The Essence of Loving God

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Because your love is better then life, my lips will glorify you  Psalm 63:3

Tragically, most of us have been taught that duty, not delight, is the way to glorify God.  We have not been taught that delight in God is our duty!  Being satisfied in God is not an optional add-on to the real stuff of Christian duty.  It is the most basic demand of all, "Delight yourself in the Lord" (Psalm 37:4) is not a suggestion, but a command.  So are, "Serve the Lord with gladness" (Psalm 100:2), and "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4).

Scripture says that the "steadfast love of the Lord is better then life" (Psalm 63:3 RSV).  If it is better than life, it is better than all that life in this world offers.  What satisfies are not the gifts of God, but the glory of God--the glory of His love, the glory of His power, the glory of His wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

We do not honor the refreshing, self-replenishing, pure water of a mountain spring by lugging buckets of water up the path to make our contributions from the ponds below.  We honor the spring by feeling thirsty, getting down on our knees, and drinking with joy.  Then we say, "Ahhhh!" (that's worship!), and we go on our journey in the strength of the fountain (that's service!).  The mountain spring is glorified most when we are most satisfied with its water.

To be satisfied in God is the essence of what it means to love God.  Loving God may include obeying all His commands; it may include believing all His Word; it may include thanking Him for all His gifts; but the essence of loving God is enjoying all He is.  It is this enjoyment of God that glorifies His worth most fully, especially when all around our soul gives way.

John Piper

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AMEN! 

"Ahhhh!"  that is worship! That is the ultimate graditude, that is the awe!

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Some think that in order to follow Christ our Lord means that we suffer only, the Lord did more than just suffer! Everywhere He went people were blessed, when He feed thousands there was overflow, He turned water into wine, He was happy to accept the little children! HAPPY!



We are told to take up our cross and follow Him...where does that lead? It leads you out of the suffering past the cross into NOT SUFFERING anymore. Jesus did not remain on that cross or remain toting that burden!  He is the one that leads you out of that suffering into the Kingdom of BLESSINGS! He makes it so that everywhere you go people are blessed, everything you do or touch will cause overflow of blessings, when you feed a thousand there will always be leftovers! AMEN!

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And a HUGE AMEN to that sis!  And ...believe it or not as you were typing this I am standing in bathroom fixing my hair for work and He telling me THAT VERY THING!!  Amen!  He leading out of past and suffering and restoring life and joy!!!!

Wow!!!  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

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"Fear not little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."  Luke 12:32

Jesus will not sit by an let us disbelieve without a fight.  He takes up the weapon of the Word and speaks it with power for all who struggle to believe.  His aim is to defeat the fear that God is not the kind of God who really wants to be good to us--that He is not really generous and helpful and kind and tender, but is basically irked with us--ill-disposed and angry.

Sometimes, even if we believe in our heads that God is good to us, we may feel in our hearts that His goodness is somehow forced or constrained, perhaps like a judge who has been maneuvered by a clever attorney into a corner on some technicality, so he has to dismiss the charges against the prisoner whom he would rather send to jail.  But Jesus is at pains to help us not feel that way about God.  He is striving in this verse to describe for us God's indescribable excellency by showing the unbridled pleasure He takes in giving us the kingdom.

Every little word of this stunning sentence is intended to help take away the fear that Jesus knows we struggle with, namely, that God begrudges His benefits; that He is constrained and out of character when He does nice things; that at bottom He is angry and loves to vent His anger. This is a sentence about the nature of God. It's about the kind of heart God has. It's a verse about what makes God glad--not merely about what God will do or what He has to do, but what He DELIGHTS to do, what He LOVES to do and takes PLEASURE in doing. Every word counts: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

John Piper

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Plain and Simple.
THIS is the cross that the Lord wants me to pick up daily - Trust.  Trust that He is good.
Religion teaches me all the reasons I am not, and all the things I should be doing to get good enough for God.
This goes through my soul so completely I cannot explain it.

ROD AND STAFF OF COMFORT

God, therefore, has a metaphorical "rod and staff" whereby He "comforts" and protects us as we daily surrender to Him. I say this because His protection and deliverance for us who are His children is conditioned on our surrender to His Lordship of our lives, that is, if we surrender, then we will indeed experience His blessing, but if we choose to do things "our way," versus following and obeying Him in faith, then we will in turn experience the consequences of our disbelief, which is motivated and coerced by the "fear" that Satan spiritually, mentally, and emotionally assaults us with. That fear is constantly saying, "God cannot help us in this situation," and, as pointed out above, that is the testing time for us to either believe and trust God to do what He says He will do, or to flail around in fear like a drowning man in the ocean without a life vest.

However, the life vest of God is immediately at hand for us as His children through holding onto the promises of His Word, and we do that by surrendering "daily" to His Lordship over our lives: "And He was saying to them all, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it (Luke 9:23-24). Therefore, to "lose our life for Jesus? sake" is to say, "Yes, O Lord, I believe and trust your Word in this situation, and I am going to believe and follow what you say, versus be led by my emotions which are motivated by the fear that You will not keep Your Word, and I in turn need to act independently of You if I am going to survive this situation." God gives us a choice, and He also enables us to believe and obey Him, but we must make that choice to say, "Yes, O Lord, I choose to believe and trust You": But what does it say "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,  that is, the word of faith which we are preaching" (Romans 10:8).

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sis the one thing I know about this life is that we are meant to overcome our fears, it's true what is said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, even that is something we need to get a grip on! I don't care how much someone tries to convince me and others, if they are in fear of God there is no way in hell they can love God much less like God...

 Religious stuff is total BS! and 98% of the devout wanna be God worshippers have a heart of stone and a bruised mind to go with it, they read and study scripture daily for years and years but yet it never dawns on them, there is no revealing for them just repetition of misguided percepts that drive them deeper into numbness and the whole time they are running blindly and screaming, "I have a word and revelation!!" It never dawns on them their own words and actions are revealing them to others, they make complete azz's out of themselves before the whole host of heaven, they reveal just how low they can fall and how desperately warped they can become in their hearts and minds with trying to save their own azz out of fear for self survival.

Question>  Could Sodom and Gomorrah have been saved and changed?

Abraham questioned the Lord and asked how many times if the Lord would save them for any righteous find there. I think Abraham was kwel for not letting fear stand in his way of at least asking....BUT! if it had been me, after I had asked and received the answers that he did, I would have run my fat azz over there and sit down in the middle of S and D so at least the Lord could count me in!!!! If the Lord could turn Pharaoh's heart and mind I have no doubt that He could and would have done the same for those people in S and D, maybe all it would have took is one person trusting that in God, to be willing to stand for them rather than run away in fear of let me save my own azz or sit in complacency of "oh well, at least I've been chosen and deemed righteous enough to be saved, there is nothing I can do"...yes the hell there is something that can be done...if you're elect be right in the middle and refuse to move! There are not too many of those kind of bottom dwelling elect in religion  They all more than happy to go ride a cloud and terrified they are going miss it! 

The bible is a awesome book designed to reveal yourself to yourself, it is a personal revelation before it reveals anything else, it will reveal how low we will go and just what we are willing to accept and comply to in order to save our own self or just how low we will go to save all. Jesus went really low, He saved all, He was the first one in that book to do it...

If that cloud does come around, I would have to give my ticket to the world and everyone in it, or else I'll just have to stay here...either way Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it doesn't say TO fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, thatz just stupid to try to make yourself fear the Lord! We ain't got to make ourselves fear Him, we already do and to know that is the first step into truth..

and truth is you can not love what you fear and are terrified of....but you can love what you are awe'd by and I am in awe of God that He could change my whole heart and mind and make so many things "Not so"...I won't say make things not true because it is our hearts and minds that determines what is truth...

If I make my bed in hell there you are with me Lord...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaVg0cWkgAw&feature=related

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I hope you know my precious sister...that you are the most beautiful soul I know on this earth.