GOD IS LOVE

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 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.”  (1 John 4:8-16 NIV)

“God is love” is not the complete truth about God so far as the Bible is concerned. It is not an abstract definition which stands alone, but a summing up, from the believer’s standpoint, of what the whole revelation set forth in Scripture tells us about its Author. This statement presupposes all the rest of the biblical witness to God. The God of whom John is speaking is the God who made the whole world, who judged it by the Flood, who called Abraham and made of him a nation, who chastened His Old Testament people by conquest, captivity, and exile, who sent His Son to save the world,… and who would one day judge the world in righteousness. It is this God, says John, who is love. It is perverse to quote John’s statement, as some do, as if it called in question the biblical witness to the severity of God’s justice. It is not possible to argue that a God who is love cannot also be a God who condemns and punishes the disobedient; for it is precisely of the God who does these very things that John is speaking. 

-- J. I. Packer (1926-2020) in “Knowing God”

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AMAZING, AMAZING GRACE

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

God’s grace is amazing because it meets us exactly where we are -- but it never leaves us there. Grace is God stepping toward us when we had no strength, no goodness, and no way to reach Him on our own. It’s the unearned, undeserved, unstoppable love of a God who refuses to give up on His people.

Grace is amazing because it is personal. God doesn’t offer a distant, mechanical forgiveness. He offers Himself. He draws near to the brokenhearted, lifts the weary, restores the sinner, and calls each of us by name. His grace doesn’t just clean the slate; it reshapes the heart.

Grace is amazing because it is constant. We fail, God remains faithful. We wander, He pursues. We fall short, He supplies strength. There is no moment when His grace runs thin or His patience wears out. It is new every morning, steady every evening, and present in every breath.

Grace is amazing because it is transforming. It doesn’t simply forgive what we’ve done -- it changes who we are. Grace teaches us to walk in freedom, to love boldly, to forgive generously, and to live with a hope that cannot be shaken.

Grace is amazing because it is costly -- but not to us. It cost Jesus everything. The cross is the clearest picture of grace: God choosing mercy over judgment, love over alienation, and redemption over ruin. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™

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HONORING ONE ANOTHER

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.”  (Romans 12:9-10 NLT)

We can honor others in one of two ways. One involves ulterior motives. We honor our bosses so they will reward us, our employees so they will work harder, the wealthy so they will contribute to our causes, the powerful so they will use their power for us and not against us. God’s way involves love. As Christians, we honor people because they have been created in God’s image, because they are brothers and sisters in Christ, and because they have a unique contribution to make to Christ’s church. Does God’s way of honoring others sound too difficult for your competitive nature? Why not try to “outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10 ESV)? Put others first! 

-- From the “Life Application Study Bible”

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FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

One of the realities of my forty-five-year pilgrimage with Jesus is that the Holy Spirit tends to leak out of me. Take for example, when I’m driving down Highway 41 in Fort Myers, Florida, and all my friends from up north are visiting us during that time of the year we call “Season.” They have the audacity to drive the speed limit in the fast lane when I’m running late for a meeting to do the work of God, and sometimes in my frustration the Spirit leaks out, and then the words come out of my mouth that a follower of Jesus ought not to say. Am I alone? God wants to help the Holy-Spirit-leaking Christ followers like us.

I love this translation of Ephesians 5:18 from The Amplified Bible: “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him.” I think it’s awesome that the translation put the word “stupidity” in there. It’s like Paul is saying to us that there are two kinds of spirits, the spirits of wine and the Holy Spirit. We can choose to be drunk or intoxicated with either. To those being intoxicated with wine, he’d say, “That’s stupid.” Instead, Paul invites apprentices of Jesus who leak the Holy Spirit to be “filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly guided by Him.” 

-- Jorge Acevedo in “Everybody Needs Some Cave Time: Meeting God in Dark Places”

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THE GENTLE NUDGE THAT KEEPS YOU IN YOUR LANE

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”  (Isaiah 30:21)

After a recent car accident, our car was totaled and we needed to get a replacement. We found that newer cars come with lane‑assist, something we had not had on our previous vehicle. It’s that subtle steering nudge when you drift too close to the edge of your lane. It’s not loud. It’s not dramatic. It doesn’t grab the wheel and take over. It simply reminds you, “Hey… you’re drifting. Come back to center.”

I have found that the Holy Spirit often works the same way. His promptings are usually gentle nudges -- quiet impressions, small checks in your spirit, a tug toward wisdom, a hesitation before a harmful choice, a sudden thought of someone who needs encouragement. They’re not meant to control you; they’re meant to guide you back into the lane of God’s will.

Lane‑assist doesn’t shame you for drifting. It simply helps you realign. The Spirit does too. He nudges because He loves. He corrects because He protects. He guides because He sees what’s ahead long before you do.

And when you learn to trust those small, sacred nudges, you begin to experience the peace of staying centered -- steady, safe, and aligned with the heart of God.

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry™

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