The Power of God’s Love
Written By Rev. Dalyn Helbling
“The Love Of God”
Rom. 8:35-39, I John 3:1
April 1, 2001
Romans 8:35-39 NIV
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 3:1 NIV
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
The CHALLENGE of God’s Love - “Who shall separate us...?” vs. 35
Newton
In 18th century, a godly woman was nearing death, but real worry was about her little boy. She’d taught him all about God but didn’t know whether she was getting through. When she died, the son was only 7. As he grew older, he steadily rejected his mother’s teachings, and ignored God.
He went to sea & eventually became capt. of a slave-trading ship. He lived such a dirty & depraved life that his own crew was disgusted with him. One day he was in such a drunken stupor that he fell overboard. To
rescue him, his men threw a harpoon! It stuck in his leg, leaving it permanently damaged. But they pulled him back to the ship, alive. From then on, he walked with a limp.
The man was John Newton! Later in life, he turned from wickedness & surrendered to the Lord. And he considered that limp to be a permanent reminder of God’s matchless grace. In Newton’s case, God’s “Amazing Grace!”
Newton had operated as a free moral agent all those earlier years. But nothing could separate him from his mother’s prayers - or from the love of God.
The CONFLICT of God’s Love - “we are accounted as sheep for the “slaughter” vs. 36
Satan tries to diminish the influence of God’s love by distracting or intimidating us.
Hitler In Nazi Germany there lived a courageous minister named Martin Neimoller. He was personally threatened by Adolf Hitler (most people don’t
seem to realize that it was Christians as well as Jews who were persecuted by the Nazis). Niemoller didn’t flinch, but told Mr. Hitler that his work was entrusted to him by God and “neither you nor anyone in this world has the power to take it from us.” The Fuhrer angrily walked away. That PM, Neimoller’s rectory was ransacked, and was later damaged by a bomb. But Neimoller continued to preach the Gospel, simply telling his people that the church was in a time of testing.
In 1937, Neimoller was seized by the Gestapo, held in solitary confinement for 8 months. The indictment against him ran 14 type-written pages. On morning of his trial, he was led from his cell by an official in a green uniform, through eerie passageways, a long walk to the court. Neimoller began to feel terror, thinking of his family, his church, the death camps.
But all he heard was the echoes of his footsteps - and those of his guard. Then he heard a voice whispering to him: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower - the righteous run to it and are safe.” [Prov. 18:10]
The statement was repeated. It was the guard! He was barely audible, a secret Christian, messenger of a loving God. Neimoller felt his terror replaced by an overwhelming peace, a realization that nothing can separate us from God’s love; not even conflict. He spent the next 7 years at Dachau - yet the peace acquired that day never left him. The CONQUEST of God’s Love - “In all these things, we are more than
conquerors.” vs. 37
LEPER STORIES
Milton Grannum (Philadelphia) had a life-changing experience when he visited a leper colony in South America. He would visit the people, pray with them, sing with them, read scripture to patients. Met a
woman named Rose. Her eyes had rotted away, leaving her blind. Her hands & feet were only stumps. There was blood on her face from mosquitoes biting her, because she couldn’t swat them away. Yet, when Grannum was getting ready to pray for her, & he asked what she would like, she asked him to pray that God would help her show the doctors that Christ was alive in her life. She wanted the doctors to know God’s grace. Her concern wasn’t for her own health & comfort. Her real passion was the love of God.
On another occasion, minister named Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman whose back had been to the pulpit suddenly turned around & he saw what he describes as the most hideous face he has ever seen. “The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, ‘Can we sing
Count Your Many Blessings?’” Hinton was overcome with emotion, and had to leave the service.
A team member followed him. He said, “I guess you’ll never be able to sing that song again.” “Yes, I will,” said Jack, “but I’ll never sing it the same way.”
These people aren’t just conquerors. They are MORE than conquerors!
The CONFIDENCE of God’s Love - “for I am persuaded that neither death or life....” vs. 38
A story from Ernest Gordon’s Miracle on the River Kwai: A group of Scottish soldiers were forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad. Under the tremendous stress & hardship, the soldiers
themselves eventually degenerated into barbarous behavior as well. Then tne afternoon, something happened.
A shovel was missing. The officer in charged was enraged, demanding to know who had lost or stolen it. Nobody in the squadron budged. Officer got out his gun and threatened to kill all of them on the spot, unless the offender identified himself.
Then, one man stepped forward. Rather than let everyone die, he chose to die alone. The officer put away his gun, then picked up one of the shovels and beat the man to death in front of the others. He left the body there for the survivors to deal with.
A short time later, there was a second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. It turned out that there had been a miscount the first time, and no shovel ever had been lost or stolen. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had purposely died to save the others!
This great sacrifice had a profound effect on the men. Instead of treating each other like barbarians, they began treating each other like brothers.
Eventually, the victorious Allies swept in and rescued them. The soldiers looked like human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors. But they made a surprising request regarding their captors: “No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness.”
The power of Christ’s love had transformed Paul the same way.
