God is Love Part 3

1 John 4:8 "God is Love"

Christians need to experience God's love desperately. It is a hurting world that needs's His love, but we cannot give away what we don't have. Rich Mullins was a strong Christian that still had to learn about God's love. Once he did it forever changed him. He started reaching out to "un-churched people" and they just loved him even though he was a Christian.

The musician/song writer Rich Mullins was transformed by a statement made to him by Dave Busby (a youth pastor), "There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, there is nothing you can do to make God love you less."

"God's love is for us is not based on what we do or don't do. The love God has for each of us springs from His nature because God is love. It's not based on our performance and it is not diminished because of our failures. God's love is the same constantly." - James Bryan Smith

A homosexual man was hanging out with Rich Mullins in the mountains, (actually giving him a ride to his camp- they had just met). The man said, "I should probabaly tell you I'm gay." Rich replied "Well I should probabaly tell you that I'm a Christian."

The man asked him , "Do you want me to let you out? " Rich said, "No. Why would I want that?" To which the man replied, "I thought christians hated gays." Immediately Rich responded , "I thought christians were supposed to love, it is our first command from Jesus."

When the newly met friend asked Rich if God hated gays Rich replied , "That's funny I thought God loved you, God is love." The man wanted to know if he would go to hell. So the rest of the conversation I will paraphrase so as not to plagarize James Bryan Smith's biography of Rich Mullins entitled An Arrow Pointing Toward Heaven.

Rich basically told the man "You are gay and I lie, lust and sin." We are all sinners! But we are sinners whom God loves. (My paraphrase which is not near as funny- funny in the sense in which Rich comments on himself.) "We all sin but we will only go to hell if we reject the grace that God longs to give us in Christ Jesus."

There is a hell, however as one great pastor (Malcolm Smith) said, "The only way we can get to hell is to fight thru God's love and to fight thru His cross - reject His love and reject His cross of Christ Jesus. " If you saw the movie the passion of Christ you see that Christ went to great lengths to redeem you, He suffered so much because He loves you so much!!

God doesn't love you because of who you are (or even who you are not), He loves you because of Who HE IS! He is love and He has paid the way for you to come back to Him - to become a brand new person - to become His child- and to have fellowship by His Holy Spirit.

If you are a believer please start abiding on that Love, claim it, believe it, then share it!

till next time - SJ