“…that you… may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge… Ep3.17-19 NKJV
Yesterday Brenda and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary and went to Montgomery for an evening together. Both of us, in our own way, conveyed love for the other. All through the evening we expressed words, held hands, smiled and shared resonating looks, ate at our favorite restaurant, and drove home watching a beautiful sunset drinking our favorite coffee. When you love someone you not only want them to know that you do, you want them to experience it. Driving around Montgomery we noticed at least two billboard signs which boldly declared, “Jesus loves You.“ I had commented on the first and when I saw the second, I asked Brenda if she thought that perhaps Christ was trying to tell us something. There was one moment where I was keenly aware of His pleasure in our marriage.
I think that because God loves us He desires that we not only know that He does, He wants us to experience His love. The prayer above is that we would be able to comprehend or lay hold of just how much He loves us, not only with our mind but in our experience. His desire is that we know the love of Christ which goes beyond mere knowledge. When Christ tells us to abide in His love He is in effect telling us to live under the umbrella of its joy, protection, comfort and benefit. He explains that we abide in His love when we do as He asks just as He abides in His Father’s love by doing the same. It is one thing to know that an umbrella can keep you out of the rain, it is another to actually come out of the rain and under its protection and benefit. The Bible tells us that Adam knew Eve and she conceived and gave birth to a son. What interesting way of describing sexual intimacy. To know in the biblical sense of the word is to have an intimate and personal encounter with what one is knowing. God wants our knowledge of His love to be in the biblical sense of the word, an intimate, personal and experiential knowing. 6/6/07 ts
Just me trying to be honest with God.
