Rushwavefrom the book Why I Love God
1: God First Loved Me
I truly love God. I love Him because He first loved Me.
I am exceedingly thankful for the love, faithfulness and grace God has extended to me through His Son, Jesus Christ. My life is entirely defined by Him, my desire is continually towards Him, and the contemplations of my heart are incessantly about Him, His will in my life, and His word which is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
I came to know God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ as a young man. Since that time I have enjoyed the most intimate, personal, meaningful, vibrant relationship any human being can experience. It is a relationship with my own Creator who weaved me together in my mother’s womb, and knew me before I was even born. It is a relationship with the most loving, caring, understanding, patient and kind Person in existence. And it is a relationship with the most intriguing, awe-inspiring, amazing Person there is.
It is God the Father who through His Son created all things, both visible and invisible. And it is He who masterfully designed not only me, but also all the innumerable creatures in this world with all their complexities. And it is He who by His mere decree brought the vastness of the heavens into being — the stars, galaxies, and space itself. And it is He who through the death and sacrifice of His only begotten Son saved me from the penalty and judgment I was due on account of my sins.
Prior to God saving me I was a blasphemous, arrogant, ungodly young man who stubbornly insisted God did not even exist. I suppressed the truth of Him as Creator, and held the universe and everything within it was the result of chance through evolution. And even if somehow there was a God, I deemed Him unjust. Indeed, in my old life prior to my conversion to Christianity, to my own shame I can openly say I — like all men — was an enemy of God.
But God determined to pursue me and break my stubborn will. Yes, before I was even born He set me apart to not only bring me into relationship with Himself, but also put me into His service as a preacher and a teacher; to call His people out of darkness into His marvelous light, and establish them in the Christian Faith. I am telling the truth; I am not lying. And now, by God’s grace, I am what I am, and I will fulfill the ministry He Himself has entrusted to me no matter what opposition, persecution, alienation, false accusation, or evil scheme befalls me.
The series of messages I relate here conveys my conversion to Christianity in the context of the blessings of salvation. For it is these blessings that form the basis of my love for God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. These blessings are:
May God minister to you and richly bless you as I share the testimony of His abundant, overflowing grace to me.
from the book Why I Love God
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