This past Sunday we attended our Pastor’s church, being I wasn’t speaking somewhere else.  They sang a song that really touched my heart, called “Amazing Love”. 

 It goes like this:  “Amazing Love, how can it be, that You my King would die for me?  Amazing Love, I know it’s true. It’s my joy to honor You, in all I do, I honor You.”

    I couldn’t hold my tears back.  And I’m not one to cry easily.  But how can it be, that God can love us, the unlovely, so much, that Jesus died for us? And on a more personal note, how could He love ME that much?  The memory lingers just like it was yesterday, how ungrateful I was to Him for this Amazing Love. Before I was saved,  I lived a life of absolute sin, actually going to church most weeks, hearing the message, looking at my watch to see if it was time to leave yet.  Hello?  Anyone ever done that?  My heart was cold and hard as flint.  Yet, His Amazing Love was unquenchable.  He loved me in spite of me, and never quit.

     Then came my diagnosis in July 1993 of five melanomas and liver cancer.  The doctor said I’d be dead in a month or less, and that I should get my affairs in order.  Just like every other week I went to church.  Only this time, being scared of where I might spend some time in the future, say eternity in hell to be exact, I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior.  Right then, right there, I experienced that Amazing Love firsthand.  And Amazing Love it is!  He saved me.  Did I deserve it?  No!  A million times NO!  He started pouring a love into me that I had never known before. Oh yes, did I mention He healed me, and that I’ve never been sick since?

      Immediately after church I went to a local hospital to pray for a member of our congregation who was in ICU with a blood disease, who they expected to die that afternoon.  I went with compassion in my heart and told him that Jesus loved him and wanted to heal him.  And he got healed that very hour and is alive yet today.  So began my ministry in healing.

    As I grow in His love, my heart just breaks for the lost and unsaved, and the sick. That’s why we run all over the country praying for people.  From day to day we are prepared to go anywhere, anytime at His prompting, for we want to spread His Amazing Love throughout the world.  We want it to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ like a cold would spread…one person spreading it to another, until all the world says, Jesus is Lord.

    Thinking about one part of that song, “Amazing Love, I know it’s true, It’s my joy to honor You, in all I do, I honor You.”  I have to say, REALLY!  Is it my joy to honor God in all I do?  I’d like to think so, but reality sets in, and I realize I’m just a man with like passions as any other.  Translate that; not everything I do gives honor to God.  Nor does everything you do give honor to God.  That’s just a cold, hard fact of life.  Here’s the hardest part;  how do we change that?  I’m always looking for real honest answers to real honest questions. 

    The Apostle Paul struggled with just that very issue, and addressed it in Romans chapter 7.  The answer?  God’s Amazing Love.  His love is not conditional upon our behavior.  He loves us when we act nice.  He loves us when we act ugly. If our being loved by God depended on our behavior, most of us would be on the “unloved” list most of the time, including me.  I’m trying hard to live to be worthy of His Amazing Love, but I’m human, and prone to fail, just like everyone else.  But the good news is He loves us anyway!

     I remember reading about Elijah, in James 5:17-18 that says, “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

Could it be that even Elijah, the mighty man of God, did not do everything right?  Could be.  But it is also written in 1 Peter 4:8, “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity (love) shall cover the multitude of sins.”  Tell me, where does that love come from, and how do we access it?  It’s His Amazing Love that He wants us to enjoy, without fear of rejection or failure. Just the fact that we want to please God, pleases Him.  His  unconditional love without measure, flowing limitless and continually from Him unto us, can be described only as “Amazing Love”.  His love covers all our “not-so-nice” attitudes toward ourselves and one another.  Yes, I said “not-so-nice” attitudes toward ourselves!

    We spend waaaaaaay too much time beating ourselves up.  Jesus and the Father would not have us doing so.  Remember, 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

    It’s not OUR love that is perfect, but rather GOD’S love toward US is perfect.  That love is there to cast our ALL our fears of rejection. He doesn’t want us living in torment.  We only live in torment because we often feel we don’t measure up.  How do we then become made perfect in love?  Simple.  Accept the fact, right here, right now, that there is nothing you can ever do to stop God from loving you. 

 You may be saying, Well, I think God is disappointed in me.  How so?  Are you telling me that God didn’t know what He was doing when He created you?  God knows you through and through, better than you know yourself, and He chose, of His own free will, to love you regardless, no matter what, forever.   It’s not like God is only part-knowing, and you pulled a surprise on Him, and He said, Wow, that’s a shocker! No,  He knows you! And He loves you anyway, there isn’t a thing you can do to stop Him. He’s God, y’ know?  He is the Master of the Universe, and He chooses to give you his Amazing Love.  Whether you accept it or not is your decision. 

    But know this; His love is truly amazing.  His word to you right now is this, My Child, I love you with an everlasting love, without limit, without conditions. Every trial you will ever face has more love waiting to help you than you will ever need. It’s boundless.  You will never even scratch the surface of My love for you. Though you will live forever with me, you will never reach the bounds of my love, for I loved you before the world ever was. Don’t live in fear anymore, Child. I hold you safely in My hand, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  It hurts My heart that you could think I would ever forsake you. You are my joy, the apple of My eye! Be filled with My oveflowing joy!  Laugh! Sing!  The world will wonder what you’re up to.  Then you can tell them of my Amazing Love !