{"id":335,"date":"2008-10-22T09:49:25","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T16:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/archives\/335"},"modified":"2008-10-22T09:50:42","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T16:50:42","slug":"o-how-i-love-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/o-how-i-love-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"“O, HOW I LOVE JESUS!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I John 4:7-9<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.”<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a picture of my dad, taken in 1950, standing with five of his brothers in front of a couple of 40’s era cars.\u00a0 As I looked at it I felt a longing to see my Dad once more and tell him how much I love him.\u00a0 This man with only an eighth grade education had wisdom which cannot be taught in schools.\u00a0 But beyond that, he was a man who was filled with love for others.<\/p>\n

Dad taught me what it was to know the Lord.\u00a0 He did that in many ways, not all of them pleasant.\u00a0 I can vividly remember that in the second drawer of his chest of drawers, he had an old fashioned razor strap.\u00a0 They were created to sharpen the old straight razors which were used by men back in the early days.\u00a0 They may have been designed to sharpen the razors, but they were objects of terror to the behinds of young boys!<\/p>\n

For those of you who are too young or innocent to know about these straps, they were designed with two pieces\u2014one was leather, and the other canvas.\u00a0 They were held together with a metal clasp at one end.\u00a0 While I am unclear just how they were used to keep a sharp edge on a razor, it had only one use in our house:\u00a0 Dad freely applied it to my seat of understanding.\u00a0 When the leather and canvas smacked together during the spanking, it made a sound like a rifle shot.\u00a0 It took a very short time before I was promising never, ever, in no way, whatever, etc., to misbehave again.\u00a0 (Sad to say, I did!)<\/p>\n

Looking back on these episodes of discipline, I know it hurt Dad as much as it hurt me, but in a different way.\u00a0 He was doing it for love and to direct my steps.\u00a0 When I became a teen, I loved and respected my Dad.\u00a0 I can recall confronting another boy who called my Dad, “your old man.”\u00a0 He learned quickly that my Dad deserved and received my love and respect.<\/p>\n

Across the years, since receiving the Lord as my personal Savior, I have grown in my love with Him.\u00a0 There have been times when I felt His hand of discipline, but I always knew that it was for my own good.\u00a0 I also have come to realize that when the Lord has had to discipline me, it hurts Him more than it does me.\u00a0 He only brings about the discipline because of His great love and concern for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fredrick Whitfield must have felt that same way when he wrote the words to the hymn, “O, How I love Jesus.”\u00a0 As we read the words we feel the love and longing to see Jesus face to face:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.<\/strong>\u00a0 There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth; it sounds like music to my ear, the sweetest name on earth.
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2.<\/strong>\u00a0 It tells me of a Savior’s love, who died to set me free; It tells me of His precious blood, the sinner’s perfect plea.
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3.<\/strong>\u00a0 It tells of one whose loving heart can feel my deepest woe. Who in each sorrow bears a part that none can bear below.
\n<\/em>Chorus:<\/strong>\u00a0 O, how I love Jesus, O, how I love Jesus, O, how I love Jesus–Because He first loved me!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!<\/p>\n

– – – Pastor Cecil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I John 4:7-9 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent His one and only Son into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-john"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}