The Love of God

What is love? Philosophers cannot explain it, scientists cannot measure it, yet everyone craves love. It starts to fade as soon as you taste it, and we do not appreciate it enough until it is gone. What is this love that we do not let a day pass without talking about it and chasing after it?

Love must have a recipient. Self-love is no love at all, and the opposite of love is not hate, but narcissism. Love always pours out from oneself, yet not all recipients of love can return your favor. I knew a devoted stamp collector, who loved stamps more than his own life. However, the colorful stamps could neither feel his love, nor love him back. Such unrequited love is not full-blown love, because the recipient of your love can neither respond with yea nor nay, and it is entirely up to your own imagination.

Full-blown love only exists between parties both with capacity to love. However, something else can also grow between the two -- hate. Love and hate are twins; just like blessings and curses, they coexist and are mutually dependent. Through the hurt and temptation to hate, we learn to appreciate the beauty and long-suffering of love.

So what is love? The love of an inamorato is sweet, the love of a mother is sacrificial, the love of a friend brings companionship. These different kinds of love are earthly shadows of the true love from above, because God is love. (1 Jn. 4:8 ESV) The Bible teaches us that the essence of love is covenant keeping! Lovers join their hearts together with a covenant; Parents are bond to their children with a covenant of blood; Even friends are counted on for keeping the promise. There is much sweetness and sacrifice in love, but the essence of love is the keeping of a covenant! Heaven and earth may pass away, but the covenant I made will stay true as long as I live, that is love.

Jesus Christ came down to earth and became for us a propitiation for sin, and thus established the New Covenant. This is not a covenant under duress, but whoever willingly accepts this love, enters a divine covenant sealed with the blood of Christ: We promise to keep this covenant as long as we live, to love the Lord and His church, to live for Him and to die for Him. The living God also promises to love us as long as He lives. The covenant-keeping God would by no means permit death to foil His promise, therefore He destroys death for His loved ones so that we may enjoy His covenant love forever!

As the Bible declares, ¹⁴and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart,” (2 Chr. 6:14 ESV)

Prayer: O Lord! Help us be rooted and grounded in your Great Love, either by life or by death we may love you with worship and love every people crossing our path with service!

海誓山盟

爱是什么？哲学家解释不清，科学家测量不到，每个人都渴望追求爱，一旦拥有又觉得美中不足，失去之后才倍觉珍惜。人们天天用嘴表达，用心体验的爱到底是什么呢？

爱肯定要有对象。自恋不是爱，爱的反面不是恨，而是专爱自己。自身以外的，才能成为你爱的对象。但不是一切爱的对象，也能同样爱你。我认识一位集邮爱好者，爱邮票爱得要死，但是邮票这些小纸片，既无法感受人的爱，也没法爱集邮的人。这一类单相思的爱，是低级的爱，因为你所爱的对象既不能给你打赏也不能给你打脸，就随便你自作多情。

只有在彼此都能爱的两者之间，才可能有惊天动地的爱。不过他们之间也存在另外的可能，就是恨。爱与恨本是双胞胎，就好像福与祸，是互相依存，各自不能独立存在。当人经历过恨的伤害与冲动之后，才更能体会爱的美好和难能可贵。

到底什么是爱呢？情人的爱甜蜜无比，母爱慈祥舍己，朋友之爱贵在意气相投。但人间的爱都是地上的投影，真爱来自上天，“因为神就是爱”【约翰壹书四8】圣经告诉我们，爱的关键就是守约！有情人都是相约在心；父母与儿女间则有血脉之约；友情的实质莫过一诺千金。爱中可以有甜言蜜语，可以有情投意合，但这些都不是爱的本质，爱的本质就是守约，就是不离不弃，就是地老天荒、海枯石烂我仍一如既往地爱你。

耶稣基督降世，为世人成了赎罪祭，他成就了新约，这不是城下之盟，凡自愿接受这爱的人，都进入一个神人之约，这约以血为记号：我们承诺用一生来守约，来爱主，爱主的教会，只恨我们一生太短；永生的神也在爱中承诺以永生来爱我们，守约的神绝不允许死亡让他失约，因此他就特别为蒙爱之人除去死亡，让我们可以永远活在他的爱中！

如经上所记，¹⁴说，“耶和华以色列的神阿，天上地下没有神可比你的。你向那尽心行在你面前的仆人守约施慈爱。”【历代志下六14】

祷告：主啊，让我们的爱心有根有基，既蒙此大爱，就立下海誓山盟，来以崇敬之心爱主，以服事之身爱我们身边每一个人！

马太福音九18-26

耶稣正说着话，就出事了，城里管会堂的来拜他，求他去按手在他女儿的身上，让她从死里复活。这刚好印证了耶稣所说的新旧之别，这位犹太会堂的领袖，是旧的代表，遇到解决不了的困难，就来求耶稣。仿佛要证明耶稣自比为新郎绝非妄自尊大，他便从席桌上起身，答应这在人看来是绝无可能的要求，他的门徒也跟他起身前往，谁在现场，这个热闹是一定要去看的。

就在这一大群人兴奋地簇拥着耶稣，走在路上的时候，却有一个患血漏病的女人独具慧眼，在半路出击，趁乱从后面偷偷摸耶稣的衣裳，因为她信自己的顽疾如此就能被治好。在她如愿以偿之后，耶稣马上停下来，当众夸奖这个女人，并且纠正她，不是他的衣裳有什么魔力，乃因为她信耶稣。

到了管会堂的家，办丧事的人马已经开工，耶稣却叫众人退下，他们可能以为是别的殡仪馆来抢生意，可听到耶稣说，这闺女只是睡着了，他们就大笑不已，因为从来没有见过医生敢来跟殡仪馆抢人的！但是请耶稣来的人真相信耶稣就是叫所有殡仪馆关门的那一位。耶稣进去，拉着闺女的手，轻轻一拉，就把她从阴间硬给拉回人间了。耶稣的名声就传遍了那地方，岂止那地方而已，有这等身手，他的名字早晚要传遍天下。

The Finishing Touch of the Cross

God created the world in an ascending order of complexity: from physical settings, to physiological orders, and finally to mankind, the crown jewel of all creation. The way physical world operates can be appreciated from the ocean waves: When the wind blows over, the waves gets excited beneath; As the wind dies down, the water also calms down. Physiological orders are much more complex in that, they encompass many intertwining mini-systems each spawning its own myriad of causal links. Take a simple symptom of headache for an example, it may not be simple at all, and could leave an experienced physician clueless and give him a headache. Yet nothing is more complex than human affairs. No historians or politicians can achieve the same kind of confidence in solving social problems than doctors fixing human body ailments. Their wisdom is only good for damage assessment afterwards. As far as human affairs go, from small family feuds to huge international conflicts, once they go out of control, they are beyond repair, no exceptions.

This high level of complexity in human affairs has its root in the inner part of human nature. Everyone has a freewill, a critical mind, is capable of self-reflection and self-adaption, possesses a full spectrum of emotions. No physics or biology lessons can compete with human dramas: from world wars, to government overthrows, to tribal fights, to family quarrels, to love affairs, you name it. That’s why Hollywood is ever busy producing next big hits, and now they’re underway in giving out the annual Oscar awards for best human dramas.

Yet all human dramas have a sad ending, and all the comedies are trying to distract us for a moment from looking at the end. All masterpieces are tragedies move us to tears, partly because we see ourselves in the play. The real bad news comes from the spoiler in the Bible: There is no end to human tragedy, apparently that’s the only show featured in the Hell and we’re all part of the cast.

God made all thing beautiful, but did He overlook a bit in the very last part of His creation? When the Son of God came, with one word, He can calm the raging sea and resurrect a dead human body, yet how many words had he wasted that during his arrest not a single human dare to speak on His behalf? That’s why He came, because in the wisdom of God, there is one last step to make human perfect before God. For this the Son of God came and died on the cross. Everyone is asked to face this Jesus, with your own share of freewill, critical mind, self-reflection, self-adaption, and emotion, to remake the choice that our ancestor blew up, and with the right choice this time, you will be baptized with water, Holy Spirit, and fire, and finally, you stand as a perfect masterpiece of God’s creation: one with freewill, critical mind, self-reflection, self-adaption, full of emotion, holy and righteous son of the living God!

 ⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ¹⁰“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jer. 17:9-10 ESV)

画龙点睛

神造万物，从低到高先后创造了物理世界、生理世界、最后是人，一切受造中的极品。风起浪涌是简单的物理现象：兴风，才作浪；无风，不起浪。生理现象则比物理现象复杂多了，各种因果关系互相交错，简单的头晕病，背后的原因可不简单，能让最有经验的医生头痛。比生理现象更加复杂的，就是社会现象，无论是历史学家还是政治家，对时局的推断力，都远远比不上医生对病人的诊断力，他们最擅长的，就是当事后诸葛亮。而且无论是家事、国事、天下事，一旦出状况，往往无药可治，古今中外，盖莫如是。

社会现象的高度复杂性，来自于人的思想世界。每个人都有自由意志、具创造思维、能自我反省、可随机应变、有喜怒哀乐。再精彩的物理、生物讲座也比不过人的戏码，从世界大战，到改朝换代，到东家长、西家短，到弟兄阋墙，夫妻反目，恩怨情仇，真是层出不穷，让好莱坞有拍不完的素材，这不马上又要评每年一度的奥斯卡奖了。

人的故事再热闹，到头来都是悲剧一场。一切的喜剧，都是苦中作乐，而真正的传世之作，都是催人泪下的悲剧，因为人都能在剧中看到自己的影子。而且照圣经给的剧透，人的悲剧没有落幕的一刻，要在地狱里永远巡回上演。

神造万物都好，是否在最后一个环节弄出来个次品？神的儿子来到世上，他用一句话，就能平息风浪，也可以叫死人复活，但是他不知浪费了多少口舌，被捕之时竟没有一个人出来为他说句公道话。但是他来的目的，就是为了我们，因为在神的设计中，还有最后一道工序，让人成为正品。为此神的儿子，为世人钉死在十架上。每个人都要面对十架上的耶稣，用神给你的自由、思维、反省、应变、和情感，在我们祖先选砸的问题上限时再选一次，让你这次选对之后，就经过水、圣灵、与火的洗礼，最后完成神创造的杰作：一个真正有自由意志、具创造思维、能自我反省、可随机应变、有喜怒哀乐、圣洁无暇的神的儿女！

如经上所记：⁹人心比万物都诡诈，坏到极处，谁能识透呢？¹⁰我耶和华是鉴察人心，试验人肺腑的，要照各人所行的和他作事的结果报应他。【耶利米书十七9-10】