Our Nation is still in the midst of the global
viral pandemic commonly called Wuhan Virus, or more formally referred to as COVID-19.
By either name, it is still a serious and devastatingly deadly disease. So my
first responsibility is to urge every reader to heed warnings and observe those
precautions put in place by governmental authorities whether nation-wide,
state-wide, or local. The inconveniences we face now will seem small when the
crises is over—and yes, I believe we will persevere!
Moving on to our blog entry, I believe one of the simplest,
yet marvelously complex, verses in the Bible contains the following three-word
statement:
1
John 4:16 (NIV) God is love.
This small portion of scripture is perhaps one of
the first memory verses you, your children, or grandchildren learned in Sunday
School. So simple, yet we can barely scratch the surface of its true value. “God
is love.” Not, sort of, kind of, like love…
Not something that has lots of love…
GOD IS LOVE!
God is the very epitome—the very personification—of
love itself. Only Love would create beings intended to be perfect, knowing it
would cost the life of his one and only begotten Son to save those same beings when
they erred. This is why we celebrate the Easter season. Christ died and rose
again to become the perfect solution for our problem of a willful (e.g., obstinate,
stubborn) and sinful (e.g. offensive, faulty) nature.
Here in our little town, we have at present only 6
known cases of COVID-19. However, my
sons live in major cities rampant with COVID-19, and one of them works directly
with the state health department performing test analyses. I am not alone. Each
of you as you read this blog can name dozens of family members and personal
friends who are in major cities, involved in healthcare or emergency work, or who
are otherwise in the direct path of this virus. Are we concerned? Absolutely!
Do we fear? No! (Let me explain.)
We have established that God is love. For the one
who has not accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, this is an
invitation to do so. Because for the one who has accepted Christ
as their personal Lord and Savior, we are given a promise.
1
John 4:18 (NIV) There is no fear in
love. But perfect love drives out fear…
God knows. God understands. There is no concern,
worry, or even fear, that we cannot take to him in prayer. We may not know what
lies ahead in our future, but God does. What we do know is that God loves us
and cares so deeply for us that he provided his Son to be our salvation. That
is what lies ahead—forgiveness, redemption, relief from fears, the blessed hope
of resurrection, and eternity with our Creator.
Remember, because God is love, we
have all the answers we will ever need during this life. His perfect love
drives out fear. We then become free to share the wonderful news of God’s
love with others.
Respectfully written and submitted by:
Dotty Willmon, Resurrection Christian—looking
forward to the Blessed Hope of Christ’s return!
