The Emotions of God 4-7-09

Good morning, Lord Jesus. In this week, I want to remember Your holy journey to the cross, through the grave, and into glory. Give me grace to take up my cross and follow You on a holy journey of a deeper death to my self, as You raise me up into newness of life by the power and glory of Your name for Your kingdom. … "Now My soul is troubled. And what should I say -- 'Father, save Me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.' Then a voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again' " (John 12:27-28). Can God be troubled? Can God have emotions, concerns, heartaches, feelings? Does our sin and rebellion bring You pain? Does our obedience and worship bring You joy? As God of all, having all knowledge and all power, does anything bother You? Certainly in Christ, as both fully God and fully man, You experienced the fullness of emotions, even the fullness of all emotions. "Therefore He had to become like His brothers and sisters and every respect, so that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because He himself was tested by what He suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested" (Hebrews 2:17-18). "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). You are not a distant and detached God, You are a deeply personal and compassionate God. You know all the emotions of our humanity -- not only in Your omniscience as God the Father, but also in Your humanity as God the Son. And You give us the power of Your grace to live our lives without fear of being fully alive to all our emotions, as we entrust our emotions to You by God the Holy Spirit living through us (Romans 8:26). You are a God full of emotion because You are a God who is love (1 John 4:8). And love is unafraid to face the fullness of all the emotions of life -- even the shame of our sin upon the cross as God in the flesh, for the sake of the joy to come by Your sacrifice of love for us. We look to You, Lord Jesus, a God full of emotion and love, "who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart" (Hebrews 12:2-3). Thank You, Lord, for being fully alive to every emotion for me that I might be fully alive to Your emotion of love for me. You are love, and I love You. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays If you're in the Winchester, Kentucky area, please come join us each morning at 7 am for community-wide Holy Week services, where we will worship together and I will share a word each morning hosted at the Winchester First United Methodist Church with Pastor James Williams www.winfumc.org Friends, please Save the Date of Friday Night, April 24th for our annual Messiah Ministries Celebration Dinner in Lexington to celebrate all the Lord is doing through our ministry and share our vision and calling with all our supporters and friends. You are invited and Dinner is Free! Please make plans to come and bring some friends who may have a heart for what we are doing. Our invitation card is attached. For planning, we will need an RSVP to Marilyn or a table host: DirOfMinistries@aol.com We always need lots of volunteers to help also, so please send us a note if you'd like to help in that way. Subscribe by email to me at Messiah Ministries --MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502 Order My Book, Morning by Morning, and our Ministry Resources or Contribute to our vision and calling: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org