My tears on my glasses

Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord…he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. – Deuteronomy 4:39

It is a blessing that I am living in a season of life where God has brought me to a deeper place of understanding just how much he loves his Children. Surely I have known the love of God, I have seen it and I have lived it, but in this season God saw fit to say to my soul: You think you know just how much I love these people? Just wait, you have not seen anything yet.

And he has proceeded to deepen my spiritual awareness of his immense love, that though I can never fully comprehend it nor ever reciprocate it, my heart is amazed at how deeply God loves you!

And now…when my mind remembers all that the lord has shown me, then my heart breaks for all those that forsake him. And when my broken heart remembers how he loves all those that forsake him…my spiritual reaction is glory and worship; my physical reaction is tears in my eyes.

John Chapter 17
Brothers and Sisters, I began to understand the depths of God’s love one night when I read John Chapter 17. Here John chronicles the prayer that Jesus said for his disciples on the night he was arrested. As I read all that Jesus prayed I was moved by how much love he had for his disciples. Jesus asked the father to keep them through his own name, that they may be one even as he and the father are one. He told God that they are not of the world, even as he is not of the world and asked the father to sanctify them through his truth, for the word of God is truth.

As I read this my spirit was moved and when I got to verse 20 I was astonished. Here Jesus said “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one is us: That the world may believe that thou has sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one”. John 17:20-22.

It humbled me to know that my lord Jesus prayed for we who would come to believe on this gospel, that we may all be one. Jesus did not stop at praying for the disciples who were with him at that time, he prayed for all of us, his disciples who were to come, that we may all be one as he and the father are one. God gave him glory and our Lord Jesus gave it to us so that we all could be one. This is all it’s about: one body, one church, one love, one spirit…the love of God has made us one.

The love of God has made us one…

As I write this I am made to understand that it is the love of God that has made us one…I cannot say it enough. This is why Jesus said the word “one” over and over in John Chapter 17. That we may be one…even as he and the father are one. Our Lord Jesus Christ is one with the father, and the only way that we can ever be perfected is to become one with he and the father. God loves us so much that he wants to pull us into himself that we the church may be one with him.

How easily does one embrace a homeless man? How easily does one embrace a dirty child? Jesus died to wash away our sins so that we can come cleanly into this oneness with God. He is perfect and there is no spot, blemish or unrighteousness in him…yet he calls us to himself. The love of God has made us one.

And so, at the time I read John Chapter 17 God brought me into a deeper place of understanding his love for this world. But I had not seen or known anything yet, God has shown me more and caused me to understand more deeply.

In the most improbable of places God showed me the depth of his love: The book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy

The books of Moses in the Old Testament might seem like a chore to many as they read all of the laws that God commanded the children of Israel, but all of this is the word of God to which nothing is added or removed.

Lately I have been reading the book of Deuteronomy and as I read I began to understand what was happening at this time in history. Deuteronomy is the last book of Moses and it chronicles the events that took place right before the Children of Israel were to cross over the river Jordan into the Promised Land.

I’d read Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, and had seen all that God did for the Children of Israel in their journeys from the land of Egypt. I had read their grumbling, disobedience and idolatry. I had read the statutes of the lord unto them and all that he commanded them. So now, as I read the book of Deuteronomy I was mindful that this was a culmination of sorts. And as Moses began to give these people last instructions, the love of God was revealed to me in every word that he said unto these people.

I began to see the sense of urgency within Moses for he knew these people and how they were prone to stray from the lord, and I saw how fervently he plead with them to keep their eyes focused on the lord. Moses said everything the lord led him to say with the intent that these people would abide by their first love –

Chapter 4
Verse 9 – Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life.

Verse 28-29 – And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Verse -39 – Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath: there Is none else.

Chapter 5
Verse 29 - O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me and keep my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

Chapter 10
Verse 12 – And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul

Brothers and sisters, with every chapter the love of God and the urgency in this love was imprinted into my soul. I thought about someone with a spouse who is prone to go astray, doing and saying everything possible to keep this person faithful.

God knew what they were made of, and he knew that they were prone to forsake the Lord their God, not very unlike we today. And so he used Moses to instruct them, and even tell them what to do when they finally do go astray. He told them what would happen to them if they go astray, but that when that day comes they must put him in remembrance and seek him and they will find him. These things to me spoke of Love I had never understood.

And what of Moses? This is what he had to say for himself “Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto the good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance: But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan, but ye shall go over, and possess that good land. Deuteronomy 4:21-22

Moses suffered much for the Children of Israel and the Lord held him accountable…but God’s love for these people was manifested through Moses as he spoke to them.

What does the Lord your God require of you?

I write this today because there are tears being shed in the world today…in the lives of many people there is a cry that is going up to heaven. A few weeks ago I went to Church and saw the story of the life of the founding Pastor of Times Square Church – David Wilkerson. And as I sat there after the sermon thinking about the power of God’s love in one person’s life, I took off my eye glasses and looked at them. Clear streaks of tears on clear shapes of glass…and I thought how many people have seen this sight? How many people have shed these tears and for how many reasons?

Last night I told Jesus that his Children are crying and they are suffering, and my heart knew that he knows. But today, I want you to know that because of the disobedience of the children of Israel, God did not let Moses go into the Promised Land. If Moses, whom God called the only faithful servant he has did not cross this Jordan, where do we think we are going if we do not obey our God and love him with all of our hearts? This is what God says he requires of us.

In this life, it has fallen to me to cry with this world and to tell of God’s love which came alive to me in this story of Israel. But with such a love comes such a responsibility – Fear the Lord your God, walk in his ways, Love him and serve the Lord your God with all thy heart and all thy soul.

And as you cross this river Jordan know that Moses could only see it from a mountain; as you dwell in this Promised Land. God bless you forever…amen.