Saturday, August 1, 2015

Love Wins

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


When the ruling on SSM came out in favor of it people declared, "LOVE WINS!"  Yet they throw excrement at us ( http://800whistleblower.com/homosexuals-throw-human-excrement-at-christians-and-wipe-their-anuses-with-pages-of-the-bible/ ) .  Is this how love wins?  Does love win by going to it's opponents and wiping feces on their holy books?  Does love win by shouting hateful names like "bigot" or "homophobe" just because they disagree?  Does love win by going to a bakery that doesn't believe what you are doing is right and suing them, instead of just going to a bakery that agrees with you?  Do these things show that love really won?  I'll show you how love won, and it wasn't when SSM became the law of the land.

It was over 2000 years ago.  A man was born to die.  He was born to suffer.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; 
 
 
 

for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 
 
 


- Isaiah 53:3-10

He was crushed for us.  We deserved the punishment he took for us.  We were cut-off from God, but God didn't want this.  He created us to have a relationship with us, not to be separated from us.  So God sent His son Jesus.  Jesus was perfect, blameless, he never did anything wrong.  He was tempted like us, but he never gave into temptation.  He healed the sick, raised the dead to life, cast out demons of those who were possessed, and even fed the hungry.  He was more than a prophet, more than a great teacher, he was the Savior of the world!  He sacrificed his life for you and me in the most brutal way.  He was flogged severely and then crucified.  He was mocked, beaten, spat on.  This was so condescending on a person, even more so on a King!  Yes, he was a king, for he was God's son!  But he took our place willingly.  He gave up his life for us.  He said on the cross "It is finished"  because sin no longer had a hold of those who followed him anymore.  He defeated it by dying for us.  But that wasn't the end of the story.  Three days later, he rose from the dead!  Death couldn't defeat him!  We don't follow a dead Savior, we follow a resurrected Savior!  We can have a relationship with this Savior, he wants one with you.  He is the embodiment of God's love for us.  This is how love wins, and it wins every day for his followers.  The question is, will you follow him?

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