Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Furious Love




Furious:

adj.
1. Full of or characterized by extreme anger; raging.
2. Suggestive of extreme anger in action or appearance; fierce. See Synonyms at angry.
3. Full of activity; energetic or rapid: the furious pace of the trading floor.

I have come to love this song but while thinking about it I was trying to understand why we say God's love is furious, it sounds like He's pretty ticked off or something.

Description 3 in the definition makes perfect sense to me, His love is always moving and being demonstrated toward us, His love is full of energy, never lackadaisical.  That makes sense! In my search to better understand why we say God's love is "furious" I found a great sermon here and encourage everyone to check it out!  I see his love being angry against sin and evil that is in the world and His love will stop at nothing; He will forever be wooing us and inviting us in to experience it. 

In almost every sermon I've been hearing lately, and the talk amongst the church, the focus is returning to God's love.  Without deeper revelation on this subject we are at a standstill.  When the church doesn't understand the Bridegroom and His Father's love for her she is incapable of demonstrating His glory in her life, in her relationships and throughout her circumstances.  She is too easily offended and timid among her peers because she doesn't really understand, know and believe how much she is loved.

My mom said something great this morning which we have all heard but it sunk in deep today, God isn't just loving, His person IS love.  He can't be anything else.  He demonstrates it beautifully through His son, Jesus.  Jesus made time for all, healed all, sacrificed himself for all to show us how much the Father loves us, his little children!

His love is awakening us, it has reawakened me and when I start to think about it I realize I could think about it for eternity and still would never fully know it!  But the challenge is, and the greatest reward is, to meditate on it, to press in to the heart of God and ask Him to show us more and more of how He loves us and then abide in that love and breathe and move in that ocean of love.  

1 John 4:16-19

Amplified Bible (AMP)
16And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.
    17In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.
    18There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love [a]turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear [b]brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].
    19We love Him, because He first loved us.

*Want to meditate even more on God's love right now? Watch this video to the end and be saturated in His love:)

Monday, April 16, 2012

Lovesick



This should be the theme song for my entire blog!!

I want to share a story, it's personal but I only have 7 followers so.... :)

First of all, God is soo good!

His promises, laws and principles are all true I am beginning to discover first hand!

I'll start back in January, Josiah and I participated in the Daniel Fast and quite literally the last day of the fast during a prayer/worship night at my church God spoke a few things very clearly to me.  One of them was that I was going to get pregnant in March.

I was excited! And I was going to make sure it happened! So, without further detail, Josiah and I did our part.

We began thanking God for our baby and constantly spoke that I was pregnant throughout the last 2 weeks of the month.

Alas, the end of March and no period, the stick read "pregnant"!

I almost couldn't believe it, as strange as that may sound...
I began speaking to my baby, calling him Isaiah because Josiah and I have always wanted our first born boy to be named, Isaiah.
As soon as I began talking to him God stopped me and said, "This is not Isaiah, this is Samson."

"Samson?!!!" I replied. I never liked the story of Samson that much and I did not want to call my child, Sam.
"God, are you sure this is Samson?"
"Yes."
"O.k."
I could picture this little fertilized egg wrestling in my womb trying hard to latch on for life, I knew he was strong.

I told Josiah and he was surprised but accepted it.  We began calling him, Samson.
Two days later as we are on the phone to tell his parents our news,  I felt a rush of blood and knew that Samson had entered heaven.

I cried but I was not devastated, the Holy Spirit comforted me and soon almost a relief came and I was more than content not being with child.

Two days after that, while sitting at my computer, God spoke again, "McKenna, think about the story of Samson."
So I did.
I realized that Samson's greatest victory was in his death!
He killed more of the enemy (Philistines) upon his death than he had his whole life.

God told me that Samson was tearing down the strongholds in my mind I had developed about miscarriage.  It had been in my family and I had a deep fear of suffering one.
I am absolutely sure that I will never suffer another miscarriage.  As Samson sacrificed himself, he tore down my uterus "wall" and defeated the enemy that had burrowed in my mind. The bond was broken and I felt absolute freedom!

I praised God that it was never His will for Samson to die, if God killed babies then it would be ok for us to kill babies in the womb, but God knew what was going to happen and turned it around for my victory and my liberty.  He never let me call it Isaiah and get attached because that baby wasn't our Isaiah.  He held my heart and emotions in His hands and was with me throughout the whole experience.

He's been showing me how you truly have what you say! Not just with this but with many experiences this past year.  I've learned that when I am believing for something and I speak it with faith and it turns out to not be God's best for me, He gently leads me out and on to the next thing.

There is nothing like a relationship with the Creator of the Universe, only He can satisfy!!