This is Love

So in my devotions lately I've been reading in the book of John. I was reading right before Christ was arrested to go to trial and then be crucified, and it was when Christ was praying in the garden. It talks about in a part of the passage that... He was praying for those that were going to become believers in Him... not just right after His death and resurrection, but believers until the end of the earth's days... including all of the believers now... including me and you if you have accepted Him as your personal Savior. It's so amazing that... not only did He pray for believers in general, but He prayed for every single one of us... because He loves us and wants us to be strong... strong in Him and to keep a relationship with Him. It just hit me as I was reading... that not only was He praying... but He prayed to His Father... our Heavenly Father. Christ was there with God at the creation of all things... because He is God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..." He prayed to the Heavenly Father for us because He loves us so much and wants us to live for Him... Christ loves us so much. I wonder why the God of everything in the universe would love a wretched sinner like I am, that He would send His only Son to die for me so I wouldn't have to spend eternity in Hell, but instead we can spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

This really is Love.

How I love Thee

It's been a while since I've posted a post on here... so well here we go. This past Sunday, I went to this church with my family because my papa was going to preach there, my family was going to sing, and they wanted me to play some guitar too. I just got back from visiting with Meg and her family, and I had to come up with some songs to play that night. I was supposed to put around 4 songs together, and I chose some songs I have known for a while and one that I just recently wrote. The songs I sang that night were As the Deer, I am Barrabas, By His Wounds, and Oh My Lord (the song I've written). Little did I realize what was going on until we were at the church doing sound checks. All the songs that I chose... were put on my heart by God with the message of.. desiring God and loving Him.

The songs basically together talk about... We need to have God as our heart's desire. We should long to worship Him as well. God gave His Son Jesus to die for us in our place, just as Jesus was chosen to die over Barrabas as the crowd released Barrabas. By His wounds on the cross and by His blood shed in our place, we are healed because He is our sacrifice for our sins... so we don't have to face Hell for our sins, we can go to Heaven and see Him and worship Him forever and ever. Oh My Lord talks about how I (we) love God for His Sacrifice on the cross, and how He is the King over all things.... our King. Here is the chorus from Oh My Lord.

-We sing praises to the Lamb
He holds us in His Hand
Oh my Lord
Oh how I love Thee