocious, hungry bear if one is cringing helplessly in front of him without any instinct for survival. We must survive before we can seek God. God may help us to survive, but survival must come first.
The entire Bible can be summed up in its shortest verse, “Jesus loves!” Unless and until we survive, who can know about the love of Christ. It is so important to survive so we can learn about the greatest love of earth, agape love, that we learn from Christ. This is the reason that we have a healthy respect for God for what he is, and not a cringing fear as if He was a ferocious monster who is about to eat us.
I meant respectful “fear” as in who is Boss. You cannot yank Him around. Once saved, always saved, but at times I believe He gives us a needed spanking. Most of the time I did what my eathly father said out of fear for a spanking. Maybe that’s a little understated, however, our Heavenly Father is very concerned about each of our welfare. Pete
I don’t know about the “Boss” bit. God loves us because he made us. We are a part of His Creation; in fact, we are the most important and prime part of His Creation. A boss loves his employees for what they can do to make a profit for his or his company’s bank account. God loves us simply because of what we are, what he created us to be as beings with an independent will yet subservant to our Maker in love. I don’t know about the “spanking” bit either because God is not going to violate our free will in order to correct our errant ways. This makes a “spanking” suspect and to be used only as a last resort. He will lead us in love to follow Jesus and to go the right way, but He will not violate our free will in order to do that. If he did so, He would not be a loving God, nor would He be a loving parent. This does not mean that he will not spank; neither does it mean that a parent should never spank a child; but it does mean that any spanking will be done only through love with the best interest of the child and “the children of God” in mind always mindful of the loving way.
I was never spanked out of hatred and I deserved every one I got. I hated it when Mom whipped me with her peach tree limb and then told me, “just wait til your Dad gets home, you really gonna get it.” Spare the rod and spoil the child, but somehow they seemed to have done both, spanked and spoiled, with me.