April 30, 2014 Wednesday: 2nd Week of Easter

Do you know the love which surpasses the greatest joy and happiness which one could ever hope to find? Great love is manifested in the cost and sacrifice of the giver. True lovers hold nothing back but give the best that can be offered to their beloved, including all they possess, even their very lives. God proved his love for us by giving us the best he had to offer - his only begotten Son who freely offered up his life for our sake as the atoning sacrifice for our sin and the sin of the world.

Abraham's willing sacrifice of his only son, Isaac, prefigures the perfect offering and sacrifice of God's beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This passage in the Gospel of John tells us of the great breadth and width of God's love. Not an excluding love for just a few or for a single nation, but a redemptive love that embraces the whole world, and a personal love for each and every individual whom God has created in his own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26,27). God is the eternal Father of Love who cannot rest until his wandering children have returned home to him. Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) said, God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love. God gives us the freedom to choose whom and what we will love.

Jesus shows us the paradox of love and judgment. We can love the darkness of sin and unbelief or we can love the light of God's truth, beauty, and goodness. If our love is guided by what is true, and good, and beautiful then we will choose for God and love him above all else. What we love shows what we prefer and value most. Do you love God above all else? Does he take first place in your life, in your thoughts, affections, and actions?

Don Schwager, www.dailyscripture.net