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Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud,

“This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”  (Mark 9:7)

This is the second time in Mark’s Gospel we read of Father’s public affirmation of Jesus. The first was at Jesus’ immersion. This verse we just read may be found at the conclusion of the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.

In Mark, Father first speaks of His love for His Son to His Son. However, in this verse, we find God addressing the Lord’s disciples about His Son.

When you know God’s love, confidence results. Look at what happened next.

When Jesus descended, He ran into a commotion. There was a crowd gathered around His disciples and scribes were arguing with them. What caused this? A demon possessed child. His apostles were unable to deliver this boy. Perhaps the scribes were disputing with the disciples to attack the authority of their Rabbi, Jesus. Perhaps their argument was that if Jesus was legit, they should have been able to help this family.

What Yeshua did next demonstrated extraordinary confidence in the Father’s support. Was He confident? Yes, He was. He said:

“Bring him to Me!”  (Mark 9:19c)

He summoned the child and the demon began to manifest. Unruffled, Jesus asked a question about the background of this affliction and, bypassing the father’s unbelief, rebuked the spirit which promptly left.

Jesus demonstrated empowered confidence. It followed His Father’s affirmation. I think this is a valuable example.

God loves you, just like He loves Jesus.

Be confident in your relationship with Father, just like Jesus.

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Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

and a voice came out of the heavens:

“You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” 

(Mark 1:11)

For those who want to live from the Holy Spirit’s empowering leading, from the inside out, it may be difficult to admit that disciples are also called to allow that which is outside them to guide and empower them. In conjunction with the Scriptures, one thing, perhaps the primary thing, is supposed to influence our behavior and inform our decisions. What is that? We learn from the Scriptures that we are to let Jesus’ example be our standard. We learn about Jesus’ example from the Scriptures.

Paul wrote:

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of (the) Messiah. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

A wise builder of homes starts with the foundation. Jesus told us to dig deep and build our lives upon a rock. If we are to live in the light of the Messiah’s lifestyle we would be wise to ask ourselves, “Where do I begin?”

My answer to that, and I think this may be the Lord’s wisdom, is to begin where Jesus began. He started His ministry in the heightened awareness of His Father’s love.

I’m certain God’s incarnate Son always knew His Father’s love. Before the Messiah’s life changed, before He began to actively display His Father’s will, God revealed His love again and affirmed His relationship to His Son. This accompanied the anointing of the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism.

and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Mark 1:11)

The one who heard Father’s words of love lives in you. He indwells you for the same reason Father anointed Jesus with His Spirit. Like Jesus, you are beloved, called, and chosen. The time to believe that is now. The time to live like Jesus is now.

Don’t wait.

The older that you get the more you tend to rightly treasure God’s love. Nothing is more valuable and nothing is more certain. Like Jesus who indwells us, let us live our lives aware of our Creator’s love. Since this is something God wants to give, let us pursue our Father for an intensifying of our experience of the love He has for us and walk in that reality.

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16)

It is impossible for anything, or anyone, to act in a way contrary to its nature.

It is by his deeds that a lad distinguishes himself if his conduct is pure and right. (Proverbs 20:11)

Speaking reverently, this includes God, Himself. He is limited by who He is. The love He enjoys within Himself as Trinity is the fountain of all His actions. The Source is love. The outflow is like the Source.

His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. (Hebrews 1:2b-3a)

It is impossible for God to act in a way that is against His nature. Everything that has been made reflects who He is.

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:3)

The Father’s motive was love. The Son, who is also love, was the means through which all was created. This is a greater revelation than the non-moral attributes mentioned in Romans 1:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

Has God displayed His splendor in what He has made? Has He showed His genius? His creativity and wisdom? Yes. However, in the midst of a fallen cosmos, where did He reveal His love?

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, the Messiah died for us. (Romans 5:8)

That is the level of love present when our God brought creation into existence.

Love displayed at Calvary was always present in God. It is in the foundation of the creation.

God is love, therefore His motive in creation was love.

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

Does God love Himself?
Yes.

Is it a wise love? I mean, is God right? Is He worth loving?
Yes.

What about humanity, His image? Does He find humanity, made in His image, to be worth
loving?
Yes.

Was this an accident?
No.

He knows what He is doing. We were made for His pleasure. He loves what He made.
No wonder He blessed us.

And you are the object of His heart’s desire.

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

The one who does not love does not know God. God is love. (1 John 4:8)

When God enters into relationship with redeemed humanity it is a loving relationship. God initiates that relationship through loving means. He created us as a love-gift for each Person in the Trinity. He redeemed us with the same motive.

The Love, which He is, always existed as an interpersonal love within Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. Theirs is a relationship unbounded by time. It is so characterized by love that it becomes His deepest identity. This is love eternally born out of deepest appreciation.

You were created by someone whose most powerful motive is love. Yet, the expression, “God is love”, is so common as to be trite. By the way, the noun, love, is not the only noun that is used to describe God. Think about it. There are a lot of “God is…” verses in the Bible. Many of them have to do with God’s interaction with sinful humanity.

Here are a couple of sentences that contain a “God is…” that are not so comforting:

So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:23-24)

“Your God is a consuming fire…”

Let’s think about this. God is love, and God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

In Genesis, God is portrayed as an impartial judge who will enforce covenant agreements by punishing those who break covenant. Laban said to Jacob (his son-in-law),

“If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” (Genesis 31:50)

The type of love God is, in relationship to us, is often wrongly viewed. In fact, it is a discriminating love. It is a love that is born from deep appreciation and desire. It is a love that is fiercely committed to justice so that the God who is love may free humanity and love may establish ultimate liberty.

It is a love that went to Calvary.

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City