a love as deep as hell, a love as strong as death.

from Charles Spurgeon. About our God:
"If He could grow weary of me, he would have been tired of me long before now. If He had not loved me with a love as deep as hell, and as strong as death, He would have turned from me long ago."
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The mystery of God a man who bled, was whipped, who sweated and smelled and hung and whose consciousness faded into death;
A five-year-old girl watched a film of this happening yesterday and said, with small fists clenched and worry all over her face,
"Come on, God -- fight!"
And I said that He could have,
but He didn't, and why? For you, little one. For me.

Do you think He is tired of you?
He planned from before time to endure this for you. Outside time as He stands, it is still His very nature -- it will never stop being His heart, His heartbeat
...to do this for you.

It is a strange story. It is a real and living Lord we serve
when we say "Lord, Lord,"
when we say "I believe in God,"
when we say "Jesus loves you,"
it is a God who was tangible flesh, as touchable as your own hands are now. A historical reality
and a mystical reality, prophesied from the beginning of time, and known even before;
a Lamb to take your place,
a Love great enough to know what was coming and take it on anyway.
All true loves you see here on earth
are born of that love. are created in His image.

It is strange to us, this story, because
all that we clutter up the world with
tries to busy us away from the central elements of the story we see all around us:

Love, hurt, rejection and forgiveness. Justice, cruelty, help and Home. Life the gift and Death the anomaly. How it all comes together in His work, in His Word.
Sing to Him who authored the Story.
Trust in Him who authors it still.
Redeem, Lord Jesus. Come soon, Lord Jesus. Teach and forgive and consume us, dear God
on a cross.

Communion two.

Today I see the vine-juice that speaks to us of His blood -- not only speaks, but enters us, engage our senses: taste, touch, sight, and smell --
and a flash comes to me
of This Blood as the center of the universe. The Story at the Center of ALL THAT IS. I see a man on a cross.
A man in pain, blood pouring from his hands and brow,
A reconciling gift, my hope and home.
Friend on the streets, draw near and know this love.
Small sinner in a classroom, draw near and see this truth.
Lonely dweller of the great gray city, draw near and stand inside the waterfall of His so-welcoming grace.
God, increase my understanding of it all.