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元若藍 - 愛x無限大 (有夠笨舞蹈)
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超可愛吧!
Article taken from Fatherly Talk
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The Loveliness of Every Soul in God's Eyes
Dearly Beloved
In order to comprehend the width, length, depth and height of God's love we need to be able to see through God's eyes and heart. All our ability to love has been limited by our experiences in this life (from foetus to adulthood). Until and unless we break free from our own experiential limitations, we will never be able to fully comprehend God's love.
God is the Father and Creator of all life, all souls and all spirit beings. There is a tenderness that one has when one is the source and creator of life. A tiny, tiny measure is seen in the sacrificial love that parents have for their children. In the eyes of many mothers, the most wicked criminal if it were their own son still has some qualities worth redeeming. The ability of parents and lovers to see good in their object of love is beyond comprehension. In the eyes of God, every human soul has some good qualities and beauty yet unlocked. For God has seen the end of all evil in our future and thus dare to allow evil to exist alongside good. We humans find it difficult to keep a loving attitude towards the most hideous of human monsters who show evil in their lives especially when they destroy millions of others. Yet God alone can see some good there that He still would have sent His son if they were the only ones left in the world.
God loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). We were not just sinners, we were enemies in the sight of God (Romans 5:10). We were evil and sinners in His sight, yet He loved us! Many of us cannot understand this unconditional love of God in the same way that Jonah did not understand God's love and mercy. The Assyrians were the most wicked and evil of all the people who had conquered Jerusalem. Some of their deeds according to historians were the skinning and flaying of people while still alive, killing of babies and children, pregnant women pierced alive with the sword, and various other methods of evil and torture that are not even imaginable in our modern days. Their wickedness came right up to the throne of God (Jonah 1:2). Yet God sent Jonah to warn them and when they responded to Jonah's preaching and repented, God forgave them. Jonah hated them so much that he did not take delight in God's pardoning them and God had to teach Jonah through a plant (Jonah chapter 4). Many of us would have been displeased with God and even angry like Jonah was (Jonah 4:1). This is how we feel towards all those evil people in our recent history. Jonah would rather die than see them forgiven by God (Jonah 4:3).
Many Christians feel what they call righteous indignation such that some extreme ones have even advocated taking the law into their own hands. Foolish ones, how can they make a right with two wrongs? Others advocate that the law severely punish and remove such dirt life from the face of the earth. Now I do realize that this imperfect planet needs the law and a system of good government that deals severely with lawlessness in proportion to its wickedness (Romans 13:1-7). It is only right that for society and civilization to exist and grow to its height, the evil and the lawless must be dealt with and put away. Such principles are righteous and right and even applied in the Spiritual World where God banishes and imprisons spirits that disobey (2 Peter 2:4; Jude v6). However, there is a big difference between God meting out judgment and humans judging. With God His anger is only on the surface to show His displeasure but His heart is always full of love. With humans, the anger is deep within (sometimes the only force felt) and most of the time there is a complete absence of love.
Judgment in condemnation and vengeance is NOT our right. We are told not to judge and that vengeance is the Lord's (Matthew 7:1-3; Romans 12:19). This is not referring to judgment of things, teachings and prophecy (1 Corinthians 2:15; 14:29; Philippians 1:9), it is referring to judging and condemning another human being eternally. For everyone makes judgment in life and situations in order to make the right decisions. We judge things, situations, doctrine, practices, etc. but not people. Only God has the right to judge people eternally. Those who work as judges or magistrates would have to do their jobs righteously but none of them are eternal judges. Only Christ is the eternal judge of finality (Acts 17:31). Even an earthly judge, being human, can feel disgust or some anger at the crimes, evil and lawlessness that they judged but then at the end of the day, they must not judge based on their feelings, they must judge based on the law without fear or favour. Feelings of anger at other humans can be real but we must never let the sun go down on our anger (Ephesians 4:26). This both means never to let the anger become our attribute but to let it pass quickly before the day is out. Our attribute should always be love, love and love.
Love feels disgust at sin and evil and even anger but love is not the natural attribute feeling for us. Neither is God's anger and hatred of evil His attribute. Jesus loved righteousness and hated lawlessness (Hebrews 1:9). Yet, the attribute of Jesus is never hate, only love, love and love. The great difference between humans and God is that humans completely lose their love for those who are evil in their midst. God never loses His ability to feel and show love to those who are bad and evil. The Lord Jesus Himself showed great love to Judas even when He knew that He was dishonest and going to betray Him. And if the Lord Jesus had not kept loving Saul who was kicking at Him by persecuting His disciples, we would not have the story of Paul the apostle. Stephen, filled with love, prayed that Saul and the others responsible for his death would be pardoned (Acts 7:60). Stephen was so full of love that they saw the glory of God on Stephen for his face shone like an angel (Acts 6:15). Stephen saw the glory of God and was experiencing 2 Corinthians 3:18 (Acts 7:55).
It is only natural for us to feel hatred towards evil and disgust at wickedness for we were made to only see beauty in righteousness and holiness. It is however not right for us to feel such feelings to the entire abolition of all feelings of love towards any creature of God. Should the feelings become part of our attribute, then we have actually allowed ourselves to become imperfect. How could God keep having love for all His creation even in the midst of such terrible evil and wickedness?
1. God can see the potential while all of us have given up.
2. God still feels ownership over His creation while we are totally divorced from evil.
3. God knows the future and will keep on reaching towards His creation until all is perfected.
4. God's love has no end but ours have an ending.
5. God's love is unconditional while ours is conditional.
We must raise our ability to love to the level of God. We must acquire the ability to see beauty where all is ashes, to see good where all is evil, to see love where all is hate. Only then can we love as God loves. Also what we are able to see is limited by who we are. A covetous person will notice others who are covetous. A greedy person will see greed in others. A proud person will see only pride in others. What we noticed most in others are the things that we secretly treasure in ourselves. Also what we hate within us is also that which we tend to see and hate in others for love and hate are closely linked in its ability to attract the similar things within us. What do we love? What do we hate? We become conscious of what we love or hate. Negative emotions are as powerful in its ability to manifest as is positive emotions. What we like in ourselves, we will also like in others; what we love, we will love in others; and what we hate, we will hate in others. Our very ability to love and relate to others is equal to the same ability that we have relating to ourselves. We are limited by our very own selves and not by God. Thus we must cast aside all these limitations that grow into our lives through the natural mind and flesh and take on the limitless quality of the Spirit of God.
How can we be perfect and loving like God unless we also find the power of love within us even when we are drowned with raw emotions of hate towards sin and wickedness? Never ever let the sin, evil and imperfection in others around you rob you of the ability to keep a loving attitude towards them. Instead let love always be your default attribute. Then will we be perfect like our Heavenly Father is perfect. We must seek to find good where there is only evil, love where there is only hatred and joy where there is only pain and suffering. The day we can discover these, then are we on our way to becoming more like God. Never ever, ever, ever let hate, bitterness, disgust and all such negative feelings become a part of our natural and default attribute. To do so is to have lost the greatest battle for personal transformation.
If God's love is even in the lowest hell, surely we can experience His love anywhere else in this present life no matter how bad it seems (Romans 8:38-39). Look for love and you will find it. Look for beauty in others and you will see it. Look for attachment to them by love and you will feel the love that God feels for them. Every soul who has come to this earth is lovely in the sight of God. Even one of them would have been worth more than the whole world (Mark 8:36). They are all precious to God. God still feels connected to each soul in the same way that we all will always feel connected to our physical body. We would not cut of our own hands or our own legs, thus God would not cut off His love to all those of His creation no matter how imperfect they seem to be.
Let us feel and see this unconditional love that God perpetually has with His own creation. God is patient, kind, longsuffering, joyful – all the attributes of love. He feels this love intensely towards each one of us as much as He feels it towards all His creation. We need to grow in our intensity of God's love. Let there never be a moment when love does not breakthrough.
Keep meditating on the purest and final display of love in Christ. Meditate on the supreme picture of love – Christ at Calvary. May we be able to love every single human on the earth without reservation and unconditionally. Be discerning in your love but always know that the glory of God, the power of God and the wealth of God flows only through the pathways of love.
In Christ Jesus
楊宗緯 - 洋蔥 (Live@週日狂熱夜 - 詞曲：阿信)
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也是唯一帶回佐助的方法.
愛真正的威力
是在最醜陋絕望的地方才能看見
因為愛為愛被掛在上面
十字架, 原本是個死刑的器具
後來變成了光明與希望的代號
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