Recently went for an evangelistic event by a church. it was interesting.. spoke about love.. all the little cliche quotes popped up in my mind. One struck me.

"I want to die before you 'cos i cannot imagine a day without you."

how romantic is that? and yes, i am being sarcastic. know what's truly romantic?

"I want to die after you so you'll not have to experience the loss of a loved one. let me bear that pain instead."

anyone remembers that old fwded-email-type story "the perfect heart"? this young man was boasting about his perfect heart, without a mark on it. an old man came up and declared his heart more perfect than the young man's. it was scarred, with pieces that didn't seem to fit in properly and even gaps all around. the young man scorned him and asked him what's so perfect about his heart.

the old man replied, saying that his heart was perfect 'cos he dared to give it to the people he loved. and sometimes people return with bits of their heart which he would put into his, although it was no perfect fit. and the gaps were there for he never took his heart back from those who did not return the favor. by then, the young man was in tears and actually tore bit of his heart to give the old man.

Perfect heart... perfect love. where can we ever find that? back to the event, they concluded by saying that for that perfect love that never fails even when we fail on our part, we turn to God. that was all we needed to know. there was barely mention of Jesus. i squirm in my seat. typical. i've been hearing it all my sec sch and jc life and guess what, it nearly caused me my salvation.

what's so perfect about God's love? that He sends angels? that He's always our emotional support? to claim all that would be to nullify the significance ofwhat God had planned for in Christ! what about the cross? what about the love that God had for us where He sent His own son to the cross, that perfect lamb for the world's imperfection? we don't just turn to God 'cos He's some celestial being; we turn to Him 'cos we recognize that He's our God, King, Savior and Lord.. that He, angered by our rebellion, gave mankind another chance by sending Jesus to shed blood on our behalf. We have that chance to have that relationship with God again.

So with God, we can ignore all other kinds of relationship? No. to return to that state of Eden, Man was created in God's image, to be relational creatures. the two commands that Jesus gives. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind" and "Love your neighbours as you would love yourself". we cannot have that vertical relationship and ignore the other command from Christ to love each other. All that, because we have Salvation. all that, because "God so loved the world that He gave His only son" John 3:16. And "whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him" John 3:36.

which is amazing, isn't it? then even if you claim to love God but you reject Jesus as the Messiah appointed by God to rule over us all, you're still going to hell. i can see all the wagging fingers "now now, that isn't very helpful." Helpful or not, that's the truth. Brutal? yea it is. the whole OT points to Jesus, hinting His coming in the NT. Even the most unlikely of them all, the chapter on Judah and Tamar? it's the lineage of David and most imptly, Jesus. God is truly loving and soverign. Gosh.

Moral of the story: trust in God's love, not as an emotional support, but truly that it saves us from our sins, from burning in hell and been made righteous in God, thanks to His Son's death and resurrection. (and as darly would end it, amen.)