We are the focus of his love Brendan Mc Crossan
We are the focus of his love
Brendan Mc Crossan Chapter one
Ephesians-1-3-How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. {The Message Bible}
Isn’t it great how one translation of the divine word the Bible gives us different aspects of how God sees things? I have used this scripture many time to explain that long before God created the world he thought about us and he planned everything in our lives, he knows us through and through; there is not one thing that we do that God does not know about.
Some of us think that we chose God when we heard about salvation and about Jesus, this is not true, neither you nor I chose God he was the one from before time began to choose us Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, Ephesians 1-3.
Here is further proof that God chose us and it was nothing to do with us or our goodness or anything we did or done, he chose us before the foundation of the earth. So get rid of your illusion that you decided to go to God, like you were doing him a favour, neither you nor I done anything to deserve God’s attention or love God decided to pour out his love on us because he loved us unconditionally, something we rarely experience.
John-15-16-You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as [b]presenting all that I AM], He may give it to you. {Amplified Bible}
You see you did not choose God he was the one doing the choosing, and he is the one who has appointed us to bear fruit for him, so that whatever we ask him for something he will give it to us with delight. God is telling you here that you did not chose him – he chose you.
In the following scripture the amplified version gives a clearer indication of who chose us and why he chose us.
Ephesians 1-4- 4Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
(consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love. 5For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [[b]because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]-So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favour and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. {Amplified Bible}
God chose us to be the object of his affection, to shower down on us his unconditional love 5ForHeforeordainedus(destinedus,plannedinloveforus)wewereplannedinlove,your mum and dad may have planned to have a baby and that baby turned out to be you, but the real truth of the matter is that it was actually God himself who planned that your mum and dad would come together on that special night or day that you would be conceived, you were not an accident of birth or some defect. You see God planned for your mum and dad to be conceived by their parents who were planned by their parents or not planned by them but actually planned by God.
Psalm 139-1-O LORD, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me. 2You know my down sitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar off.3You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways.4For there is not a word in my tongue [still unuttered], but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.5You have beset me and shut me in--behind and before, and You have laid Your hand upon me. 6Your [infinite] knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high above me, I cannot reach it. {Amplified Bible}
God knows what you are going to say before you even begin to think about what you’re going tosay,thereisnothingthathedoesn’tknowaboutyou,eventhehairsonyourheadarecounted.
1-Peter 2-9- 9But “you” are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own [d]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Godsaysthistoyouandmeweareachosenrace,aroyalpriesthood,adedicatednation,God’s own, special people. You didn’t make yourself special, or a royal priesthood, only God could do that, and why did he do all these things, because he loves you and me. If we could but grasp even for a brief moment the enormity of God’s love we would never ever doubt him again, if we could but see even for a moment the love that God has for us and understand it then we would be walking in the air, we would be so secure in our selves because someone loves us with the deepest love ever imaginable. The Bible is an open letter from God to us his own special children telling us awesome things secrets that have never been disclosed until now in this present age.
Psalm-33-12- 12Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His heritage.
Even in the Old Testament God was letting his chosen people know they were blessed; it says the people he has chosen as his heritage. The word heritage means birthright, legacy, and inheritance. God chose to give you and I his own legacy his own heritage, you and I are to receive God’s own inheritance, in other words we don’t even have to wait until God dies to receive our inheritance because for a start God will never die, and he gave the inheritance now today, this very moment that you awake from your slumber and see what belongs to you as belonging to Christ Jesus; you received your inheritance through Jesus death on Calvary, you were chosen from before the foundation of the earth to receive the inheritance that God laid down for you in Christ Jesus, that is love my friend in action. From before he even thought about a world he though about making man, then he made a world for him and her to live in and be blessed in.
Chapter two
I want to take this little bit of writing I wrote while under the anointing of the Holy Spirit from another book I wrote, about authority, and I want you to read it in the context of this little book on the love of God as having chosen us from before the foundation of the world.
Genesis 2-7-Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life and man became a living being.
This is something amazing to give thought to, God spoke and everything else came into being, but he actually used his very own hands to create us from the dust of the earth, this was a close and personal touch, done with such love and care and tenderness, he God made something with his own hands. You know I could go on and on here thinking how personal this act was, because God spoke and things came into being, why did he not just speak us into being, it would have been easy for him to have done so. But I believe this was a personal act of pure love that God decided to form us from the dust, and then breathe into us his very own breath. God created the angels with his word; he created everything in existence with his word but he created us with his own hands, he wanted to touch us to feel us, to form and shape us from his heart using his very own hands, he wanted us as his children to have something from his own self, first by his hands and then by his own breath; we have God’s breath in us, passing down from Adam and Eve and down through the generations till it reached you and then will pass on to your children and grandchildren and so on. His personal breath is in me and you.
To thosewho areartisticorbuildersorsomeonewho usestheirhandsto createsomething,isn’t there something personal in your creation, isn’t it pleasing to you to sit down and look at what you created or made or drew? Every artist will tell you their work is pleasing to them because they created it and did it themselves without the help of others, it was a personal endeavour and a joy to behold; does not God look on us in the same way he formed us by his own hands, not by his word but by that personal touch? {End quote}
I believe that God took that dust in his hands and looked down at it tenderly and thought, “I will pour out all the love in my heart into this new race of people that I am making in my own image, I want to shower them with every blessing in heaven because these are going to be my children,” “these are my creation created by my very own hands and not by my word, but by my tender touch, so that I could feel their substance,” “and I have taken them from the same substance that I created Jesus out of so that they will share the same DNA as myself and the Holy Spirit and with Jesus my first born son; these are a special people they are my own chosen race, they will be given free will like all my creation so they can choose to love me or reject me, I leave my heart open to that vulnerability to be hurt and rejected by them or to be loved in return, but I love them anyway they chose.
I believe that this is the only time that God is vulnerable, when he leaves his heart open to be broken by us. I never thought that there was any vulnerability in God whatsoever but I can see that he made himself vulnerable to us his own special chosen children, and that to me is the greatest sign of love that could ever be shown.
Ephesians-1-3- Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. {The Message Bible}
When God planned for us to be, he took great pleasure in planning our lives, he was excited by all he could and would do for us, let us return his love by giving him our love in return.
I hope this little book gives you as much insight into God as it has given me in writing it, I never realised the depth of love that God has for me, that I and you were personally formed by his own hand and if you read that last scripture it was by the hand of Jesus as part of the trinity three persons in the one God that he created us in love.
To anyone who has ever felt rejected or unwanted I pray that this little book will make you realise that you were always wanted by your Father God by Jesus and by the Holy Spirit, it makes me feel so proud in a good way to feel so much desired and wanted and I shall try my very best to share this love of God with his other children, so that they to may come to this knowledge of their Father God.
Amen