"When Love Was New"
All of us have known many kinds of love. For just a moment, try to imagine life without human love. Can you do it?
Love is found everywhere. Love is present in everything. Love is "the tie that binds". And because of these, it is safe to say we really cannot imagine life without love. Remember being young and anxiously looking forward to being in love?
Try to remember the first time you fell in love with someone, who loved you too. Remember how that special relationship felt?
Remember feeling you could rely on each other completely? Remember the trust and confidence you had in each other?
Remember the ache of something missing when the two of you weren't together? Maybe you felt an uncomfortable emptiness or misery inside, that only being with that loved one could fill or fix. Do you remember?
If you are being honest - at least with yourself - you remember it well. Hopefully, that first love is still part of your life. For most of us though, it has long since gone away. It might have been replaced with another love, but it will never be like that first love ever again.
I don't offer any Bible passages to support what follows: look for supportive Scriptures on your own. It will be easy, interesting, and could become a deep study of God's Word for you. Invite your friends and family to join you. Do it soon.
God created man for His good pleasure, and to have fellowship and communion with man. To walk and talk with man - His creation - personally and openly was what God wanted. And that is the way it was in the early days, in the Garden of Eden.
God loved man so much that He created man in God's own image. Their relationship was true and trusting, and was intended to always be that way. But something happened in the Garden that destroyed that relationship.
As a result, the love and trust found in the special relationship that God and man had shared together was broken. The separation that followed is something that has influenced the literal entirety of history. You will see that in your study.
There is a special deep, aching emptiness that people feel inside that comes from separation from God and His love.
Remember the things you tried to do to relieve the pain of separation from your first loved one? Music didn't work. Alcohol or other drugs didn't work. Even finding a new relationship with another person didn't really work. Only if you could reconnect with your first love were your yearnings satisfied. There were no equally worthy replacements.
Over 2,000 years ago God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world to fix our problem of separation from God and His love.
God wants everyone to believe in Jesus, and also to believe that:
....All are sinners, and a penalty is demanded to be paid for the forgiveness of sin
....Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty of sin for those who believe in Him
....Jesus was buried and rose from the grave; He has defeated death eternally
.... Jesus, as Savior, is the best Guide, Protector, and Teacher for any believer
....Every believer is to receive and follow Jesus as Lord and Master of their life
But God's love is fair to all of us, and He gives us free will to choose whether or not we believe in Jesus.
Choosing to believe means spending eternity with God and His love in Heaven.
Choosing not to believe means to reject Jesus and God's free gift of forgiveness. And you already know, from your own experiences, that there is no love or comfort in rejection.
God's love is real. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life found only in God's love for anyone.
God is calling, and Jesus is waiting to be your Savior. Believe and receive all the blessings of God's love today.
My name is Leonard L. Hamilton, Jr., and I have known Jesus as my Lord and Savior since 1989. I am redeemed.
And along with many others, I am praying for your eternal soul as you have read this.
About Len.One
I am just a man who, at the age of 40, became a forgiven sinner reborn in Christ Jesus. Hearing God's call, I accepted His Son as my Savior in 1989. I believe that for everyone, the road from birth to death has twists and turns that offer many portals to salvation in Jesus. My own confused road was leading to loss and ruin, but the unflinching grace of God brought me to eternal safety and peace in Jesus.
In many ways I am basically still the same person I always strived to be, but now I no longer seek to live for myself but instead live to bring honor, praise and glory to God and my Savior. It may sound strange to you, but in giving my life to Jesus, I know my future is secure. Life is gentler now, with true peace and understanding.
You, too, can have eternal life and know the peace of God's provision for all who believe and trust in His only begotten Son, Jesus. Salvation is a gift of grace from God Almighty, and comes to us only through Jesus Christ. There is no other way to become acceptable to God the Father. Heaven is waiting to rejoice over your decision to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Please answer the call God has put on your life, for personal peace and all eternal joy in heaven.