A meditation on the Steadfast Love of God

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.” -Lamentations 3:22-24 The Lord has highlighted this part of His nature over these last few weeks. He has given me a grander view of His marvelous love. The word steadfast means to remain in a state or a place; to abide for a time indefinitely; not to cease from or to terminate. firmly fixed or established; constant; firm; resolute; not fickle or wavering. This means that the Love of God is unending, constant, unwavering, established, unhindered…There is nothing in us that can attract the love of such a Holy God as He which means that there in nothing that can hinder His love towards us. It is completely uncaused and undeserved by mankind. Jeremiah 31:3b- “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Psalm 42:8- “By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 100:5- “For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 103:1-5; 11; 17- “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your inequity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles….For as high as the Heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him… But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children.” A.W. Tozer beautifully articulates this profound truth in “The Knowledge of the Holy” “From God’s other known attributes we may learn much about His love. We can know, for instance, that because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed.” Hosea 2:19-20- “And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.” Isaiah 62:5- “And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 54:5- “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name, and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer.” It is too much for my heart to fully attain the grandness with which He loves us. He has not only brought us near to Himself by the blood of Christ making us his sons and daughters but He has entered covenant with us. We are His bride. Why would such a gloriously holy God love us- ones who in and of ourselves are wicked, vile, defiled and who have disgraced His name? Though we literally cursed His Name and hated Him and spat upon His face, His love never changed. It was fixed and steadfast upon us. God has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with such sinful men as us. Though we were once like the adulterous wife of Hosea- our Jesus has cleansed and purified us to make us His spotless bride. He loves us… but with such passion to call us His bride. He has entered an eternal covenant with such wretched people and promised His everlasting, love and faithfulness to us. It is astounding to dwell on this fact and reality. He loves us which such great intensity- far above all that we can comprehend. God is not dependent upon us, but He is free- but He has allowed His heart to be “bound to us forever.” (As A.W. Tozer also said.) What is our response to the steadfast love of God? Psalm 107:31; 43- “Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man! Whoever is wise, let Him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.” Psalm 63:3-4 “Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.” Deuteronomy 6:5- “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Because we are loved so immensely by our God it should compel us to love God with a steadfastness of heart, firmly fixed upon our precious Jesus. May every fiber of our being be so taken and in love with Him. Would we love God with everything in us because He is worthy to receive every part of us. Would we hold nothing back from Him. Would every desire, longing and affection be for Him and Him alone.

Oh to be spent for Jesus!

Outpoured- Alice Reynolds Flower

“Oh to be spent for Jesus!
Living a life outpoured,
Doing His service holy,
Broken before the Lord.
Waiting His precious bidding,
Listening for His voice,
Yielded, Still and Steady,
Filling the place of His choice.

Oh to be spent for Jesus!
Never a power reserved.
Treasures so dear, so costly
Given unto the Lord.
Channels that carry His rivers
Empty must be, and clean
Wires that send His messages have no disconnection between

Lives that give sweetest perfume,
Pressure and breaking know
Would that give forth His fragrance?
Through garden shadows go
The box alabaster unbroken
No sweetness can ever give
The lives that are spent for Jesus, ever in riches live.

Are We Going to Risk It All?

Are we going to die in our religion or are we doing to die in our devotion to our God? Are we going to be spent for our King Jesus and for the glory that is do His Name? Are we going to spend ourselves on behalf of the millions that do not know the Name of Jesus and the glorious Gospel?

Are we willing to risk it all for our Jesus?

I am asking these questions to myself just as much (if not more) than I am to you. Are you and I willing to get outside of our comfort zones, out of our comfortable American churches and Western Christian culture and are we willing to GO and bring forth the Gospel to those who are dying never even knowing the Good News of Jesus Christ?

This is not just a week long mission trip in the summer where we get all pumped up for Jesus and then the next week we are the same as before… comfortable and lukewarm. No, this calling is to be radically abandoned to the King of Kings-to be willing to go to the darkest, most hellish, filthiest place and bring Jesus to them.

This calls for radical abandonment to Jesus. Because on our own we don’t want to go, we don’t want to be radical. We want to live comfortably, to be safe, to be secure, and to only believe to more ‘comfortable parts’ of the Bible rather than ALL of it. But what Christ calls us to is an exchanged life.

A life fully given to the King of Kings. We are no longer in control. We do not have say what God does with us we are His for His will to be accomplished in and through us.
We must not stay in comfortable suburbia of America. We must stop ignoring the needs and people around us who are hungry for the hope that lives within us. We cannot remain where we are as Christians in America. There is a dying world out there. Hundreds of thousands of people die each day destined for a Christ-less eternity in hell.

Do we care? Are we moved? Are we compelled?
Does it bother us that thousands of babies in the womb are being aborted? That 11 and 12 year old girls are being trafficked and bought each night in our cities for sex? That there are indigenous tribes all around the world who have never heard the name Jesus. That there are millions of children who are dying from hunger-related issues. Thousands from AIDS. Thousands from treatable sickness. That there are 163,000,000 orphans who have no advocate. That there are thousands of children in the United States Foster Care System who can be adopted for little to no cost.

We are the Church. Jesus has called us to be HIS HANDS and FEET to this World. I know that Jesus grieves over the babies that are being aborted, the girls who are sex-trafficked, those dying of starvation, AIDS and sickness, the orphans and foster care children, the homeless and widow.

THESE PEOPLE ARE HIS HEART.

Jesus has commanded us to go to them. Rescue them and bring them to Jesus. We cannot stay where we are. We must act. We must go. We cannot stay safe and comfortable. Finding our joy and pleasure in things that will not last. We cannot be caught up in football or video games, or shopping when there is a dying world out there.
We must first be on our knees. We must have the anguish, agony and pain that God experiences for these people. Then we must go. Go because God has commissioned us to go. Not out of humanitarian compassion but because the Almighty, all-powerful God has called us to represent Him. Because God is worthy to receive the glory and praise out of these lives.

We must risk it all. Risk our reputations, our finances, our lives, our time, our energy, we must risk everything for the sake of our King.

We need more Hudson Taylors, Jim and Elisabeth Elliots, Amy Carmichaels, C.T. Studds, Gladys Alwards, George Muellers. These great men and women were not humanitarians who changed the world. They were commissioned by God to go to the least for the glory of God and because of this they made a lasting impact for the world.

The world today has enough humanitarians. What we need are more Christians who are truly Christians in this world. Who are moved by God to go for the sake of the glory that is due Christ’s Name-who is willing to shed blood and die for the sake of the Gospel and those who have never heard it.

Are we willing to risk it all?

Majesty of Heaven

Majesty of heaven
You're glory fills the skies
Light of the world
You are lord of all

Humbled by your presence
Amazed by who you are
Nothing compares
You are lord of all


To you the nations bow down
To you a creation cries out
Majesty
All things you hold together
Your name will stand forever
Majesty
You are majesty

Merciful and mighty
My heart is overwhelmed
You stand alone
You are lord of all

Your name above all others
High and exalted
Your kingdom shall reign forever
High and exalted

The Love of Christ....

"Our Father which art in heaven, we Thy children are often troubled in mind,hearing within us at once the affirmations of faith and the accusations of conscience.We are sure that there is in us nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as Thou art. Yet Thou hast declared Thine unchanging love for us in Christ Jesus. If nothing in us can win Thy love, nothing in the universe can prevent Thee from loving us. Thy love is uncaused and undeserved. Thou art Thyself the reason for the love wherewith we are loved. Help us to believe the intensity, the eternity of the love that has found us. Then love will cast out fear; and our troubled hearts will be at peace, trusting not in what we are but in what Thou hast declared Thyself to be. Amen."

-A.W. Tozer ("Knowledge of the Holy")
-The Love of God



The Love of Christ is Rich and Free

Words by William Gadsby
Music by Sandra McCracken

The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on His own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as He lives, His own He’ll love.

His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.

Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day.

Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.

He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught from Him can Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make His love for her depart.

At death, beyond the grave, He’ll love;
In endless bliss, His own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove.

Pray Until Revival Comes!

I had a thought the other day,"What would it look like if this generation of men in our country were radically changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ?"

What would the effects be? Crime rates would go down significantly. The prison system would have less occupants. Foster Care would have no more children. The number of teen pregnancies and single mothers would drop. Abortions would become less and less common and Planned Parenthood would have no more business. Divorce rates would go down. Sex trafficking and the porn industries would have no more customers. Today's church pulpits would be filled with men who preach the true powerful Gospel. We would have more missionaries. More Evangelists. More A.W. Tozers. Leonard Ravenhills. Jim Elliots, John "Praying" Hydes. Hudson Taylors. C.T. Studds. William Wilberforces. Major Ian Thomas'. Keith Greens. Reese Howells.

It is time that we fall on our knees before God and pray until revival comes.

"But have we Holy Spirit power - power that restricts the devil's power, pulls down strongholds and obtains promises? Daring delinquents will be damned if they are not delivered from the devil's dominion. What has hell to fear other than a God-anointed, prayer-powered church?"
-Leonard Ravenhill

God cannot lie. His Word is Truth. He is faithful to do what He promises. God has promised in 2 Chronicles 7:14- "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

We must pray. Pray for revival in our land. Pray for revival in our men today. Revival in our fathers. In our brothers. Husbands. Sons. Pray for Almighty God to revive dead hearts and awaken them to the power and victory in Jesus Christ.

Paul Washer says, "The mark of a Man of God is God upon the Man." Pray that the mark of God would be upon every soul in this generation.

"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago." -Isaiah 51:9

The Fingerprints of God Are All Over You...

Take the next few minutes and listen to this clip from Paul Washer.