How Deep Is The Love of Christ by Jolene Eller
As I watched Mel Gibson in "Braveheart", a change was made in me! What symbolism there was to Christ, as I watched this movie play out. First, he experienced betrail by a "Judas". Then as I kept watching, I saw him get beaten. In the mean time, praying, "God, give me strenght for this torture I'm experiencing today," as he suffers for his countries freedom.
As we watch him get tortured, first, hanging him to the point where he is almost suffocating. Then as they stretch him to the point of almost pulling him apart. Lastly, they put him on a cross where they rip out side his insides, and sastrate him as they plead with him to cry out for mercy. When he finally gets the strenght to yell! He yells, not mercy but FREEDOM!
Freedom! As he is close to death, he smiles, as he sees his loved ones face in the crowd. She was his reason to fight for freedom. His sight was on her, as he was decapitated. Eventually, his death was worth it, as his country gains the freedom that they had fought for so long and hard.
Yet, he is not the truc sacrifice as Christ Jesus was as He was hung on the cross. I will never, ever comprehend Gods' deep unconditional love for me. So many times, I feel unworthy. We are unworthy to be saved, but by Jesus blood on the cross, He forgave us, and we are worthy. Yes, indeed.
As a dear friend wrote to me during church saying, "Why did He choose me?" I often wondered the same question myself. "Why me? What did I do to deserve His Love"? Yet, in in Ephesians 1:4, He tells us, "For He chose us in Him BEFORE the creation of the world. Ephesians 1:5, in love He PREDESTINED us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with HIS PLEASURE and WILL."
HIS PLEASURE to LOVE ME?
As I continued to watch, my cat named Pumpkin, reminds me of God's love. . I feel at times, that she's more devoted to me than I am to God. As I enter the door, she's usually there to greet me with plenty of meows, telling me all about her day. She's always close by especially when I go to bed. She'll curl up next to me, with her front paws lying over my bicep, and she'll lick my arm for a bit. Her "motor" is going full speed as she settles in for the night. True devotion until she wakes up and becomes mischievous, doing things she knows she's not to do. One stern "NO" sends her running.
I have compareed this to my relationship to God. Am I as devoted to God as Pumpkin is to me? Do I sit curled up next to God, wash His feet as Pumpkin does my arm and talk to Him as Pumpkin talks to me? I see myself more in the mischievous stage, as I run off and get caught up doing things that takes my time away from God, and my mind off Him. I get caught up doing what I know is "NO" inside. Yet, I still love Pumpkin when she disobeys. Altho, I know God loves me more, even when I disobey.
His mercy is amazing! I love Psalms 139. As I read about God and I there.
"O Lord, you have searched me and you KNOW me.
You LISTEN when I sit and when I rise,
You perceive my thoughts from afar!
You are familiar with ALL my ways!
No matter where I go,
You ARE THERE!
You created me in my mother's womb!
ALL the days ordained for me, were written in Your Book before it was written.
Now two of my most treasured verses from this Chapter, as I'm in awe every time I read them:
"How precious to me are your thoughts O God,
How vast is the sum of them.
If I were to count them, they would out number the grains of sand! WOW!
As I ponder on the grains of sand in this world, I'm taken back, as I realize His thoughts of me are outnumbered. Yet, my thoughts of Him, do they even compare? No, yet I strive on to that goal! The goal is to know Him fully, until that glorious day arrives, when I see Him face to face, eye to eye. I press on. I want to know Christ Jesus, and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. And so, some how to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on, to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, is forgetting what is behind me and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:10-14.
How deep is the love of Christ? Well, as I listened to that song, I cried. I knew God had been showing me often lately. Either it be by a Hollywood Movie, friends, His Creation, Pumpkin, my cat, or through music, He shows me one way or the other.
Wes King states it well in his song, which caused me to sob as I knew humanly, I will never be able to love Him enough. As I see Jesus betrayed by one of His beloved disciples Judas, beaten, humiliated, scorned, crown of thorns thrust on His head, carrying that jagged wooden Cross on His open bleeding back uphill to Calvary, being nailed. Yes, I said nailed in the hands and the feet to the cross. His side pierced with a sword. Hanging there to die, as He lifts Himself up to breath.
Yet, as men curse, yell, and humiliate Him, He still loves them. As He asks God, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." I am so humbled. I'm ashamed of my life and pray God will continue to change me, mold me into His image and give me a much GREATER LOVE.
My prayer for you is that you will know, as Wes King's song says, "How wide and how long and how high, how deep is the love, and how deep is the love of Christ. The width of two arms out stretched on a Cross, the length of the road to Calvary, the height of a crown on a cruel cross, the depth of the pain is the cost, all for you, all for me, all for the love did He bleed, all to set us free. (FREEDOM!)
My prayer for you is, that you would know how deep the love of Christ is for you!
Lord, Help me to love as You did for me. No greater love is this, that one would lay down His life for another. Would I ever do this for anyone? I pray I'll have a deeper love for others as Christ did for me!
Written by:
Jolene Eller