True Love

I have always been a sucker for a good love story. I love reading them, I love watching them, and I love living one! Pastor Philip is the kind of guy who will patiently sit through countless "chick flicks" just because he loves me and knows they make me happy.

Every love story has a few things in common, there are always the two people involved in the story, and usually there is some reason why their love seems improbably. Maybe time or circumstances have pulled them apart, maybe people say they shouldn't be together, maybe they are complete opposites. But in every great love story, they end up together despite all odds. they learn and grow with each other despite all their flaws.

Of all the love stories I have ever seen or read, there is one that is greater than all the rest. That is the love story of our Savior. Not only did our savior give his life just to show us that he loved us, he never held a grudge, and knows us passionately and intimately.

One of my favorite chapters of the entire bible is Psalm 139 which reads:

Psalm 139

A David Psalm

^1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can't take it all in!

^7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
If I flew on morning's wings
to the far western horizon,
You'd find me in a minute—
you're already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.

^13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.

^17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!

^23-24 Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I'm about;
See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.

God is passionate about you, he courts you daily doing things to catch your attention. He dotes on you, investigating and examining even the deepest parts of your heart. None of us are worthy of that kind of love, we don't deserve his affection or attention. However, we can live our lives every day in a way that says we are greatful of his love. We can choose every day to love him back in the best way we know how, and ask him to help us love him better. What a beautiful love story we live.

-Pastor Kayla