Assignment 4

[Ben Johns]

It is impossible to define the gospel message without love. It is impossible to explain the lunacy, the scandal, and the unprecedented choice that God made without love.  Love drives sacrifice. It wasn't nails that kept Christ on the cross, it was love. Love that goes beyond our reason.  Love that came into the world, came to where we are. God demonstrated his love in Christ.  Christ was the perfect demonstration of God's love for us.  Agape love has no limits, no boundaries, it is self-sacrificing love. Philippians 2 is so powerful for this reason.  God stepped down from his throne, his position. In humility, Christ went to the cross and died, purely out of love. No other power put him in that position. At any time it could have been stopped.  God was pleased to have all of His fullness dwell in Him. His character.  And now that is us!  Why? I don't know, because He certainly doesn't need us, but that was the deal.  Christ promised the Holy Spirit to dwell inside us.  We can't play small with this.  The God of the universe, the God defined as Love, is inside of us.  Yes we have worldy parts, and broken parts, but the God of the universe is inside of us and we carry that around.  Blows my mind. So why do we fear, why are we cowards in uncomfortable situations, and why do we question whether we can be effective or not? How is this love demonstrated? In the same way. Sacrificial love. Selfless love. Our agendas aside. God our highest cause. That is how Jesus did it.  Loving without expecting it back, and dying for those that would not love back.  If we love those that love us, what credit is that to us?  

benny

[Amy Jacobs]

A) The LOVE of God in Christ

B) How that (Love) is to intersect with His disciples and children.

A) It's mind-boggling to read, then truly consider the depth of the LOVE our Creator has for each of us, for all of us. It's a Love we scarcely comprehend: Christ stepped down from His heavenly throne to display for us in person just how much we were, we are, and we will always be Love by God. He Loved us before the creation of the world we live in, before He put the stars in the sky. And the worst part of this is... we don't get it. Our ability to understand the Agape Love that God has for us is very much like the ant believing it understands the world from the perspective of the elephant (thanks Benny). That ant can only see inches in front of it, and the elephant can see so much more. It's not impossible though, for us to Love with God's Agape Love flowing out from within us, thanks to Jesus.

B) This Love, this Agape Love, intersects at our hope in Christ and the promise that we will one day be like Him, loving with His Love, living with His Life, believing with His Trust and Faith, and Knowing so intimately the Creator, our God, as intimately as He knows each of us. That hope dwells within us in the form of the Holy Spirit, remaining in the deepest parts of our being where He works to bring us into completion in Christ.

[Kellie Coe]

Assignment 4

A. The love of God in Christ

God's love is a huge concept that has been at the center of my personal walk for the past year. 

The scripture we looked at in Colossians 1:19 is a good summary of God's love: For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile Himself in all things on earth and heaven by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. I believe this and know this to be true, but am working on really understanding/believing His gift and love for me in a deeper place.

I've read the scripture that talks about God adopting us as His children many times before, but they jumped out at me in this study and brought me another step closer to understanding/accepting His love for me. The 1 John passage says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God and that is what we are." The love for a child is something I can understand. A parent's love for his or her child is so intense, so passionate, unconditional, never ending, words can't begin to describe it. So if I turn that and know that is how God loves me, it brings me to my knees. 

It reminds me of one of the first times God truly spoke to me. Hannah was 4 or 5, we were riding our bikes to the lake by our house. She was in front of me when I was flooded with love just looking at her tiny precious body joyfully peddling down the path. Completely overwhelmed with love I said to God, "Look at her, she is so beautiful!" Suddenly I felt God behind me, gazing at me in love just I was gazing at Hannah and I heard Him say, "That is how I feel about you."

B. How does that intersect with His disciples and children and What does it look like to have Christ's love flow through us?

I think the scripture we looked at for this study tells us to love and serve each other just as He loves and serves us. I like the passage in 1 John that tells us to love with actions, not just words.