Love of God

The Blessedness of a Blessing God!

Psalm 103:1–5 (NKJV):

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Verse 1 explodes with blessing, worship, praise and adoration to our wonderful, blessing God!

Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! And this blessing and worship of God is not without reason or cause, verse 2:

Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits

And now those incredible, life-transforming benefits that are given to us by God who is good and loving (notice the couplets):

  • 3a Who forgives all your iniquities,
    • 3b Who heals all your diseases,

  • 4a Who redeems your life from destruction,
    • 4b Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

  • 5Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
    • 5b So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

And I am the recipient of such blessings!

Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
God has forgiven all my many iniquities! All because of what Christ did for me through His life of total obedience to the Father, all the way to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8, Hebrews 10:1-10).

God has healed me of cancer, of COVID-19 (twice), of many ills in my body and soul!

Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

God has intervened thousands of times to redeem (rescue and buy back) my life from destruction! JESUS is my Kinsman-Redeemer! He has “delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 2:13-14). I have even been rescued from the bullets of a gunman who came to our workplace and shot at brave police officers who were there to protect us and many others!

Not only does God lift me, redeem me and rescue me from destruction, He also “crowns me with lovingkindness and tender mercies!”

Oh, how I love that Hebrew word for “lovingkindness”: hesed! This incredible word is power-packed with God’s love toward me: a faithful and strong kind of covenant-keeping Love! This was the hallmark of King David’s life. No one else in scripture mentioned God’s hesed love more than David! I believe that God’s hesed was truly the secret behind David’s success! And God’s hesed, faithful, strong, covenant Love is also the secret behind my success!

Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

No one and no thing can satisfy the thirst, hunger and desires of our life like God Himself! No one and no thing! I’m so glad that God has created us for enjoyment, satisfaction and pleasure… and the greatest enjoyment and pleasure of our lives is God Himself!

You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

God is no “kill joy”. He is he architect of satisfaction and pleasure. Truly, there is no greater satisfaction and pleasure for spirit, soul and body than God Himself!

“So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s”

Even though I am in my 60’s, I take no heed to what the world says about “aging”. But I sure pay a lot of attention to what God says! He says that He renews my youth like the eagle’s! Soaring high above the dangers and problems below, lofted by His glorious presence!

As I feed and delight in God… He renews my youth!

And the wonderful thing is, I am living forever, thanks to what The Lord Jesus Christ has done for me! His life and blood spent for me! Such Love, such Love, such wondrous Love!

How I praise Him for how good He is, how loving He is, how faithful, strong, wise, forgiving, healing, redeeming, crowning, satisfying and renewing He really is!

Oh, my heart and my soul want to explode and say:

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:

(c) 2022, Mark D. VanOuse

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We Will Never Plumb the Depths of God’s Love in All Eternity

Ephesians 2:7 (NKJV)
[7] that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Jamieson Faucett & Brown in their commentary* observe:
Ephesians 2:7 answers the question of why God lavished such love upon his people: so that they will marvel for all of eternity over the incredible kindness and love of God. It will take all of eternity to fathom God’s love, and those who are saved will never plumb the depths of it.

The thought that “It will take all of eternity to fathom God’s love, and those who are saved will never plumb the depths of it” is so powerfully touching my heart.

In this world, all we know is limited supply. Eventually, we will run to the end of everything: money, time, resources, energy, pleasure, satisfaction, peace, safety, health, life — even human love.

Yet for all eternity we will never exhaust the Love of God! There will be new (to us) depths and places in His love that we will endlessly discover for all eternity! Think of that! Oh, the constant satisfaction! Oh, the constant delight and pleasure! Oh, the wonder of real, unfailing Love!

The one thing the world over seeks is this Love…. eternal Love…. forever Love.vYet we foolishly seek love elsewhere…

“For My people have committed two evils:They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)

A catch basin, that’s all it is — and a broken one at that!
Yet He is the Living Water (John 4). His Love is an everlasting Love fit for all eternity. From this moment to eternity, His Love will always satisfy us with delight, wonder and discovery!

His great, conquering Love brought us from the depths of of sinfulness — objects of His wrath — to being “seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6)!

* Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown 1871

Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash

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Such Costly Love – Part 3

[Series: Such Costly Love] The great Love of God is supremely demonstrated by the costly sacrifice of Jesus and shed His precious blood for us. In this episode we learn more about SUCH COSTLY LOVE and more reasons for His shed blood:

  • Remission of sins, which brings about the completely removal of all sin, past present and future.
  • Blood of purification
  • Brought near to God
  • New Covenant Blood

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A Deeper Understanding of The Love of God During Crisis

We’ve taken a pause of our ongoing series, “More Than Conquerors in the Darkest of Times” to allow The Lord to bring an important 3 episode series, Such Costly Love“. It has been my experience in ministering to people who are in crisis that when their foundational understanding of the Love of God is weak, then they have great difficulty trusting in such a Loving God during their crisis. A strong foundation built on the sacrificial Love of God is critical to your life walk, whether good times or bad!

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Such Costly Love – Part 2

[Series: Such Costly Love] Christians understand that it was necessary for Christ to shed His precious blood to bring us salvation. Unfortunately, very few Christians understand why Jesus had to shed His blood for US. In this episode we learn about:

  • Redemption blood – as a ransom, purchasing us from sin, self and Satan to God. We now belong to God and His Loving care!
  • Reconciliation Blood – bringing restoration of friendly relations and peace with God,
  • Justification Blood – being declared innocent and given the same standing with God that Jesus has.
  • Perfect Sanctification Blood – set apart completely and perfectly for God, now and forever.

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Such Costly Love – Part 1

[Series: Such Costly Love] The Greatness of God’s incredible love is demonstrated and clearly seen not in the best of places… but in our worst. In this first part of a two-part message we’ll look into the great cost of God’s Love for YOU.

  • Exactly what is this great demonstration of God’s Love?
  • This love is shown to the ungodly.
  • The fallacy of “poor helpless souls”, as opposed to the biblical truth that all sinners are in a deplorable state rebellion, idolatry and selfishness against God.

Photo credit: picture of leaf on background of logo by Alexis Fauvet on Unsplash

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Dark storm pushed back by brilliant light.

More Than Conquerors in the Darkest of Times 5: Children & Heirs of God

[Series: More Than Conquerors in the Darkest of Times] In these incredibly uncertain, even frightening, times many wonder: “What is the greatest form of security?” and “How can my family and I be kept safe?” Even more importantly: “How do I get rid of this fear and anxiety in my life?” In this episode we see how the great Love of God is the answer to all:

  • We are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37) by means of Him who loved us”. That Love and understanding that Love is key.
  • What’s really at the bottom of all fear and how it’s overcome.
  • What it means to be adopted into the family of God.
  • How the Spirit bears witness to us that we are the children of God.
  • What it means to be a “joint heir” with Christ.
  • What it means when God glorifies us.

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Dark storm pushed back by brilliant light.

More Than Conquerors in the Darkest of Times, Part 1 – Introduction

[Series: More Than Conquerors in the Darkest of Times] There are times in our lives when we are suddenly hit with a crisis. Like a car getting slammed broadside on the road. But no matter how dark and frightening the crisis — even the current Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic — God reigns supreme. And that makes all the difference in our lives! This episode begins a brand new series that speaks to this truth, called “More Than Conquerors in the Darkest of Times”. Today, well look at:

  • The challenge of a crisis: above all remembering that God is King of all.
  • The profound importance of Romans chapter 8 and how this powerful chapter can bring powerful stability and victory to our lives, no matter the crisis.
  • The major themes of Romans 8.

Photo credit: Photo by Arto Marttinen on Unsplash

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Blessed #6: The Incredible Steadfast Love of The Lord

[Psalm 103:8-10, Part 6 of the series, “Blessed Beyond Imagination”]  We live in rapidly changing times. Everywhere we look, dramatic — sometimes traumatic — change is taking place: in our culture, in the world, at the workplace, in our schools and in our families. But there is one, sure, great constant and that is GOD HIMSELF and His Incredible STEADFAST LOVE. In this lesson we learn about:

  • The rich Hebrew word “hesed”, which means “steadfast love” or “unfailing love”. This powerful word, which is closest to the New Covenant concept of grace, occurs many times throughout the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Psalms.
  • The great dimensions of God’s love: His great mercy.
  • What is really behind the wrath of God, how God’s anger is the result of His justice and righteousness, which have been so severely violated by sinful man.
  • How God’s wrath last only for a moment, yet His mercy is EVERLASTING!

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Blessed #3: Perfect Forgiveness & Healing

[This is Part 3 of the series, “Blessed Beyond Imagination”] We continue with a veritable feast of God’s blessings & benefits, found in Psalm 103. Today, we look at:

  • God’s TOTAL forgiveness – no matter how great the iniquity or sin, God’s love and grace makes possible a perfect and forever forgiveness, based on the perfection of Jesus Christ and His perfect, finished work. This teaching will truly set you free to enjoy your relationship with God!
  • Temporary forgiveness (people misusing 1 John 1:9) vs. the forever forgiveness of ALL our sins, whether past, present or future.
  • God’s healing – He heals ALL of our diseases. Jesus, the image of the Father, “healed all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people”. Jesus did this because that was what The Father was doing. Our Father is still healing through Jesus IN US today.

[Scripture: Psalm 103:3, various]

CC by-nc-nd 2016 Mark D. VanOuseThis recording is under a Creative Commons copyright license.

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