Visit any church and listen to people sing about God’s Love–but do they know how deep it goes? Can they understand it or would they recognize it?
Love is easy when given to one who spills milk, but how about someone who spills blood? And not accidentally but purposefully?
The hard truth is God’s Love goes that deep… for the mass murderer, the child rapist, the filmer of any kind of torture….
We may think we’re decent people, innocent of such crimes, but don’t forget: your thought life is also part of the equation. Jesus said being angry with someone was like murder, and looking lustfully at someone was like having an affair (Matthew 5:21-30).
Truly no one gets into heaven on merit, but we’re all invited:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16, bible)
So considering all the hate and evil in the world, not just in deed but in thought- Jesus was on the craziest Love mission ever…
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7,8)
“While we were still sinners…” Some crimes are so vile there’s an organized network to hide it (e.g. the Child Trafficking/Sexual Abuse epidemic). I glimpsed some of that horror in Jerome Elam’s story.It changed my life and I reached out to him with my heart: 
“There aren’t enough tears in my body to cry, I can’t scream loud enough, and there aren’t enough things in this universe for me to destroy… that’s how I feel about what happened to you…”
If that’s a part of my heart, it’s a part of God’s Heart too.
I offered up the entire planet to God for annihilation, no longer wanting to live in a world where even a single child suffers like that. I spiraled into depression so deep I was about to look into a prescriptions to bottle up my grief and fury.
Then God intervened.
In a dramatic way He showed, almost in a vision, that He was ‘holding out’ from annihilating the world to give a chance for those committing the heinous crimes to stop.
Huh?! Allow a world of pain and suffering, perpetrated by those committing it, to continue in order to give them a chance to stop?! YES, because those are His Kids too, and what’s coming for them if they don’t stop (turn/”repent”) is worse than anything they’ve ever done to anyone else– I promise.
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
God is trying to protect His kids from His Own, Tremendous, God-Sized Wrath. These are our brothers and sisters we are waiting for….
The bible says some people follow their desires and fall into a trap, like a bird, to actually do Satan’s will (2 Timothy 2:26). (*Satan is the Hebrew word for Adversary). This isn’t even their own will, and certainly not God’s Who only wants good for us (Jeremiah 29:11).
So we are in the middle of the most important, yet harrowing Rescue Mission of all time.
But Time is almost up.
The same Crazy Love that allowed things to continue so long, will be the same Crazy Love that finally says Enough.
So if you ever hear someone sing about God’s Love, try to fathom it. And as we see the world starting to burst around us, remember that Love. We may not see the full outworking this side of heaven, but we must be sure: God, Who is Love (1 John 4:8), has a good plan in Mind for all of us.
Hold on people, we’re almost there Home.
Love eachother deeply, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
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“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38,39)
Last weekend I heard the song “Good, Good, Father” with chorus: ‘You’re a good good Father, that’s who You are….and I’m loved by you, that’s who I am…’
I substituted “We” for “I” because that’s who we are…Wild Kids, Wildly Loved by our Maker.
Play and let it touch your heart….truly, no matter what you’ve done, God forgives you and will remove all the mess we’ve caused or been a part of–He makes scarlet red white as snow. Just Come and let Him in. (Revelation 3:20, and Luke 15)
This is Day 25 of the Wild Kids, Wild God, 31 Days Looking into God’s Heart series.
For more insight into God’s Love and Wrath check: Wildly Loved, But Love Burns Hot.
In all things, remember God made you to be free and the whole world has been suffering as a result of our freedom–He takes our freedom so seriously, don’t get caught in any religious bondage!
–Born to be Free
–God’s Glass Elevator-on your relationship with God, if you so chose to have one…
Cover photo quote credit: Corrie Ten Boom.
I have been thinking on this subject as well. The Lord said what if it were your son or daughter that was caught in Satan’s web and doing his will destroying other people. I too, would want the Lord to give them more time to repent. It’s easy to condemn others who do these terrible things. Its hard to pray for them too, and they probably need it the most.
Blessings
Denine