Valentines Day is just around the corner, and with it all the usual reminders shown to us in the stores of red hearts and love. It’s wonderful to have loved one’s to share either in this day, or on other occasions throughout the year. Love takes many forms. The schoolboy “puppy-love”, the love of a husband and wife, the love a parent shows towards his child, and the brotherly Christian love we all share as fellow believers. These are all forms of love we can easily understand. What is not quite as easy to grasp, is the concept that Jesus, knowing how often we would fail Him and embarrass Him, would love us anyway; even enough to die for us. To put His love in an earthly context, consider this example:
Imagine
you have been convicted of a terrible crime, you received the death
penalty, and the day of your execution has arrived.
As the guards come to get you to lead you down that long hall to
the execution chamber, you think back to the terrible mistake you made,
wishing you could change history, but knowing that you broke the law and
you must pay for your crime. As
the guards sit you down in the chair to receive your punishment, they
place a hood over your head, and you realize the end will arrive in a few
seconds. Justice will be served. Suddenly,
you hear a familiar voice saying, “Stop….I’ll take his place”.
They pull the hood off your head and you see your father standing
there with love in his face and tears in his eyes.
You try to stop the guards, saying “But he’s done nothing
wrong, I deserve to die!!” As
you pass your father and he is led to the chair, he pauses and hands you a
piece of paper and says simply “I love you”.
You try to stop them, but you are led away and in a minute, the
switch is pulled, and your father has been executed.
The warden tells you, “You are free to go” and as you look away
in stunned silence, you open your hands and read the piece of paper your
father gave you. In big red letters are the words, “Paid In Full”.
That
is what true love is all about. Knowing
how much we are loved by our heavenly Father, makes Legacy excited every
week about singing and ministering for Him.
That is why we sing. To
tell the world, that no matter what they have done, or how unworthy they
feel, that God loves them and offers peace and forgiveness.
Praise the Lord!!
In
Christian Love,
Tim Perry for Legacy