Jesus died for everyone and me

I used this video for the Lord's Supper on 5/4/2014 at the Oak Hill Church of Christ.

Jesus Died for everyone and me


Oak Hill Church of Christ

Unconditional Love

One of the earliest memories I have of my mother is looking out of the window at the storms in Iowa. The lightning storms in Iowa were tremendous. The lightning would stretch from one horizon to the other. I remember her talking about how powerful God is to be able to make the lightning and the world.

As a child I had a lot of asthma. I remember my mother staying awake with me during the nights after everyone else had gone to bed. I'd say, "Don't go to sleep and leave me all alone!" I'd ask her questions to keep her awake. Where does the water go when it goes down the drain? How does a clock work? What was it like when you were little?

It is funny the things you remember as you get older. As I am getting older I realize that I've forgotten many of the memories I have of my mother. Mostly what I have now are just a feeling of emptiness in her loss and a feeling of knowing unconditional love. It has been 28 years since cancer took her life. I've often said that "You don't ever 'get over' losing your mother… you just get used to having a hole in your heart."

Everybody has a mother… but not everybody has a good one. Not everybody has a mother that loves God first. Not every mother exemplifies the unconditional love of God and shows that unconditional love to her family and to others. For the people that do have such a mother, this is the first glimpse of the love of God in their lives.

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1John 4:7-12 (ESV)

As Christians, of course, it is our aim to show this unconditional love of God to others. Love is the very nature of God, it is who He is. If we don't love we don't even know God. To know God is to show love.

In these verses we see that God's love was made manifest ('readily perceived') by us when we see the sending of Jesus into the world. We see that the love of God is sacrificial in sending His Son to be the propitiation ("payment price") for our sins. We see that although people haven't seen God we have seen God's love.

God's love: unconditional, readily seen, and sacrificial.

How well do we show God's love in our lives?

This love of God is not just for mothers to show in their lives… it is for all of God's children.

~Ron Vick

May 2014