{"id":3035,"date":"2014-11-15T08:11:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T08:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2014-11-15T08:11:58","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T08:11:58","slug":"because-he-first-loved-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3035","title":{"rendered":"Because he first loved us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Because he first loved us<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><em><br \/>\nby Spurgeon<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>We love him because he first loved us.<\/strong>\u201d -1 John 4:19<\/p>\n<p>There is no light in the planet but that which proceeds from<br \/>\nthe sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but<br \/>\nthat which comes from the Lord Jesus himself.<\/p>\n<p>From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God,<br \/>\nall our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great<br \/>\nand certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than<br \/>\nbecause he first loved us. Our love to him is \u201cthe fair<br \/>\noffspring\u201d of his love to us.<\/p>\n<p>Cold admiration, when studying the works of God,<br \/>\nanyone may have.<br \/>\nBut the warmth of love can only be kindled in<br \/>\nthe heart by God\u2019s Spirit.<\/p>\n<p>How great the wonder that such as we should ever have<br \/>\nbeen brought to love Jesus at all! How marvelous that<br \/>\nwhen we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display<br \/>\nof such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never<br \/>\nshould we have had a grain of love towards God unless it<br \/>\nhad been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us.<\/p>\n<p>Our love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed<br \/>\nabroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must<br \/>\n\u201cbe divinely nourished\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Love is an exotic\u2013 it is not a plant which will flourish<br \/>\nnaturally in human soil, it must be watered from above.<br \/>\nLove to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it<br \/>\nreceived no nourishment but that which could be drawn<br \/>\nfrom the rock of our hearts it would soon wither.<\/p>\n<p>As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly<br \/>\nbread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by<br \/>\nmanna from on high.<\/p>\n<p>Love must feed on love.<br \/>\nThe very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love you, Lord, but with no love of mine,<br \/>\nFor I have none to give;<br \/>\nI love you, Lord; but all the love is yours,<br \/>\nFor by your love I live.<br \/>\nI am as nothing, and rejoice to be<br \/>\nEmptied, and lost, and swallowed up in you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because he first loved us by Spurgeon \u201cWe love him because he first loved us.\u201d -1 John 4:19 There is no light in the planet but that which proceeds from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which comes from the Lord Jesus himself. From this overflowing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-h-spurgeon","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3036,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}