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Arms
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There will never be a love story greater than the story of God's love towards mankind. It all began in the Garden of Eden when God placed man amid all his beautiful creation. He gave him a help-mate and told them to be fruitful and multiply. And so the story begins about God desiring to fellowship close to his creation. Well as his arms stretched down through time he left man with the ability to make choices. And God said to Adam, "you shall eat of every tree in the garden but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in that day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Genesis 2:16-17 Since the man was alone I believe God had compassion and looked down on the man's longing for a mate. God stretched forth his hand and from the man's rib formed a mate for him. Adam and Eve as we know are overseers in the garden and one day something happened that would forever change their lives. Eve was probably overwhelmed with all her eyes could see but something more crafty and cunning than she could imagine was after her as she examined such a estate. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said; Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Genesis 3:1-3 As we read Genesis 3:4-13 we see the greatest grief to be brought on mankind. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God's only request and so SIN entered into creation. Now God still reached down and clothed these 2 naked beings. He loved them and knew what was necessary to help them after they had been exposed in their sin. He ran them out of the garden to never enter into it again and even God in his holiness put an angel with a flaming sword to guard it so man could not enter back into the garden. As you read the Bible you see how God stretched forth his hand and cared for his creation from Adam to present day. God has always provided a way to be restored. The greatest love story that ever happened is when God sent forth his SON. In John 3:16 we are told: "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."
Jesus came into our world with one purpose. He would grow up and share his love with everyone he encountered. Yet, the serpent was at work from the birth of Jesus till he was 33 years old. Yes, there were times in Jesus' life that he had to rebuke or pronounce strong judgments on self-righteous people. We see Jesus telling the truth made many of the religious leaders of that day mad. So Jesus was consistently being watched and then by God's permissive will, He allowed Jesus to be innocently convicted of a crime and sentenced to the Roman crucifixion. The story here is that God reached down through his SON to die and bear our sins on the cross. So as you know, Jesus died for all sinful men. When Jesus was laid on the cross, his precious arms of mercy, grace, and truth were so stretched out because of his love for us. When you look above at the cross, Jesus freely gave his life so that you could be wrapped in God's embrace of forgiveness. Oh, what love. Oh, what mercy. Oh, what forgiveness. Easter is here and the one thing we never want to forget is the price Jesus Christ paid so that you and I could be declared NOT GUILTY.
All God requires is that we come to him in confession that we have sinned against him. We then ask him to come into our heart and save us. If we are sincere and really believe God send's his Holy Spirit to take up residence in our life. After we are saved we can look up at the cross and know God opened his arms for us so that we could be free and enjoy sweet fellowship with him. Jesus said these words at the end of his life: "Father forgive them" and "It is finished." He had fulfilled what he was sent to do in giving his life as a ransom so that men through him could be made right with God. We set Easter morning as a time to celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. Yes, HE LIVES and we rejoice in the fact that He opened wide his arms to all humanity. To those who receive Jesus, they have everlasting life. We will reign with our Lord forever and ever.
When all is said and done: "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:" Revelation 18:1 God has his arms open wide for you right this minute. Run to him and see what he will do that forever will change your future. "To God be the glory"
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