Thursday: A Relentless Love
Compare Revelation 3:20 to Song of Solomon 5:2-5. What similarities do you find in both instances?
Image © Janet Hyun from GoodSalt.com
What do these passages reveal about God’s love?
The evening meal in the Middle East was and still is extremely important. When the work of the day was over and the men returned from the fields for the evening meal, the entire family gathered around the table. In most instances the extended family lived together. The number at the evening meal often would be quite large. Grandfather and grandmother, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, nephews and cousins, adults and children might be present. In this grand reunion after a hard day’s work, stories were told, experiences shared, and counsel given. It was a time of fellowship. It was a time of warmth and family intimacy. Jesus longs to have fellowship like this with us, as well.
How does Christ’s promise in Revelation 3:21 reveal His heartfelt desire for each one of us?
The book of Revelation mentions God’s throne more than 40 times. This is more than any other book of the Bible. At God’s throne, we join in with the heavenly chorus and joyously proclaim: “ ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing’ ” (Rev. 5:12, NKJV). He promises that we can participate in this grand festive scene of rejoicing once the long saga of sin ends.
Christ uses His greatest motivation for His indifferent end-time people. The greatest motivation to wake us from spiritual slumber is Jesus’ endless love, for He longs to spend all eternity with us. If that is not enough to shake us out of our spiritual apathy, what is? If that is not enough to bring us to our knees, seeking revival, what will?
His love has provided eternity for us. We have royal blood running through our veins. We are sons and daughters of the King of the universe. We can reign with Him, seated upon His throne forever.
Christ longs to be in fellowship with you. How much do you want to be in fellowship with Him? The answer is simple. How much time do you spend in prayer and fellowship with the Lord? What does your answer tell you about yourself and, perhaps, just how lukewarm you might be?
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Each passing moment our Savior longs to be closer to us,He knocks at the door of our hearts and no matter how sinful we are He promises to make as white as snow.IS 18:1. Are we ready to invite Him in?How then shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? brethren lets put on the armour of God and with the fear of God march to on to Zion and by faith we shall reach. For in Him we are more than conquerors.
Thursday's lesson reveals how much we need to hunger and thirst for Him who is our love our Lord our Savior our Father our Provider, our Shield and Protector, our all in all. The list can go on and on. Listing who He is for us. Do we long to see Him face to face? If we do then it will be evident in our earnest here's desire being to live for Him and to put Him first always. Am reminded of an acapella song that says, 'Do you love the Lord? Are you taking the time to be reading His Word? Do you trust and obey, each and everyday? Tell me do you love the Lord?'
If we don't wake up from our slumber and seek the Lord and live through Him, we are headed for doom. Its time for ACTION!!! Its unbelievable how much he longs for us yet we don't have the same longing.
The picture drawn in today's lesson is very inviting. I want to be there someday with everyone gathered before the thrown for that big feast. I am glad I can have my own fellowship with Jesus everyday and with others who are part of the Kingdom. Through these daily experiences I can get just a little taste of what it will be like to be all together in the happy day when Jesus takes us home!
It just occurred to me that Jesus' great desire expressed in Rev 3:21 is not incentive enough. If we don't know Him as He really is, this offer has no appeal. Look at the unfaithful servant who thought of the owner of the talents and unworthy of his best efforts to serve faithfully, while the other two gave their best efforts for the one they held in highest esteem. Unless we remove the obstacle(s) (the tightly closed door Jesus is knocking on) between us and our Creator/Redeemer, we will never know Him, and His eternal offer will seem trivial and of no advantage to us. Yet, the dearest and closest of friends we could find cannot compare with Him.
This lesson has taught me the truth about my filthiness without JESUS CHRIST therefore, the need for me to totaly depend on HIM for HE is the WAY, the TRUTH and LIFE. Amen.
I really appreciated the fact that the lesson said that we had royal blood that was running through our veins. It makes me realize how much we mean to God. I have never thought about it in that particularly way. It also makes me think about how many of us have the chance and possibility to be saved and have eternal life. But at the same time, it saddens me because I see how many people in this world are taking their eternal life for granted. They either do not know, not care, or not realize the fate of the fallen.
I look at my life for the past fortnight and I realize that, fairly speaking, God should have all the reasons to relent from loving me. It is a reassuring fact for me, therefore, to learn that His love for me is unceasing. Today, you can hardly find such love with so many 'inspite of's. I have lived a pretty good life by human standards, courtesy of His love. However, looking at the sneak preview He gives us in the scripture of our eternal home, I have no doubt that, that would be the epitome of His unrelenting love.
1 John 3:1 NIV confirms that great is the love he has lavished on us. I love the word 'lavished'. It means to expend profusely, unreservedly. It gives me great joy to know that I am the object of such love. I can't wait to sit on that throne with Him!
I am encouraged by Thursday's lesson.It reminds me of how special I am to Christ.He has done what was necessary,offering Himself as a sacrifice, to ensure our place in the royal family of god. And now He continues to demonstrate His love for us by pleading with us to have fellowship with Him. He knows that without this fellowship we have no hope.Let us heed the call " Come now and let us reason together "
We are just like our mobile phones and any other device that needs to be recharged. When its power is low, it gives a sound to alert its user of the need for recharge. As such, it is connected to a power source for a recharge. If it does not alert its user, the user may not know of the need for a recharge, thus, it will run out of power and die. So we must always alert God in prayers for a revival. Open the door of our hearts to Him to recharge us, else we run out of power and die. However, in this case, the user (God) does not wait for our alert before He moves to refill us. Are u rechargeable? Are u refillable? Are u emptied of self and pride? Then open the door now!!!
Jesus said behold I stand at the door and knock I any man my voice and open the door I will come in
stop procrastinating please open the door and let Jesus in.
Would have not the great love of God to send Jesus to save us,our living on earth will be meaningless.Let take an example of a computer or laptop,it is the command that we insert that allows it to operate without our effort or command then the machine will be stagnant.Jesus is giving a life saving command to us that if only we open our hearts and allow him in our souls then he is ready to take risk of taking us back home.You and me are here called to usher him in so that we get the liberty of true worship and truth of his saving power.
Quoting the words to a song in regards to "A Relentless Love": "I am my beloveds, my beloved is mine, and though now apart we sojourn, My comforter's come to keep us one, until the day I return". What a comfort and promise! Praise the Lord!
I thank God who has not forsaken us in this helpless state our religous and apathy. The lesson lends credence to how loving he is to still be waiting for us to open our hearts for him to ener. Does he get tired and weary of our insolence in opening him? No, Not him. He seriously needs us to share his heavenly throne with us.
The lesson this week is a blessing; a remainder to me of what's important to God. GOD does not want to be a visitor in our lives because a visitor comes and goes, a visitor is celebrated occasionally but the owner or a member of the family stays with the family. He there whether the going is good or bad. That is what Jesus wants.