How Great Is the Love

By Greg Quinn

August 24th, 2011

We live in an age where the word “love” is kicked around a lot.  We love a lot of different things.  We love a lot of different people in different ways.  We love animals.  We love ice cream.  We love guns.  Love is used as a tool to get ones way, and as an excuse to explain away a life that’s not worth living.  I think it’s important that we look at love and truly understand what it is, and how to gain it.

You are a reader of Gunblast.com most likely because you love guns.  Nothing wrong with that, as I do as well.  As do my brothers Jeff and Boge.  And as does the better than a million others just like you who, every month, read Gunblast.com for information on guns and gun products.  I love the smell of gunpowder and spent primer.  I love the feel of a handgun in my hand.  I love the look of highly polished blue and high-quality walnut.  I love the worn finish on an old single action revolver, and the smooth action of a tuned revolver.  I love racking the action on a lever-action, or a smooth bolt, or a crisp trigger.  I love the feeling of shooting the first buck of the year, or of the sounds of shotguns over a dog’s back on a bird hunt.  But as much as we may love guns, the love of guns is really not that important. 

I love good food.  One look at the Gunblast brothers and you know that we were raised in a family where food is important.  I love good food that I can no longer eat due to health issues.  I love fried chicken (of course, I’m a Baptist minister), cornbread, chocolate pie, and iced tea on a hot day.  I love coffee in the morning, especially with a piece of chocolate.  I love York Peppermint Patties.  I love the old timey candies that bring back memories of our childhood.  I love coconut cake, and every time I think of one I think of my dad who really loved coconut cake.  I love grilled fish, fried catfish, and even “bugs” (as Jeff calls them) like shrimp, crab, and lobster.  I love a good juicy steak.  I love greasy hamburgers and onion rings.  And it’s hard to beat country ham and a cathead biscuit.  But as much as we all love good food, life is much more than the love of food.

I love many things.  I love fast cars.  I love old Mustangs.  I love nice homes, flowers, crops growing in the field, and big cantaloupes.  But the love of things is really not important.

I have many friends whom I love.  I have a friend named Tony who is a preacher in Mississippi.  Tony and I are like brothers from a different mother, and I love him dearly.  I have a friend in Tennessee named Mike who is very dear to me, another friend in Tennessee named Dave, a friend in Atlanta named Bill, a friend in Alabama named Lee, and others around the world who I love as brothers.  But the love of friends pales in comparison to the love of God.

I love my family.  I love my little brother Boge, and love to see him laugh as his whole round body shakes when he has a good laugh.  I love to see Boge’s flashlight fingers fly across the small frets of a mandolin, and hear a high-pitched voice come out of such a big ol' guy.  I love my brother Jeff, and the way he tells a joke often at the most inopportune times, and the way he writes articles and uses common language to explain a complex firearm process.  I love my baby brother Mule; his smile still melts my heart.  I love my mom and cannot thank her enough for putting up with 4 boys (5 counting dad) all these years; great is her rewards in Heaven I’m sure.  I love my dad, even though he’s recently went on to be with the Lord, and I know I’ll see him again.  I love thinking about the old days growing up, the good times and bad, and for the life of me most of what I remember is very good.  I love remembering that we didn’t have much money, but we had food from the farm, and much love in our household.  I love memories of my grandmother, Mama Kent, and the way that she could comfort me as a child when no one else could.  And of course I love my wife, Vicki, and am so blessed with such a wonderful wife.  And I love my son.  I love my family that’s gone on before, and I love my extended family that’s still here, from aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces/nephews and in-laws.  I love my family.  And I’m sure you love yours as well.  As much as the love of family is important, it’s not as important as the love of God.

You may have stumbled on Greg’s Corner for the first time today, or you may be a regular reader.  You may love God, or you may not know who God is.  But as you read this article, I would ask that you open your heart a bit.  Think of the things you love as I reflected earlier.  Think of those that love you.  And even if you feel that you have no love, or that no one loves you, I want to tell you about a love greater than we can imagine, a love that covers you whether you realize it or not, a love that created the Heavens and the Earth and that has provided for you and I the means for life eternal in the glories of a place called Heaven.

If your imaginations of love are boundless, or if you cannot imagine anyone loving you at all, understand this.  God loves you.  God created you unique from anyone else.  He created you for His pleasure, and you are not here by accident.  You are loved so much by God that he created for you a means of escape from a life full of sin (wrongdoing, which we all do) and guilt.

To understand God, and to really understand love, one only needs to look within the pages of the Bible.  The Bible is a book written about love, inspired by God who is love.

Romans 8:38-39  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

1 John 4:7-11  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

God loves you and I so much that nothing can separate us from His love.  And, God loves you and I so much that He sent his own son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our wrongdoing, who died for our sins, and that we only must believe in Jesus and accept him as our means of salvation to be reconciled to a holy God, and receive forgiveness. 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

There’s a song written by Paul Baloche called “How Great is the Love” that truly sums up God’s love for us.

 

 

How Great is the Love

By Paul Baloche

 

Thank You for the way that You love us

How You love us

Thank You for the way

You have made us

 

We were created for Your pleasure

For your presence

For the glory of Your name

 

Thank You for the way that you love us

 

Jesus, faithful King

Lord, with grateful hearts we sing

How great is the love

How great is the love, of our Savior

The weight of the cross

The curse of our shame

You carried it all

And rose from the grave

How great is the love, how great is the love

Of our Savior

 

Thank you for Your grace that has saved us

You forgave us

Thank you for the way you have freed us

 

We’ve been ransomed

We’ve been rescued

We’ve been purchased

With the price of Your own life

 

Thank you for the way that you love us

 

Jesus, faithful King

Lord, with grateful hearts we sing

How great is the love

How great is the love, of our Savior

The weight of the cross

The curse of our shame

You carried it all

And rose from the grave

How great is the love, how great is the love

Of our Savior

 

Today when you hear about love, you may think of your dog.  Today, when you think of the subject of love, you may think of your parents, or your grandmother, or your family.  Love to you may reflect upon certain possessions or things to eat or drink or own or wear.  If I asked you about love, you may immediately think of your husband or wife, or your children, or grandchildren.  Or chocolate cake and ice cream. While all these are good, there is a love that is greater.  And, unless you really know and understand this love, the love you may feel for something else doesn’t matter.

God loved you so much that He created you.  God loved you so much that He sent his son Jesus to die for your sins.  God loves you so much today that He is wanting to have a relationship with you.  And all you have to do is ask Him.  He is there, waiting for you to share the love that He has for you.

If you do not yet know God’s love, experience it today.  God’s love is better than any other you can imagine.  Pray a simple prayer, something like this:  “God, I know that I have done wrong in my life.  I know that I have made many mistakes.  But, even though I have, I believe that you love me anyway.  And I believe that you sent your son Jesus to pay the price for my wrongdoing, where I can have a relationship with you, and experience your love.  I wish to turn away from my sins today, and wish to get to know you.  I ask you to forgive me of my wrongdoing, to help me do better, and I accept Jesus as my savior and Lord.  I believe that Jesus lived and died to pay the price for my wrongdoing, that he rose from the dead, and that through him I can get to know you, God.  I invite you, Jesus, into my heart today.  Thank you, God, for saving me and showing me life.”

If you have prayed a prayer something like this today, and want to know more about God’s love, I’d like to hear from you.  Email me at greg@gunblast.com or prayerline@gunblast.com.

Love is a great thing, the greatest feeling on earth.  Artists paint about it.  People write songs about it.  People live and die for love.  And there is a book, the greatest book ever written, the Holy Bible, that is a book about love.  And this book tells the greatest love story ever written, the story of God’s love for the people He created, and that includes you and I.

Grab hold of the great love that God has for you today.  You will never regret it.  How great is His love.

Greg Quinn