God is begging...

God is indeed appealing to---
entreating, pleading with, or
even begging^a---the world.
That means, all the people in
this world, including you and me.


Why is God doing that?
Because He loves us very much^b.
God’s one big desire is to have
us come back to Him. This is
beautifully depicted by the
Prodigal Son parable, which
is about how the compassionate
Father longs very much for his
long-lost, undeserving son to come
home to Him^c.

How is He doing that?
Through ambassadors for Christ or
representatives of His, i.e., His
servants, Paul the Apostle and his
team of co-workers^d, and now through
His church, the people of God, who
have been reconciled by God and are
obedient to His command to preach
the Gospel to the whole world^e.
That’s because they have been entrust-
ed with the Gospel, the wonderful
message of reconciliation^f. That is,
God wants the whole world to be
at peace with Him. But He is only
doing that through Jesus Christ,
the sinless Lamb of God, the per-
fect and once-and-for-all-time-to-
come-efficacious (i.e., never to be
repeated, and always applicable and
effective for all time to come)
sacrifice for our sin^g.

What has God done?
He has not considered our sins
to be something to be remembered^h.
He’s willing to receive us with open
arms despite our sinfulness. He will
not count our trespasses against usⁱ.
In fact, He has already paid the price
for our sin and will remember our sins
no more. God is full of grace and
mercy; He will make us new again^j. He
will indeed make us righteous when we
come to Him by accepting His only
Provision for us.

“…he hath made him (Jesus Christ)
to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.” ^k

“Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other
name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.” ^l

What is God saying to you?
God is saying to YOU,
“I love you very much. Come home
to Me. Come back into My embrace.
Although you have done wrong, I WILL
forgive you. Your sins may be many
and serious, but I WILL wipe them
away and cleanse you thoroughly,
nonetheless. Come away from your
sins and filth. Please come back
to Me now and I WILL make you a
brand NEW person from inside out.
I WILL set you FREE. I want to give
you everlasting life..............
I LOVE you!”


^a A strong word, not in the sense of
begging people for alms. The origin-
al Greek word is parakaleo.
^b John 3:16
^c Luke 15:11-32
^d 2Cor 5:20b
^e 2Cor 5:18a, Mark 16:15, 16
^f 2Cor 5:18b
^g 1Cor 15:22; Heb 9:28, 10:1-10; 1Pet 3:18
^h Isaiah 43:25
ⁱ 2Cor 5:19
^j Isaiah 1:18, Rom 5:8, 2Cor 5:17-19
^k 2Cor 5:21, parenthesis added
^l Acts 4:12

Designed for the Self-centered

The commandment “Love thy neighbors
as thyself.” was designed for ego-
centric people like us.

Because of our sin nature, we tend
to love ourselves (I mean, being
selfish here), or look after
our own interests first. Nothing
else matters quite as much. We are
more inclined to hoarding than to
sharing whatever good things we
may possess.

The second greatest of God’s
commandments zeroes in on our
innate problem, the problem of
the world revolving around ‘ME’.

Hence God in His infinite wisdom
gave us clear instructions to
address our problem. He also
provided us an incomparable
example for us to emulate:
Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

It is no doubt the toughest
of things for us: To have the
mind and heart of Christ and
to do as He did. The Scripture
in Philippians Chapter Two
beautifully puts God’s desire
for us:

“Let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory; but in
lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than
themselves. Look not every man
on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus: Who,
being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be
equal with God: But made himself
of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a
man, he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross.”

Blessed 2 Bless!!

We are living in a world where the
above axiom is anything but
foreign to us. It's so easy to
keep the blessings to ourselves.

You & I need to be blessed in
order to be a blessing to others.
We need to FIRST be loved, and love
ourselves (some people might disagree
with me here!) or be able to love
ourselves in order that we
can LOVE
others. How can we love when we do
not know what love is all about,
when we are unable to love even
ourselves? The 2nd greatest
commandment: "Love thy neighbours
AS THYSELF" (my emphases)
holds true. more..

If we grow up in a hate environment,
how easy it is to hate others. How
can we really be expected to love
in such an environment until and
unless we are first loved....by
God and then by our own selves
first. If we don't accept God's love
or WANT to love ourselves we will
not be able to know how it is to
love others in a proper fashion
(1 John 4:10,11,19).

In other words,
We must know in experience
what it is to be loved first, or
to love ourselves, e.g.,
to know the joy of HAVing or USing
something good or profitable,
before we can share it (of course,
there are exceptions to this).
Unless we do that, we dare not share,
lest we share something
that is unacceptable with, or worst
still offensive to, others. Hence,
experience precedes sharing.

The needs in this world are
so great!

So, please let's SHARE it, that
others may come to know how
GOOOOOOOD it is! But FIRST we
MUST " taste and see..."
(Psalm 34:8).