I believe that LOVE is the greatest and most excellent of the feelings that were created by God for man.

When we LOVE, we expose the greatness of this feeling, which confirms the power of God's creation and exposes our likeness to God, because GOD IS LOVE, and after all we were created in his image and likeness.

1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

The apostle Paul gave one of the strongest, most precise and important definitions about LOVE:

• IT IS THE GREATEST OF GIFTS.
• IT NEVER ENDS.
• ALL SUPPORTS.
• IT'S THE BIGGEST AND BEST WE HAVE TO OFFER.

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never ends. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

God expressed His love for us by offering us in sacrifice what He had most precious, His ONLY SON.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

BUT WHY DID GOD DO IT? As we have said, simply because He loves us and to give us a new opportunity to live by His side, because because of Adam and Eve's sin, man was cast out of His presence, cursed and condemned to death.

Genesis 3:17 To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, You must not eat from it, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

THE BIBLE SAYS SIN LEADS TO DEATH.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

James 1:15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

The Bible says that when there is sin there is death, so a sacrifice of death was necessary so that our sins would be remitted and we would not be put to death.

Hebrews 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Jesus, therefore, gave his life, shed his blood, in sacrifice, because of our sins, so that death might be annihilated and so that man could be reconnected to God and could live by his side forever.

Hebrews 9:27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

GOD SHOWN HIS LOVE TO US IN THIS WAY and HOW ARE WE SHOWING OUR LOVE TO HIM?

Many are trivializing the love of God and as a consequence they cannot demonstrate their love for Him in their day-to-day, through their attitudes, simply because they do not love God.

I usually ask: IF MAN DOESN'T LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL THINGS WILL HE BE SAVED?

The answer is NO!

Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Matthew 22:36 Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? 37 Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 10:37 Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Did you read the above verses well? Whoever loves father or mother more than Jesus IS NOT WORTHY OF HIM; and who loves his son or daughter more than Jesus IT IS NOT WORTHY OF HIM.

Not being worthy means THAT YOU DON'T DESERVE, therefore without the right to salvation.

John 14:23 Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

THE TIME IS COMING AND HAS NOW COME TO LOVE AND WORSHIP GOD IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH, FOR THESE ARE THAT GOD IS LOOKING FOR.

John 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

OPEN YOUR HEART TO JESUS.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

Pastor Val Martins