Joel Littlefield

There is a love which exceeds all others.  There is a passion that extends beyond all passions of the world. There is an exceedingly rich bridegroom who is completely in love with,  and infatuated with His bride.

You, believer in Christ, are this bride – the very object of His eternal love, and Christ is the lover of your soul.

What love compares to that which Christ displayed? Can you imaging a world not interrupted by that passion and plea for your eternal good? Were it not for this love you would know none that is true. Your very longing to be loved in this life (though not all profess this openly) was only met in Jesus.

Oh how thankful I am for this love so great, so exceeding, so full of joy and relentless zeal on my behalf!

How can it be?

It shouldn’t be this way! You hated Him. You mocked and ignored Him from birth, having been born in sin and at enmity with Him. You turned continually from right, to what was blatantly wrong and unpleasing in His sight. There were days of confusion, anger, disappointment, and shame, but all that time He waited for you. He did not wait because of some needy emotion like we humans have. He waited because it was simply His joy to do so.  It was simply His eternal purpose to bring those who are most unlovely, most unworthy, and most undeserving, into His loving, embracing, healing arms. In His love He drew you from that unholy state of darkness and despair, to a place of faith, hope and eternal healing.

Oh, how He healed! His healing, at the point of your faith and turning to Him was such a gift, so complete, yet you have yet to experience its fulness. That day is still coming. Can you see it? It will be soon.  The Father saw you, knew you, appointed you, loved you, and called you His own long before the foundations of the world.

There is a love which exceeds all others.  There is a passion that extends beyond all passion. There is an exceedingly rich bridegroom who is completely in love and infatuated with His bride.

Can you imaging a life uninterrupted by such a love and passion for your eternal good?

Had He not, you would still be dead in our sins, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  (Ephesians 2:4-7)