Please! Know you are Loved by God

[ebdesroches]

Henry Nouwen , in the video below, said that we are beloved of God and we should live our life according to that knowlege.

He said that we should not treasure the less valuable things, what things we own, the things we have achieved, the things that we can do and what other's think about us. We should live in the light of the fact that we are loved by God.

Now I am quite old...almost 75. if I look back I can see God has loved me from the first days of my life until now. Truly He is the good shepherd to me.

Several landmark things have occured to me:

When I graduated from college I began to ask myself does the Christian life mean anything? Is there anything real about it. Can I experience it? Shortly thereafter I attended a bible study meeting and, because of God's spirit, I found the words of the scripture very sweet as the scripture says of itself. I could not stop reading the scriptures intensively for around two years (after work).

When I was attending church assembly I felt little meaning in it for me. Then there was a group worship meeting in which we sang worship songs. I could identify that I was realy experiencing God while worshiping. So I found great enjoyment in worshiping God. That never went away.

Several times while waiting at the airport for a flight I turned on streaming worship music, listening and worshipping with the hymns. I experienced very powerfully God's presence. I would try to recapture that presence at home but it ended up that I just forgot about it and went and did whatever pleased me. Then about a year and a half ago I did the same thing but a very altering event took place: God said to me "I love you and you love me". That has changed a lot. What I used to think was an encounter with God (yes it was!), more importantly, Him loving me. After God spoke to me my priorities have changed. I never want to displease Him in the least, I want to always to be close to Him. I always want to tell Him I love Him. My love for Him does not go unnoticed by Him, I know He very much loves me, in common language, He is crazy about me.

I have the very loving feelings for Him that are similar to those expressed in Song of Songs. But I am not the only one. Listen to the heart of those that write worship songs, it is there too. It is also in the hearts of saints that loved Him through the ages. In addition to the knowlege of word of God, the love of God is needed!

So why would I write this on an internet Christian chat to Christain people I don't know? Because God also said to me "Are you going to take the things I have given you (the sure knowlege He loves me and I love Him) and use it selfishly (...meaning to me, love Him in isolation from others). He also said "I love them as much as I love you".

What is the point of what I am saying if you want to experience what I have (you also may be far ahead of me) : First of all repent and be forgiven for any known sin you have committed, Worship Him intending to love Him, seek Him out, tell Him you very much desire His felt presence in your life. (You may be saved without any of these experiences of the "felt" presence because He may dwell in you and is hidden from you. However, His felt presence and fellowship is great joy and is a very large reward making it far easier to obey and do what He wants.

 

[ebdesroches]

Part II Caution?

Henry Nouwen toward the end of his life (from what I have read on the internet) accepted Budhism, perhaps Moslemism, and Hinduism. What I posted does not contain these ideas because the love of God and His love of us is central to the Christian life and teaching. There are others that also sought a close relationship with God, or at least the EXPERIENCE OF IT that ended up in a synchrotistic (blending to religions) belief wrongly. What I proposed above yes indeed is the experience of the love of God, and His love for you is possible, and I believe He will give it to you as He did for me. To me there is a very thin line between what I a saying and people that go astray into error. So what I think is the right advice is that don't seek God for the experience, or maybe I was wrong, not even ask Him for the experience, but worship and when he chooses, receive from Him the love He can give you KNOWING that is what is happening. That is be aware that He can reach out to you in a very loving way but do not seek the experience by itself.

For myself, He has at times made Himself very distant, shockingly so. I think He does that on purpose so I don't worship Him to receive the pleasure of His wonderful felt presence. So now I worship Him without strain, I tell Him I love Him, because I know (my mind and heart) that it is still true (without feelings of Him loving me) that He very much loves me (my mind believing) and I love Him (and I know He knows it!)

 

[ebdesroches]

One of my heros Oswald Chambers said the opposite of what i am saying. So if I am wrong i will change my mind! Have to think about it? Maybe he is saying something different than i am? Maybe abandoned devotion IS what i am doing!

Faith or Experience?
…the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. GALATIANS 2:20
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, “I haven’t had this experience or that experience”! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30 ). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.