Now that we have taken a little pause for love, let us continue.

Ephesians 2:12 English Standard Version (ESV) remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 4:18 English Standard Version (ESV) They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

The unbelieving heart must be broken before the truth can be received. In the parable of the sower the ground prepared to receive the gospel is called “good soil”. Do not allow words to deceive us in knowing that “good” means ready to receive the gospel, not sinless.

Many times we are so focused on just spreading the gospel that we fail to see the Holy Spirit tilling the soil. That work is performed by loving the lost where they are without judgment. We are not meant to judge the soil. If we allow the lost to see the life we live and the love that leads us, then we have done all that we can do by human effort.

Touching a hard heart and breaking it is the work for the Holy Spirit. Our judgment related to worthiness only hinders His work.

Those that brought me to Christ did not insinuate their lives into mine. I sought to insinuate myself into theirs because of the quality of love in theirs. The instinct to seek love is at the core of evangelism. The lost want to be loved. They just have not found “so great a love” until they saw it for themselves.

Numbers 14:19 English Standard Version (ESV) “Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

Let this be our prayer as we seek to show the lost the love that dwells inside us.

Ephesians 2:4 English Standard Version (ESV) But^[And] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

Before we continue let us pause for a moment and get back to passages visited recently without paying honor where honor is due. We had discussed faith at that time and it was important for the moment. Now it is time to take a pause in this study to given honor to God.

No one will ever love you more than the God who created you.

Love, God’s love is more than any earthly experience. It is difficult to fathom. Some will say to us, “If he loves us so much why doesn’t He show Himself?” He did and He does but He does it in a way that will not scare us or harm us.

Exodus 20:18 English Standard Version (ESV) Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off.

God wants to draw us into a close personal relationship. Seeing how fearful mankind can be He chose a better way to reveal Himself.

John 3:16a English Standard Version (ESV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son…

John 8:42 English Standard Version (ESV) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”

If we love the Father we will love the Son. If we know the Son, we know the Father.

Hebrews 1:3a English Standard Version (ESV) He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

To know just how much the Father and Son both love us it will take a lifetime of being loved to glimpse even a small portion of so great a love.