Perfect Love - Abounding Hope: Week 12

How do we describe that which is perfect?

Miriam Webster defines the word as "being entirely without fault or defect; flawless"
None of us, born in the flesh to a fallen world, can fully understand or attain perfection.  ONLY Jesus, being God on earth, was able to reach that status.  What we do see  throughout scripture, is God's love, perfected in us.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." I John 4: 7-12

This is the kind of love that we must rely on as Christians.  This perfect love surpasses aggravation, difficult people, children with bad attitudes, and that most annoying driver that almost made you say a swear-word in traffic.  Imagine if God had given up on us when we were any of the above.  Instead, his love fills us and allows us to be so much more than we ever were.  God gives us value, putting a price on our life (the life of his perfect, precious son.)

 



Knowing how much God loves me, stirs up a hope to love others just as much as He loves me.  I pray that our love goes before us, showing others that we belong to Him, through our actions.

Abounding Hope: Week 9—The Brink of Hope

July 17, 2013 by Jen Baierl

The Brink of Hope

This week, we see the prophesy begin to unfold for Joseph.
The land is destitute and people are traveling to Egypt for food.  Ten of Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt and bow before him, as Joseph had dreamed and told his father and brothers previously.

“Then he [Joseph] dreamed another dream

and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have

dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon,

and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”  But when

he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father

rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream

that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother

and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves

to the ground before you?”  And his brothers

were jealous of him…”Genesis 7:9-11a

Joseph doesn’t let on to them who he is, but instead seems to be harsh to them.  This harshness is not out of revenge, but to bring them to repentance and humility. 
Matthew Henry says “God, in his providence, sometimes seems harsh with those he loves, and speaks roughly to those for whom yet he has great mercy in store.”
What Joseph wants most is to see his brother, Benjamin.  He puts one of his brothers in prison while he is awaiting Benjamin to be brought back.  He reassures them, with the words, “Do this and live! I reverence and fear God!!!” – Genesis 42:18b

As the brothers travel back to their father, their guilty conscience begins to kick in and they are blaming each other for the harm they caused Joseph.  When they reached Jacob, he was troubled.  He was frightened of the money found in their sacs, distraught that Joseph was already gone, Simeon was in prison, and now they wanted to take Benjamin.  He distrusted his sons and laid the fault on them.
Proverbs 21: 8 “The way of the guilty is crooked, but the conduct of the pure is upright”
Little did Jacob know that the Lord had this all in His hand and was leading him to a place of great HOPE.
Matthew Henry says of Jacob “We often think that to be against us, which is really for us. We are afflicted in body, estate, name, and in our relations; and think all these things are against us, whereas they are really working for us a weight of glory. Thus does the Lord Jesus conceal himself and his favour, thus he rebukes and chastens those for whom he has purposes of love. By sharp corrections and humbling convictions he will break the stoutness and mar the pride of the heart, and bring to true repentance. Yet before sinners fully know him, or taste that he is gracious, he consults their good, and sustains their souls, to wait for him. May we do thus, never yielding to discouragement, determining to seek no other refuge, and humbling ourselves more and more under his mighty hand. In due time he will answer our petitions, and do for us more than we can expect.”
Yes, Lord, that we may seek no other refuge other than YOU!!

Abounding Hope: Week 3--A Great Example of How to Suffer Well

 June 5, 2013 by Jennifer Baierl

We begin our study this week watching Job suffer greatly through terrible sores all over his body.  Satan was certain that Job would curse God if he were to suffer physically.  What we see instead, is that Job is wise in saying "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive disaster?" (Job 2: 10)

 … But God already knew this.  He knows our every thought before we speak them.  

"Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." 

Psalm 139:4

He made me, you, and Job!  We are beautifully crafted by His hand and there is nothing that escapes him.  The entire chapter of Psalm 139 describes how God knew us in the hidden depths of our mother's wombs, even before that, when we were still just part of the earth.  I think of what it is like to be known down to my very fiber, knowing that I don't know myself that well.  How does this all relate to Job?  Because God knew that He could trust Job.  He knew that Job's integrity was upright and that even under affliction, he would not curse God.

For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Psalms 139:13-14 ESV 

 When we are suffering, do we suffer in silence?  Do we cry out to the Lord, thinking He doesn't hear us?  Do we cry to our girlfriends or our spouse?  Or do we go to the Lord, believing in His word, knowing that He cares for us and has our best interest at heart?  We cannot go anywhere that the Lord is not aware of our comings and goings, or aware of our desires.  He knows that we are suffering and longs to hear the cries of our hearts. 

"I will cry to God Most High, Who performs on my behalf and rewards me
 [Who brings to pass His purposes for me and surely completes them]!" 
 Psalm 57:2 AMP

Lessons I learned this week:

• Job was faithful even after losing his family, his fortune, and being stricken with physical affliction.
• We are NEVER out of the presence of the Lord, no matter what pit we think we're in!  (Psalm 139:7)
• We are NEVER forgotten by the Lord, no matter how long you have been seeking an answer! (Psalm 139: 3)
• God hears our EVERY plea and cry to him, but may not choose to act on our timing.

 Watching Job suffer so greatly sometimes diminishes my suffering when I look back, but I know that it's suffering, none the less.   

Do you have an example of suffering where you relied on the Lord to navigate your days no matter what His answer?

Written by Jennifer Baierl
WCW Social Media Coordinator