God loves you, but...

God cannot look at sin.

God is a holy God.  God is a Righteous God.

Humans are neither holy nor righteous on their own (understatement).

But when we are born again into Christ, something miraculous takes place.  The holiness and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ are imputed into us.

"Imputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology proposing that the "righteousness of Christ ... is imputed to [believers] — that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith." It is on the basis of Jesus' righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification." Wikipedia

There you have it.  So apart from Christ, you are dead in your sins.  There is no real hope apart from a relationship with Christ.

As the world experiences more and more devastations, whatever anyone has put their hope in will surely vanish, no longer be there for them.  Many things we thought could "never" happen are happening right now.  Banks closing, foreign "balloons" floating in American air space that have no business being there, natural disasters and amped up weather happenings, just to name a few.

But I digress.

I want to write about the love of God.  Why?  Because it is so misunderstood and it is the most important thing in life.

"God loves everyone."  If you even believe in God any more, that is of little comfort to you if you are not born again into His love.  Why?  Because your soul knows that you are still far from Him, and we all need an intimate, up close, kind of love, not some "out there" love that we cannot experience or know.

So what is the "but" I speak of here in the title of this blog?  

God loves you, but that love does not overlook the truth that we were all born in sin, apart from God, separated from Him by sin.  It wasn't like this at first.  Adam and Eve walked in the Presence of God and knew heaven on earth in Eden.  But after the fall, God chose, out of His love for us, to make a way back to Himself through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus.

So He loves you, yes.  But it would be like an orphan who has not met his new adoptive parents yet.  The child does not know their love or that the parents are even real until he actually meets them and is adopted by them.  Until then, he is still an orphan.

Yes, that is a spot on analogy from the Holy Spirit.  We are all orphans in this world apart from Christ, without a Father, without real love, without hope.

So many things and people and places try to take His place, try to fill that void.  But when you get honest with yourself and give up denial, you know you really have nothing without Him.

So why don't you let God adopt you today?  This way, you can finally experience and know His great love for you.  His love does not allow you to stay living in sin because He cares about you too much.  So you don't "clean up your act" in order to come to God.  You come to God, and He cleans you up; does a cleansing work that you could never do for yourself.

It is a mind-blowing exchange.  The Creator of the universe imputes His perfect righteousness to you because you could never be righteous (sinless) enough to come before His Presence on your own.

What are you waiting for?  This world is on its way out, friends.  God is about to create His new heavens and new earth and, trust me, that is the one that you don't want to miss!

Oh Lord.  Because You are real and true, we do not need to live a life hopeless.  Thank You, Father God, for loving us enough to tell us the truth:  we need a Savior.  We need You.  As world events become almost unbearable, I pray that more and more would come to You and find everlasting hope and comfort and the greatest love they will ever know.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, that Your Scriptures are inerrant and every word of it either has happened, is happening, or will happen in the future.  Thank You for the road map You have given us in it.  Thank You for Your love and holiness and righteousness, dear God.  I love You.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.