gOD'S amazing unconditional LOVE for us

(My experience of understanding God's unconditional love for humanity - "Love On A Dusty Road")

(By: Norm Rasmussen)

If you’ve walked with Jesus for any amount of time, you have memories of moments that changed your life dramatically, I would suspect. I think back to one of those times when God so impacted my understanding of Him that I almost feel it would be insensitive to Him to not pass along that experience for others to perhaps benefit by.

To say the least, it was a moment in time that totally transformed my understanding of God and “Christianity.”

Let’s set the stage first before getting to the meat. For several days I had a constant desire to whisper words of praise and thanksgiving to God. It was very much NOT me -- not my “normal” daily routine up to that point in time with my relationship with the Lord. It grew in such intensity that I was hardly able to sleep as the days passed. Finally it became so overwhelming that I told Kathleen (my wife) that I was going to take a day off at work and go get alone with God where I could praise Him without any distractions. She understood.

I drove my car out to an old dusty two-track road in the county where I wouldn’t be disturbed and shut my car engine off. Then in the quiet of my surroundings, I began to praise the Lord out loud, over and over and over. After about an hour, my 6’4” body was getting cramped and so I got out of my car and stood in the dusty road with hands raised … continuing to praise my Lord and Savior and Heavenly Father and The Holy Spirit. Again – it was so unlike me. I wasn’t engaged in this intimacy to try to get something out of Him or impress Him if you will. Rather, I was literally DRIVEN to do this. Driven because I had so much love and appreciation for Him for what He had done for me up to that point in my life and I knew no other way to try to express it to Him. It had started days back and had only continued to intensify up to the moment.

Then like a light switch flipped, God spoke this to me. Very loudly He spoke to my spirit: “Norm – you are trying to earn my love. It can’t be earned. It’s a free gift to all.”

Instantly the desire to praise Him stopped, my arms came down, and I went to my knees. I said, “Lord – I don’t understand. How am I trying to earn Your love?”

He replied instantly, “By everything you are doing in your relationship with Me. You attend local church fellowship regularly to try to earn My love. You read and study your Bible to try to earn My love. You pray to Me to try to earn My love. You tithe to try to earn My love. You witness to try to earn My love. You worship Me like you’ve been doing these last few days and nights to try to earn My love. EVERYTHING you do when it involves Me is trying to earn My love.”

To say I went into a kind of shock would be an understatement. In fact, I began to cry. Might it be said that I was greatly “Undone.” 

Then God spoke more. “Norm – I want you to know that if you NEVER go to a local church fellowship ever again from this day forward – it will not diminish My unconditional love I have for you. If you NEVER read your Bible again – it will not diminish My unconditional love for you. If you never pray to Me ever again – it will NOT diminish My unconditional love for you. If you never give a single penny to the work of a local church fellowship or ministry or to the needy – if you never witness; never engage yourself in discipleship -- none of these things will diminish My unconditional love for you if you stop doing them. Again: My unconditional love for every person cannot be earned, nor is it even deserved. It’s a free gift to humanity.”

I stopped crying and then got very “sober” with God. Out loud, I began asking Him questions just to make certain I had heard and understood Him clearly.

Such as: “Are you saying that if I stopped tithing, it won’t cause You to love me less?”

“Correct.”

“And if I never pray to You ever again?”

“Correct.”

“And I never attend church or witness or anything else I thought I was supposed to be doing as a Christian, it won’t stop You from loving me?”

“That’s correct.”

I kneeled there in deep silence, taking this all in … a part of me truthfully hardly believing that it could REALLY be God saying these things.

Then He spoke more: “I want to tell you how I can love every person equally the same as I love you. It is because of the sacrifice that My Son Jesus gave at the cross. Before creation ever existed, it was His sacrifice for humanity that would happen at a future time that released My unconditional love for every person born on earth.”

He continued, “Now then … you need to know this as well. My law of sowing and repeating is not to be misunderstood. As it is written, “If a person sows a little, they will reap a little. If they sow a lot, they will reap a lot. Whether they sow little or a lot, it won’t affect My unconditional love for them, but it WILL affect My favor on their lives.

“And to make it simple, Christianity is not something a person HAS to do. It’s something people GET to do. Christianity was never meant to be a relationship of HAVE to or SUPPOSED to nor EXPECTED to. It’s a relationship with Me of GETTING to. WISELY getting to.”

He continued: “An unwise person would not stop doing the spiritual disciplines that will reap My favor both now and growing into eternity on their behalf. Saying it a little differently to help you understand: ‘Laying up for yourself treasures in heaven, as My Word admonishes believers to do as recorded in Matthew 16:20, is not something my people HAVE to do. It’s something they GET to do. It’s something the wise will do.”

God shared some other priceless things with me there on that dusty road before I stood and went back to my car, but what I’ve shared here was the meat of what happened. I hope it can be a blessing to perhaps help others who may be so locked into CONDITIONAL love like I was (and not even REALIZING it) to be delivered of it so they can be freed like God freed me to step into the FULL awareness of what Jesus wants His followers – His disciples – His devoted LOVERS - understanding: 

“And you shall know the Truth, and Truth shall set you free.”

[There is a CRITICALLY IMPORTANT fact that must be stated with this writing. God’s divine ATTRIBUTES work in perfect harmony. One divine attribute does not play a higher priority than another. They function in perfect harmony with each other. THUS – God’s divine attribute of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE does not override God’s divine attribute of JUSTICE nor HOLINESS. I’m persuaded I’m on safe ground with God by saying God loves unconditionally everyone who will end up in hell for eternity but His unconditional love will not KEEP them from going to hell and staying there, and it certainly won’t release them from there. Why? Because God’s divine attribute of JUSTICE must also be satisfied at all times. Thus God’s JUSTICE must ALWAYS be executed in matters. God has decreed in His Word, the Holy Bible, that sin must be punished. Wrong-doing against an all Holy God must be punished. Another divine attribute of God is WRATH. God’s wrath MUST be executed against our sin; our rebellion against an all holy God MUST be.]

Guess what? It WAS executed on Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s the “Good News of the Gospel of God.” That is precisely WHY there is no other way to have one’s sins against God and others forgiven by God. Humanity is ALL under God’s divine attribute of WRATH because we are all born sinners (inherited from Adam and Eve). And to have God’s penalty of WRATH removed from us … there is only ONE way. It is to believe – trust – that all of God’s wrath waiting to be executed on us gets IMMEDIATELY REMOVED when we make Jesus our Savior and Lord. Our past, present and future sins were PAID FOR by none other than God HIMSELF who we call Jesus Christ … the Son of God – God the Son.

Not feeling to make this an exhaustive teaching on the divine attributes of God … I will end by saying that another divine attribute of God is MERCY. God is an all-MERCIFUL God, and it is ultimately God’s decision to determine the eternal fate of each of us. Thus for Christians who sin … I’ll leave it up to the Holy Spirit to quicken to them what 1 John 1:9 means for them. Personally for me … I’m playing it safe by admitting my sin to God and asking His forgiveness and believing it will be granted. Not for my past sins, because I've asked forgiveness of them when I got saved (started the born again process). I’m talking about the sin(s) I just committed and/or the sins I’ll commit in the future. 

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Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-20 is our assurance)