PREFACE Original

THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL

King David was not categorically called a Watchman in the Bible per se but the principle of ‘Concern for God and His Kingdom’ opened his life and that of his seed to eternal blessings and relevance. 

The greatest gift the Almighty wants from you is the gift of  having an intimate relationship with Him.

Mark 12:28-31

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. 

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: 

The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 22: 28-31 (NIV)

It is the love of God that is shed abraod in your heart that enables you and empowers you to love your others especially your spouse. 

Unless Agape love is firmly established in your heart, Eris and phileos may not find pure expression without elements of selfishness 

 I guess the person who insinuated that the Holy Spirit is feminine took a clue from this truth. Every woman wants a loving intimate relationship with her ‘man’ ‘lover’ ‘best friend’ ‘gist companion’ ‘husband’. 

 In the same vein, God wants a beautiful, cordial, intimate relationship with you. He wants your first smile to be for Him and your last whispered word for him at night, of course after you have whispered ‘I love you’ to your partner.

By concern for the Cause of the Almighty, King David secured and contracted eternal relevance and throne for His Seed. (2 Samuel 7:1-29).

"​ After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, 

“Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

God is the Almighty and all things belong to Him yet King David was concerned about a fitting dwelling place for The King of kings on earth. 

And God replied King David this:

“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 

I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. 

Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. 

Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. 

I will also give you rest from all your enemies. “‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 

When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 2 Samuel 7:8-12 (NIV)

 

Wow, what a honor for the Almighty, the Lord of Host, Commander-in-Chief of the Universal ,El-shaddai, Eternity who created eternity and dwells in eternity, to promise to go with you wherever you go (and actual fulfill that promise because His name is faithful) and pledge His eternal love to you and your seeds forever.

Unimaginable, but its real, and can be yours forever. 

All I see is a God who deserves unending  love from men because He is so full of love and this love

overflows to the subjects of His affection.

Why will any man keep on returning to a lover who scorns, and dishonors him yet the Almighty does this for His children and mankind over and over again.  

“Now I will sing a song about the vineyard to the one I love. My Beloved has a vineyard on a very fertile hill.   He plowed it and took out all the rocks and planted his vineyard with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower and cut a winepress in the rocks. Then he waited for the harvest, but the grapes that grew were wild and sour and not at all the sweet ones he expected. 

Now, men of Jerusalem and Judah, you have heard the case! You be the judges! What more could I have done? Why did my vineyard give me wild grapes instead of sweet?  I will tear down the fences and let my vineyard go to pasture to be trampled by cattle and sheep.  

I won't prune it or hoe it, but let it be overgrown with briars and thorns. I will command the clouds not to rain on it any more. 

 I have given you the story of God's people. 

They are the vineyard that I spoke about. Israel and Judah are his pleasant acreage! He expected them to yield a crop of justice but found bloodshed instead. He expected righteousness, but the cries of deep oppression met his ears.   You buy up property so others have no place to live. Your homes are built on great estates so you can be alone in the midst of the earth!

 But the Lord Almighty has sworn your awful fate-with my own ears I heard him say, "Many a beautiful home will lie deserted, their owners killed or gone.  An acre of vineyard will not produce a gallon of juice! Ten bushels of seed will yield a one-bushel crop!" 

(Isaiah 5:1-7, TLB)

The Bible rightly says it is better to dwell in the attic of a house than to live with a nagging woman. Yet God dwells with nagging Children and will keep on returning to them anytime they beckon on Him, confessing His everlasting love for them again and again!

Haba, everlasting Father! What a love. ! It’s extremely difficult to love a man who does not care about you even after you have repeatedly given all the love you have to him.

 It painful to give attention to a man you love but who will not reciprocate your love, its like a hard slap on a face with deep wounds.

 Yet, the Almighty keeps coming back to Humanity confessing His love though they reject Him over and over again. He told King David in 2 Samuel 7:1-17  "................But that night the Lord said to Nathan,  "Tell my servant David not to do it!   For I have never lived in a temple. My home has been a tent ever since the time I brought Israel out of Egypt.  And I have never once complained to Israel's leaders, the shepherds of my people. 

Have I ever asked them, 'Why haven't you built me a beautiful cedar temple?' "Now go and give this message to David from the Lord of heaven: 'I chose you to be the leader of my people Israel when you were a mere shepherd, tending your sheep in the pastureland. 

 I have been with you wherever you have gone and have destroyed your enemies. And I will make your name greater yet, so that you will be one of the most famous men in the world!  I have selected a homeland for my people from which they will never have to move. 

It will be their own land where the heathen nations won't bother them as they did when the judges ruled my people. There will be no more wars against you; and your descendants shall rule this land for generations to come!  For when you die, I will put one of your sons upon your throne, and I will make his kingdom strong.  He is the one who shall build me a temple. And I will continue his kingdom into eternity.  

I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he sins, I will use other nations to punish him,  but my love and kindness shall not leave him as I took it from Saul, your predecessor. Your family shall rule my kingdom forever.'"  

So Nathan went back to David and told him everything the Lord had said. 

TLB

And presently, we have a throne called “The Throne of David’; we have Jesus Christ our Lord who is called ‘The Seed of David’ 

See! RECKLESS LOVE OF GOD, see humility from the Highest Being with the highest authority seeking for the love of frail men. Even David wondered at this ‘Reckless Love’ and exclaimed in Psalms 8 “O Lord our God, the majesty and glory of your name fills all the earth and overflows the heavens.  You have taught the little children to praise you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies!  When I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers-the moon and the stars you have made-  I cannot understand how you can bother with mere puny man, to pay any attention to him! 

And yet you have made him only a little lower than the angels and placed a crown of glory and honor upon his head.  You have put him in charge of everything you made; everything is put under his authority:  all sheep and oxen, and wild animals too,  the birds and fish, and all the life in the sea. 9 O Jehovah, our Lord, the majesty and glory of your name fills the earth. 

TLB

What did YOU do to deserve His love? Nothing.  He qualified you with His own blood to enjoy all His blessings and access His everlasting love.

Indeed RECKLESS LOVE.