The Cost of His Love...

(Originally Written on September 10, 2013 )

Last evening we had a wonderful time of worship and learning at FBC. Pastor is delivering a series of messages in a Bible Q&A format that is very enjoyable, informative and beneficial. I really enjoyed the service. But, it was the Communion Service that followed that poured the Holy Spirit into my soul.

Pastor Shipe opened up the Communion Service with a few remarks that stirred the heart. He reminded us that this ordinance was initiated by Christ to take our hearts and minds back to the ministry and life of Jesus in remembrance. So that we would on a regular basis remember the pain, abuse, public ridicule, embarrassment and agony of a broken & torn body that He endured for us. Not to mention the spilled blood and horror of the cross. It was a picture that stirred love and compassion for Christ in my heart, unlike any other Communion I had participated in before.

Then I began to remember a lesson that Pastor Burns once taught me. God endured the pain of separation, when His Son took on the massive sin debt of all generations. The ugliness of my life alone must have been unbearable, then multiply that by every soul that has lived since Adam… The Father and Son had never been separated in all of time. Jesus endured the human agony of the Cross. His Abba Father endured an unimaginable pain of separation from His precious Son… God's Love for Us - Cost Him! For we could not pay the price on our own.

We have no human concept of the cost of our redemption, nor do we understand God’s economy of Love and Time… He paid with the best and brightest that He had to redeem those He chose to Love. He Chose to Love! He loved us so greatly and so completely, that He allowed the suffering of His Son in leaving Heaven to come to this wicked earth to minister to His Chosen People. Upon their rejection of His Kingdom and Lordship, He opened the door of salvation for the Gentile, to which He chose to share His Eternity and Kinship with us.

Oh my, the cost – the price The Father & Son paid to make The Way for us to travel. Yet we grumble and complain when we spend any of our precious time or funds beyond that which we think is appropriately allocated to our “god thing”… How it must grieve the Holy Spirit when we American Christians think we are sacrificing in His Name. Our national culture and all it's indulgence, is rapidly invading the Church and the corporate body of Christ is ailing, because we have all but removed Jesus from our thinking. We have corporately forgotten the Passion of His last week here on this earth. We brush over that poor aching and beaten body of our Savior. We have corporately lost the deep reverence and awe of His spilt blood on that Cross. It has become a church symbol, rather than a point of remembrance and reference for the Believer…

Dear Lord - Please Help Us Remember, Help Us remember the cost of redemption. Let us not fear persecution, but to stand firm, and show the world the true cost of Love by pointing to your Dear Son and the price paid at Calvary.