07.11.08
Love Letter from God
When we hear the words, “The Bible,” I think many preconceived ideas jump out in our minds. Oftentimes, those ideas are wrapped up in strong feelings whether it be a great love for the Bible or a disdain for it. People today, and in generations past, have risked their lives for what’s written in the Bible. Others have gone through wars and died for their beliefs documented in the Bible. And yet others have been martyred.
When I hear the words, “The Bible,” I think of a love letter. A very long and involved love letter from God to us. A love letter that He wrote to us with all the things He wanted us to know that we would not be able to know had He not revealed it to us. He shares with us our beginnings, who our forefathers were, what happened to them, much of history and how it can affect our lives today, how that history will affect our future, and even many other practical things such as how to live peaceably, what the attitudes of man are like, even a bit about what God Himself is like, and many other things. Apparently He had much to tell us as that “love letter” was not a mere few pages, but rather filled many, many pages which are known today to be a compilation of 66 books written by 40 different authors and spanning over about 6,000 years. In short that love letter is known today as The Bible.
One may wonder why I think of the Bible as a love letter? Well, it’s because of its overall message. In the Bible God tells us how it was His pleasure to create us, but we fell away from Him. But because of His love for us, He devised a way that we could be reconciled again to Him. In the meantime, He has given us directions on how to live so that things will go well with us until we are reconciled again with Him. Because He cares for us. Basically, the Bible tells us how much God loves us and how we can get back together with Him. It’s like a wonderfully detailed love letter where the ultimate goal is for reunion. There are even reference to the Bride and the Bridegroom–the church and Christ. So until we meet again, think of Him always and know that he is also thinking of us, so have heart and take care.
Being a love letter, it’s not surprising that “love” is the underlying theme in the whole Bible. In 1 John 4:19, he writes, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Can we love like God loves? Is all love the same? There are many references to love in the Bible, to which I would like to comment. Certainly I would like to also receive comments if there are any other insights regarding love in the Bible. I’m not sure where I want to begin, so will pick a spot and continue later when I have more time.
Happy Friday!
Marlakins
Andrea said,
July 19, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I agree–the Bible is a love letter. If you look around you, though, you can see that the whole world is full of love letters from God. Flowers. Food. Music. All the incredible gifts that life give us.
I think it’s interesting that the Bible tells us to love God, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength–that comes first, and then our neighbor as ourselves. I think where we can get in trouble is by putting things out of this holy order. Loving anything more than God is IMO idolatry. Anything–husband, kids, country, any principle, any building, music, art–all are deserving of our love, but our love of God comes first. Then we can be sure that our love of others is a true love, a good love.
I’ve been away at a conference, and did a fundraiser all day today, so that’s as far as I can get, so will sign off for now, hope to chat more later, Andrea