Impossible

It is impossible to love unconditionally without being hurt.

It is impossible to be His disciple without loving unconditionally.

"If anyone will be My disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me."

If anyone will be My disciple, let him deny himself, embrace his commitment to unwavering, sacrificial, willing, all forgiving love, and follow me.

Daily.

Priests

"You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Chist."

A priesthood.

Their responsibilities:
To fear and reverence God
To instruct in the truth
To teach righeousness
To walk in peace and uprightness
To turn back others from iniquity
To preserve knowledge
To be the messenger of the Lord of hosts

The Blessing: Life and peace.

Yes, I should have said my responsibilities. Your responsibilities.

Worthy

The throne of heaven is surrounded by those singing that He is worthy to receive praise and honor and glory and power and dominion. The degree to which I yield to Him my will, my control over my stuff, my daily obedience--all that I am and have, is the degree to which I consider Him worthy. To do less than fully surrender is to claim that my life is more worthy of praise and honor and glory and power and dominion than His. Idolatry--in its worst form.

Not Just

Forgiveness is not just, "I forgive you." It's a prayerful "removal" of the "injury" as far as the east is from the west. It's a deepest sea burial of the anger and resentment. It's a trust in God to use all things for His glory. It's a confidence that He is on the throne. It's removing the words, "What, again!" from one's vocabulary and mindset.
It's forgiving as He forgave you.

No Matter What

No matter what His children do, God is a faithful Lover. He delights in being a faithful Lover. That does not mean that He blinks at your sin, or will refrain from disciplining. Just the opposite. What it does mean is that His discipline is designed to prove to you the faithfulness of His love and the delight He takes in you as His child. And that He is eager to forgive and pardon and draw you back into a sense of His presence. He is eager to transform you into a faithful lover of others, one who delights in forgiving and pardoning.
Faithful is He who calls you.

Evil

Yesterday, I had a brief time to discuss the "why" of the existence of evil in our world. This is what I know:

God hates evil. Hates it. If someone doesn't believe that, they have no real understanding of the cross.

God, through the Spirit's power, declared to me my sin, iniquity, and transgression--the evil in my life. In doing so, He brought me to repentance and salvation. I understood that I had absolutely no chance of saving myself. I needed a sinless Savior.

God, through the Spirit's power, convicts me now of the evil--sin, iniquity, and transgressions in my life that I might confess that evil and thus be able to walk in fellowship with Him. And with other believers. I could never love those God has put into my life without the daily cleansing of confession.

And I think of Joseph. Betrayed, sold into slavery. And with tears in His eyes--telling his brothers. Yes, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Tears? They still didn't understand the planning of a loving God.

Only an infinitely good and all powerful God can take the worse evil that mankind can devise and turn it into good. Good in the present tense, and good in the eternal future.

And how often does He do that for His children? All things work together for the good of those who are the called according to His purpose--His plan.

All things.

Sorrow

One of the gifts the God of all Comfort gives to His children is sorrow. He--who knows the end of all things--was, yet, a man of sorrows. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus because some in the crowd doubted His love for Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Joseph was a man of many tears, many sorrows. Paul in Philippians cries that it would have been sorrow upon sorrow to lose his friend Epaphroditus. Having given us hearts that love and care, sorrow is a reflection of a heart just like His. Our tears are His eternal treasures. And because of His love--the One who weeps not just for us but with us--we are commanded to weep with those who weep, to take our sorrow and use it to comfort others with the comfort He gives us, and to refuse to sorrow as those who have no hope so that our deepest sorrows can be a testimony to our trust in His love. 

Sorrow and peace and joy and comfort are inescapable, inseparable "companions," on our journey Home to Him who will wipe all tears from our eyes.

"The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart."