A Lavish Love

-
I think the car ads this time of year are hysterical. I mean who buys someone a car for Christmas? Do you know of anyone who has ever been given a new car for Christmas? And yet every year we see the same commercials. Also right there in lunacy, in my opinion, are the ones for diamond bracelets - only $999.99 with a free gift box...I've never had an occasion to wear a thousand dollar bracelet, have you?

These would be lavish gifts.

I love the word lavish; how it sounds and how even the definition sounds, well, lavish; Characterized by or produced with extravagance and profusion
Immoderate in giving or bestowing
Unstinting
To give or bestow in abundance: shower

Extravagance - like a car
Immoderate - like diamonds
Profusion - like a Fruit of the Month Club

Wouldn't you love to be able to give lavishly?
Okay, wouldn't it be fun to be the recipient of lavish giving? (Go ahead; be honest, we would all answer "yes")

God loves us lavishly.

In the gift of the Savior.(Luke 2:11)
In the blessings and provisions we see as God opens his hand to meet our needs and we are satisfied. (Psalms 104)
In the new strength and mercies given to us morning by morning. (Lamentations 3:23)

What is more precious than the blood that's been shed on our behalf to wash away our sin and give us a home in heaven? Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! I John 3:1

And what is more consistent than the daily attention of an Almighty God to the details of our life? Psalms 37:23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly.He delights in every detail of their lives.

John 1:16 says it best, "For of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (NASB) one gracious blessing upon another (NLT) grace to grace (KJV) one blessing after another (NIV).

It wouldn't take many minutes of contemplation for you to realize this is true in your own life - blessing upon blessing, grace for each day, forgiveness for each failure, unfailing love despite rejecting him, strength for each conflict, rest for your troubled soul, peace in the midst of pressure, grace upon grace upon grace - a lavish love.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friends

-
2008 has been such a relational year so far for me. I set up a Facebook account and from there discovered high school and college friends and even kids I used to baby-sit who now have growing families of their own. It’s been a time of reconnecting to people I never knew I’d have contact with again and it’s been interesting to see how we are the same people today that we were twenty years ago; only a little more worn out from use! When I was a child, I remember hearing in a sermon that in your life you will be lucky if you can count the number of true friends you have on one hand. That was preposterous to me! One hand? Five friends? I had way more than five friends! Of course I didn’t have the perspective at twelve that I do now. Now I understand. My definition of friend has matured with my years and I am so blessed by those “friends” who have matured along with my definition. Is there any thing in this world as amazing as a friend? One with whom you can open your soul and know they are...
Read more

Safe

-
My daughter came stumbling into our room at 4 a.m. “I had a bad dream”, she said as she crawled into bed. Did she want to talk about it? An immediate, adamant “No!” Ten minutes she was sound asleep safe in her dad’s arms. Safe When she experienced this bad thing she went to where she would feel safe. Later in the morning she told me about her bad dream and it wasn’t as scary to her in the 7 am brightness as it had been in the dark. Could we have explained that it wasn’t that bad and just a dream to her in the middle of the night? Not a chance, at that point she just needed to feel surrounded and protected. When trouble comes, overwhelming troubles like the constant crashing of waves on the seashore, where do you go to be safe? I wrap myself in scripture and claim the promises that God is… a refuge and help in time of need (Psalms 46) the Shepherd who supplies my needs and walks with me through the valleys (Psalms 23) the God who knows the way that I am taking (Job 23) who delights in e...
Read more

To skate or not to skate

-
Image
"It's just like riding a bike" I assured my daughter as we were lacing up our ice skates. "Don't worry, you'll remember how to do it." And so we clumped our way onto the ice and as she shakily pushed off  I realized unsteadily that my skates were way too loose. Clump, clump back to the bench. Untie, uncleat, pull the laces tight starting from the bottom, rezigzag through the clips, clump, clump back to the ice. Then I found that I was absolutely wrong. This was so NOT like riding a bike as I grabbed for the side of the rink. Tentatively I tried stimulate that muscle memory of how skating works and found my muscles were suffering from Alzheimer's! Perhaps it was from the lack of blood flow to my feet as the laces were now a fantastic tourniquet! Back to the bench, back to the ice to give to all the impression that I was a total novice. As I (so not!) glided around the rink I was incredulous! As a child living in faculty housing of Northland Inte...
Read more