Wednseday, May 14, 2008
John 17:25-26 "Righteous Father . . . I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
THE SPIRIT WORKS THROUGH THE WORD:
THAT WE MAY FULLY KNOW THE GOD OF LOVE
Paul wrote: "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (2 Corinthians 13:12 NIV).
Though Jesus has taken away our spiritual blindness, allowing us to see Him as our Savior and God as our loving Father, we do not fully comprehend what it will mean to see God face to face.
What will it be like to behold Jesus arrayed in all the glory that He had before the world began? Will it be like the brightness of an ever exploding star? Will His glory shower over us like a warm blanket and a rushing hurricane all wrapped up in one?
What will it be like to feel the love of God with every bit of our being? Will it be like the embrace of a mother holding her newborn child for the first time? Will it be like the prodigal son's father taking his lost son into his arms with complete forgiveness and eternal affection?
Like so many things in life, these things can only be known by experience. But that experience has begun for us, dear Christians. For Jesus has begun to reveal the Father to us, and will continue to do so, so that we may know what it means to *see* God and to be joined *with* Him in *perfect* unity.
This is why we worship Jesus. This is why we ponder His every word. He is God's Son through whom the Father has revealed His love to us.
"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" (1 John 4:9-11 NIV).
