This blog post did not come into
being the way that a blog post does for me. I have a set process that I go through
when I prepare a post, and this post came as a result of a conversation
that I had with my (at the time) two and a half year old son.
So I can assure you that this
post will not be hard to follow.
My son Clark loves Hot Wheels
cars. He was almost three, but already he was quite an authority on them. He
loved to play with his hot wheels cars.
Whenever he and I would play cars
together, he would drag out his 9 lb. "car bucket" and we would dump them all out into a big pile in
the middle of the floor, and then we would smooth them all out so that you could see
what it is that you were dealing with.
Then like clockwork he would ask me, “Which car do you want daddy?”
This was a very big question
for him, so I would get the most serious look on my face that I could and I rub would my
chin, as if I were making the most important decision in my life, and I would always
ask him, “Which car is the best car?”
He then would begin to sort and
sift through that pile of cars looking for the car that was the best car of his
collection. He was looking for the one car that would sum up the pile. The
best one of them all, the representative car if you will
“Children, obey your parents in the
Lord: for this is right.”~ Ephesians 6:1
I had told him that he was doing
very well with his verse, and that someday he would be able to read God’s words
all by himself.
“Those words are God’s words?”, He asked.
I said, “Yeah buddy, all
these words are God’s words, and they are all for you.”
He then surprised me when he got a
very serious look on his face, and began to rub his chin, he very thoughtfully
and slowly asked me…
“Daddy, Which words are the best words?”
That got me thinking…
???Which words are the best words???
I mean if you were to look in
your Bible, and choose two words from the 66
books that make up the bible, if you could look in the 1,189 chapters that make up your
Bible, if you could choose from the 31,173
verses…If you could somehow spread out all 773,692 words that are in your Bible on the floor, smooth them all out to get an idea as to what you had and
choose two that would sum up the collection, which two words would you choose?
Two words that would sum up
every story told in the Old Testament, and at the same time give reason to
every miracle in the New Testament. Those two words would also sum up the
attributes of God, and give reason for the Bible; they would also sum up
everything from creation to salvation, and also cover the future of the
believer.
Not just that, but wait, there’s more, they
would also be two words that if you could ever fully wrap your mind around
them, they would change your walk with God, and the way you talk with God, and
the way that you treat God, and the way that you would serve God…
The two best words… Which
would you choose?
I began to pursue this, and I
began to look to find them, and we are about to read them in this very post!
I am pretty
sure that if I were to spread out my collection of all 773,692 words, I have found the ones that I would lift up as the
response to that question.
"Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in
tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience,
hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto
us. For when we were yet without strength, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one
die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But
God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us.Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received atonement" ~Romans 5:1-11.
These eleven verses contain
so much, however I would like to draw your attention back to verse number 8.
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" ~Romans 5:8
This is an incredibly
beautiful verse in its entirety, but I would like to bring by way of
this verse my reason for choosing two words from this verse to be the best
words in the Bible.
Two words that tell me so
much about my Savior, two words that tell me about what God has in store for
me, and two words that reveal to us the very essence of God.
I would ask you to notice the
first two words of this verse.
“But God”
Just think about that for a
minute.
“But God”
Where would you be right at this moment,
but God?
What kind of life would you
have right at this moment, but God?What direction would you be headed, But God?
What kind of home would you
have, what kind of Children would you be raising, what kind of parents would
you have…but God?
We could take a trip through our Bibles and see what things would be like, But God!
I would start in Genesis 1:1
with creation.
“In the beginning (There would be nothing, But) God created the heaven and the earth.”~ Genesis 1:1
Even then, verse two lets us
know,
That the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, (But God in his spirit moved
upon the face of the waters)
The Children of
They could have said, “We were trapped by the
The walls of
A Shepherd boy named David would have been stepped on by Goliath, But God!
The middinaites would have destroyed Gideon’s people, But God!
Elijah could have said, There were 450 false prophets of Baal on top of a mountain trying to prove to a fickle nation that Baal was was the true god, But God!!!
There was a Great general by the name of Namaan who could have said, “There was no cure for me, but God!!!
A shunemite womans son that had died, But God!
Three Hebrew captives guilty only of having the Faith to stand when those around them bowed would have been burned alive, but God!
The Old Testament is overflowing with situations, and circumstances that testify that the only reason they turned out the way they did was, “But God!”
The blind man in the book of mark, could say, “I would have died beside that road a blind beggar, but God!!!
There was a woman with an issue of blood, Who had spent all that she had, But God!
There was a centurion named Jarius with an only daughter that died of a sickness, But GOD!
A man named Lazarus who had been buried four days, But God!
A lost religious leader named Nicodemus, But God!
A fisherman named Peter, But God!
A persecutor named Saul going from house to house turning converts into prisoners, But God!
A maniac in a cemetery, But God!
A woman at the well lost in her sin, But God!
A man sick of the palsy lowered
through a roof, paralyzed, But God!
A woman taken in Adultery, But God!
A man Crippled beside the pool of Bethesda
And the list goes on and on,
ultimately ending with two words…But God!
Then we come to Romans 5 and
verse 8, and the greatest use of these two words is found.
I
would like to make three simple observations as to why, to me, these two words
are the best words of the collection.
1. I was unloved, but God loved me.
Did you know that God loves
you?
So many times we generalize
John 3:16 , Oh yes, the
World, but God loves you.
It would change the way we
talk to him, if we would take the time to think about that fact.
It is an all consuming love.
“God loves you, not because of who you
are, but because of whose you are.”
You cannot get away from
God’s love.
"Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are
killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord." ~Romans 8:35-39
We are more than conquerors
because of his love.
The way to survive any heartache, is to know
how much God loves you.
We could get through anything
if we would just stop and look up and realize that the God of the universe is
not holding it against us!!! He loves us. He loves you!
We tend to apply our human understanding of love to an infinite God.
We say "I’LL LOVE YOU, IF YOU LOVE ME" or some people are even more mature than this and they would go as far as to say, "I LOVE YOU, THEN YOU LOVE ME".
God’s love is so much greater than that and it is so much beyond a human level. God says,
"I LOVE YOU, EVEN IF YOU DON’T LOVE ME"
"There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."
~Romans 3:11
God said, I LOVE YOU, KNOWING THAT YOU WON’T LOVE
ME!!!
I do not understand his love,
but I sure am grateful for it!
I do not encourage anyone to
turn away from God, but if you do, you have the perfect opportunity to see the
depth of his love.
Someone once said, That God
needed sin to prove his love for man, I don’t know, if anyone needed sin it
would me man, so that he could wake up and see the love that God had always had
for man.
"God does not love us because
of our perfection; God loves us because of his perfection."
You do not have to fail,
because you have a God that loves you.
You know, God loves you even
if you can’t seem to love yourself.
There are Christians that
hate themselves…What right do you have? If anyone has the right to hate you because
of sin, it is the Holy God of the universe, and he chooses to love you…
Our sin is no surprise to
God, he already decided how he felt about you, and he decided that he loves
you. I remember reading a story some time back that I would like to share with you.
Some years ago, on a hot summer day in south Florida, a little boy decided to go
for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house. In a hurry to dive into
the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt
as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the
middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore.
His father, working in the yard, saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, he ran toward the water, yelling to his son as loudly as he could. Hearing his voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his father. It was too late. Just as he reached his father, the alligator reached him.
From the dock, the father grabbed his little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the father, but the father was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard his screams, raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator.
Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep scratches where his father's fingernails dug into his flesh in his effort to hang on to the son he loved.
The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Dad wouldn't let me go!"
His father, working in the yard, saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, he ran toward the water, yelling to his son as loudly as he could. Hearing his voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his father. It was too late. Just as he reached his father, the alligator reached him.
From the dock, the father grabbed his little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the father, but the father was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard his screams, raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator.
Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep scratches where his father's fingernails dug into his flesh in his effort to hang on to the son he loved.
The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Dad wouldn't let me go!"
Maybe you are reading this blog and even now you bear the physical scars, or the emotional scars of a painful
past where the devil had you, and some of those scars may cause some deep
regret…the Devil wanted you, but the scars you may have can remind you that
God your father wanted you more, and he was not going to let go.
“Though I
forget him, and wander away, still he doth love me wherever I stray, back to
his dear loving arms would I flee, when I remember that Jesus loves ME!
These two words to me are the
best words in the Bible because they tell me, that I was unloved but God loved
me, and because God loved me…
This has been my favorite one so far!! Thank you for sharing!
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