God Looks: Where His Grace Began

AlinaSoptIf you could draw God’s love on a graph, it would be a straight line all throughout eternity, never curving or dipping even a millimeter, no matter what happens. God is the one and only God whose love is immeasurable, radical, and eternal. Immeasurable because He gave His one and only Son for us, His rebellious creation, radical because He never gives up on us, and eternal because His kind of love never runs out on us.

Everyone knows that famous verse of the Bible: “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not parish, but have everlasting life.” It is truly the Gospel wrapped up into one verse, which has children and theologians alike gaping at the simple verse’s complexity and depth. But that’s another message for another day. Instead, let’s pull back the curtains to one of the first acts God did to prove He loves us with a loving jealousy and desire unlike we know…He looked.

Seems simple enough. It doesn’t look like there is much depth to it, does there? Maybe a few pastors have considered this topic as the main message of a Sunday sermon, and very few evangelizers have used it as the first message spoken to an unbeliever. I don’t blame them. God’s provision, God’s justice, the miracle of Christ, and dozens of other topics trump what seems like this feeble topic. Continue reading “God Looks: Where His Grace Began”

Beauty for Ashes

Camelia Micu

You and I are God’s beautiful creations: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”, Genesis 1:27, with no blemishes and free of sin, yet because the first man and woman did not obey God’s given commands, they fell into sin that caused a completely new movement in the universe. Remember, how God created man? Out of dust, yes, you and I were nothing but, dust! No one likes dust on their shoes, clothes…in fact some may even be allergic to dust. God was not allergic to it, nor did He get rid of it. Why? He had a better plan, a bigger picture! All of that changed when God created man out of that dust and breathed life into him…“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”, Genesis 2:7. God created something as beautiful as you and me out of nothing, but a handful of dust, “to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair”, Isaiah 61:3 …”With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”, Matthew 19:26… WOW, now I can’t resist not singing the chorus to this song: “You make beautiful things out of the dust,/ You make beautiful things,/ You make beautiful things out of us all around,/ You make me new,/ You are making me new”. Continue reading “Beauty for Ashes”