Thoughts From My Book

 God is love!”1st John 4:7 Genuine ‘agape’ Love is not just an emotion, it is a divine principal it’s divine compassion in action, a special consistent kindness but more, it is consistent right doing,with the right motive, and a gift from a loving God, to those who seek it. We of ourselves cannot naturally manufacture genuine love. We are not capable of true compassion because we cannot give something we do not have. We have selfish propensities, and live mostly for two reasons to find things that give us pleasure and avoid things that cause us displeasure. Genuine compassion love is from God and only comes from having a personal relationship with, Him. We have been separated from our loving Father God, by selfishness and sin, we have a void that only God can fill. When we experience this genuine love, we will have more joy, forgiveness, kindness,patience and treat others better and experience more genuine quality, happy,healthy, lasting relationships and we will be blessed with the Spirit of Living God. We will live by the ‘golden rule’ “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” Most of us are selfish, self-centered people. Why is this? It is a character defect we inherited from our first human parents and from lack of understanding or experiencing the power of God’s Word to change us to be more like Him. Also, perhaps you never had or experienced genuine parental love from one, or maybe even both parents. This is another reason some people do not trust in God’s love. Genuine parental love is a symbol of what God’s love is like, but God’s love is much deeper and broader and never failing. A parent’s love may fail us, but hopefully not! But it did me, due to the fact that I was an unplanned for child, my parents were young and not married and did not know the Lord well and lacked genuine love and they abandoned me. I have forgiven them. But that is a long story that I will save for another time. But experience and experts in child development confirm, children born or raised without both father and mother loving parents grow up to be insecure and troubled feeling rejected and unloved. However, I must say that I did have the nurturing love of a grandmother, aunt, uncle and relatives and that helped and I was very blessed and privileged to have their love

as a substitute to what I should have had from my parents. It was especially the love of my Grandmother Vera Allen, she raised me and her love proved through the years to be true and never failed me. But she died-is resting in Christ now and I miss her greatly and I look forward to seeing her in the New Jerusalem-Heaven. And it was not the same. I still had a real void, wanting and needing to be loved by my own parents. When a child lacks love from their parents, it is much more difficult for that child to understand or trust in God’s love or anybody else’s! The

results of this can be tragic. But there is hope in the love of Christ that heals and restores. We need a better connection with the source of this genuine Love that can transform us.

God gave us fathers and mothers, to also help us to understand His love better.

The family on earth is symbolic of our heavenly family. God wants us to realize that He is the loving Father of all humanity and we are all brothers and sisters in the same big family. God wants us to have kindness, patience, respect, forgiveness, and love for all humanity as we do for our parents, brothers and sisters-siblings in a family environment. On earth for most of us, the closest

human relationship experience is in a family environment. The first, marriage and family were instituted in Eden in the beginning of the world. God in His love and

wisdom prepared and created it for us. If you have had selfish unloving parents,or were raised in a broken home, with both or even one parent missing, do to death, divorced or other reasons, then it is more difficult for you to experience love and trust. I said it is difficult but not impossible! It took me longer to love and trust in a God whom I cannot even see, when I could not even love or trust in my own parents whom I could see. My Christian experience has suffered and my whole life has been more difficult, relationships suffered, my marriage’s, my

children, all my relationships have been affected. But how much ever longer it took me and by the way, I am still learning and growing in faith and love for God. It is a growing and learning process! But for me it has been worth it all, because I searched and found a love greater than any parental love. I was on a mission to be loved and finally experienced it in God. And as a result all my relationships with others are much better and I better understand the values and responsibility as a man, husband, Christian, and father and if I never felt the void-the need I might not have sought for it so earnestly, or cherish and appreciate as much as I do now. So now I am thankful for all things in Christ. 

God’s compassion is a perfect divine, never changing, never failing love. This is the love your heavenly Father has for you, regardless of whom you are or what you may have done, God still loves you! If you come, too. Him, He will not reject you. He says, “Whoever comes to me, I will never turn them away.” He wants to enrich your life with love, the genuine love you need. Genuine love like we all need, it is missing in our world! I am now also a parent,

not a perfect one. I do now understand how important it is to show my children genuine love and how it will help them to better trust and understand the love of their heavenly Father too. And it will help them to be better Christians and have more secure and fulfilling relationships and lives!

Parents if you are estranged from your young children for any reason, reconcile with them, give them the love they need, and they will be better prepared to trust in God’s Love too! But perhaps, you feel you are already a loved and secure person, or parent, capable of giving and receiving love, experiencing it, and trusting God too. If

so, then you will be even more prepared to experience an appreciate even more a deeper, broader, genuine love that comes only from God as I hope you will see in the truths in this book and may it help you to be a better Christian example and may God use you more fully revealing His character to the world.“The divine teacher bears long with the erring through all their perversity. His love does not grow cold: His efforts too win them does not cease. With outstretched arms He waits to welcome again and again the erring, the rebellious and even the apostate…for He traces from cause to effect. The one who is most easily tempted and is most inclined to err, is the special object of His solicitude.” (His tender care and compassion.) Education pg. 294.

It is a great mystery how a perfect, righteous, infallible, infinite God could hate sin with such intensity, but, yet love the sinner with such an unchanging, unfailing love. I think even heavenly beings wonder at this mystery of God’sunconditional matchless love. One thing is very certain this could not be a God of human invention. I mean, we humans have never had this kind of love for others naturally. It is of a divine nature and it could not be manufactured or invented by any human. Therefore, never could a story about a God of love be manufactured by humans who could never experience such a love. So, that is more convincing evidence that the Bible is not a fictitious story book by the inventions of men. It is a true story about a God of love who has revealed His love in the likeness of His own Son and His love has transformed the lives of million and millions of us humans! Take some time to read this book prayerfully, with an open mind, and ask God if these things are true.

“For by grace you have been saved through

faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared before that we should walk in them.”

Eph. 2:8-10. We are not save by good works, but we will not be saved without them. “Faith without works is dead.” James 2:20. “Whosoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” 1st John

“If you really fulfill the royal law (notice here the Apostle James calls the law the “royal law” and identifies it as the Ten Commandment Laws of God) according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as a transgressor, for whoever shall keep the wholelaw ; and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not murder! Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”   ( Note the Ten Commandment Law is also called the ‘law of Liberty’) James 2:8-12.3:4.

“For when we were yet without strength…Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man

will one die…for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:6-8.”Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into

the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” Romans 5:12- 14.”For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace

did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:19-21.

“Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins,

in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His.” Desire Of Ages,p.25.

“Such love is without a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme for the most profound meditation! The matchless love of God for a world that did not love Him! The thought has a subduing power upon the soul and brings the mind into captivity to the will of God, the more we study the divine character in light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice, and more clearly we discern innumerable evidence of a love that is infinite and a tender pity surpassing a mother’s yearning sympathy for her wayward child.” Steps To Christ pg 6.

It is a greatmystery how a perfect, righteous, infallible, infinite God could hate sin with such intensity, but, yet love the sinner with such an unchanging, unfailing love. I think even heavenly beings wonder at this mystery of God’s unconditional matchless love. One thing is very certain this could not be a God of human invention. I mean, we humans have never had this kind of love for others naturally. It is of a divine nature and it could not be manufactured or invented by any human. Therefore, never could a story about a God of love be manufactured by humans who could never experience such a love. So, that is more convincing evidence that the Bible is not a fictitious story book by the inventions of men. It is a true story about a God of love who has revealed His love in the likeness of His own Son and His love has  transformed the lives of million and millions of us humans! And we need to listen to God speaking to our conscience.

"But Becasue Christ the Son of God willing gave His life as a sacrifice to save all humanity from there sins. God the Father gave all Glory, Power, and Judgement to Christ as God the Son. "This was a voluntary sacrifice. Jesus might have remained at the Father's side. He might have retained the glory of heaven, and the homage of the angels. But He chose to give back the scepter into the Father's hands, and to step down from the throne of the universe, that He might bring light to the benighted, and life to the perishing. Nearly two thousand years ago, a voice of mysterious import was heard in heaven, from the throne of God, "Lo, I come." "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me. . . . Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God." Heb. 10:5-7. In these words is announced the fulfillment of the purpose that had been hidden from eternal ages. Christ was about to visit our world, and to become incarnate. He says, "A body hast Thou prepared Me." Had He appeared with the glory that was His with the Father before the world was, we could not have endured the light of His presence. That we might behold it and not be destroyed, the manifestation of His glory was shrouded. His divinity was veiled with humanity,--the invisible glory in the visible human form. This great purpose had been shadowed forth in types and symbols. The burning bush, in which Christ appeared to Moses, revealed God. The symbol chosen for the representation of the Deity was a lowly shrub, that seemingly had no attractions. This enshrined the Infinite. The all-merciful God shrouded His glory in a most humble type, that Moses could look upon it and live. So in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God communicated with Israel, revealing to men His will, and imparting to them His grace. God's glory was subdued, and His majesty veiled, that the weak vision of finite men might behold it. So Christ was to come in "the body of our humiliation" (Phil. 3:21, R. V.), "in the likeness of men...

"In the eyes of the world He possessed no beauty that they should desire Him; yet He was the incarnate God, the light of heaven and earth. His glory was veiled, His greatness and majesty were hidden, that He might draw near to sorrowful, tempted men. God commanded Moses for Israel, "Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8), and He abode in the sanctuary, in the midst of His people. Through all their weary wandering in the desert, the symbol of His presence was with them. So Christ set up His tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment. He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of men, that He might dwell among us, and make us familiar with His divine character and life. "The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth." John 1:14, R. V., margin. Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour's life on earth, we see "God with us."

"By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder." God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the "Son of man" who shares the throne of the universe. It is the "Son of man" whose name shall be called, "Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isa. 9:6. The I Am is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon both. He who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," is not ashamed to call us brethren. Heb. 7:26; 2:11. In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love."

"The King of glory stooped low to take humanity. Rude and forbidding were His earthly surroundings. His glory was veiled, that the majesty of His outward form might not become an object of attraction. He shunned all outward display. Riches, worldly honor, and human greatness can never save a soul from death; Jesus purposed that no attraction of an earthly nature should call men to His side. Only the beauty of heavenly truth must draw those who would follow Him. The character of the Messiah had long been foretold in prophecy, and He desired men to accept Him upon the testimony of the word of God." Desire of Ages 19-27.

We are so often distracted from spending time with God in prayer or bible study. “The pleasures of the world, life’s cares and perplexities and sorrows, the faults of others, or your own faults and imperfections—to any or all of these he will seek to divert the mind. Do not be misled by his devices.” Steps to Christ p.71.

 Spend more time with God. His love will awaken your love, and to know Him is to love Him!

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may live in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to understand with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians. 3:14-19

 The author, Matthew James Allen