Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Linda Brawner
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000190
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00:31 Hello, I am Shelley Quinn,
00:33 and welcome again to Issues and Answers. 00:35 What issue are you dealing with today, 00:38 is it possibly that you are wondering 00:40 can God love you? Well, we are going to 00:43 find the answers today, not only from the Bible, 00:45 but from someone who has really learned that 00:48 answer directly from the Lord. 00:50 I'm so excited to welcome back again Linda Brawner, 00:53 all the way down from Mansfield, Ohio, 00:56 an Ohio girl all your life. Yes. Thank you so much, 00:59 what a joy it has been to have you come here 01:02 time and again, and we just really appreciate 01:05 you returning for this program. 01:06 And we're going to be talking today about love, 01:09 God's love, and know you Linda is an author. 01:12 She's written a wonderful book called "Keep Sweet," 01:15 and you can get that book at keepsweetforever.com 01:18 which is your website. Yes. 01:20 You know I think that you touched my heart 01:24 in your book when you said that your husband 01:28 was an uncommon Christian, that he didn't always do 01:32 the things that people might think a Christian 01:35 should do, but he didn't feel that God 01:39 could really love him at first, why was that? 01:45 Because of his diabetes, his mind was not always 01:49 as sharp as most people, and he didn't get into 01:54 the word. The two kind of fed on each other. 01:58 He didn't read the word because he 02:00 didn't feel worthy of God's love. 02:02 He didn't feel worthy of God's love because 02:04 he didn't read the word. He was a good man, 02:09 he was kinder than you know in fact 02:12 he was a great influence on me becoming more kind, 02:15 and did a lot of wonderful things, 02:18 but he underestimated his worth, and if our 02:24 worth is based on what God thinks of us 02:27 then there is you can't 02:29 think too highly of yourself. 02:31 You know the Lord once really impressed upon 02:34 me that when I go out and minister, 02:36 the one thing I always try to remember to 02:38 tell people is that you are worth nothing less 02:42 than the price that Jesus Christ paid for 02:44 you with his own blood, that's how much we're 02:48 worth to God, yes. In your opinion, 02:52 and we hope your opinion is based on the Bible, 02:55 it is. Who does God love? Everyone of us. 03:01 No matter how bad we have sinned, 03:04 no matter what's going on in our life, 03:06 God loves all people, yes. So then this is a love 03:12 that is unconditional love as the Bible says 03:16 in First John 4:8 and verse 16 that God is love. 03:21 It is his nature to love, yes. He loves sinners. 03:25 Yes, and that's why we can trust him. 03:28 His love is not based on what we do, 03:32 not based on what any church tells us to do, 03:36 or tells us is right. God's love for us 03:40 is based on his nature, and the Bible says 03:43 he does not change. Amen, Malachi 3:6, 03:46 but he also says that you know I think 03:50 there's going to be someone out here 03:51 in our audience is going to say you girls 03:53 are wrong, you know God doesn't love 03:56 everyone but he says in Romans 5:8 that 03:59 he demonstrated his love for us in this that 04:03 he send Christ to die for us while we were 04:06 yet sinners. So that is proved John 3:16 for 04:11 God so loved the world, all of us, 04:15 that he gave his only begotten son, 04:18 so that whosoever should believe in him 04:20 should not perish but have everlasting life, 04:23 right, right. So how did you learn of God's love? 04:31 First, I had people tell me about Jesus. 04:34 By then I was reading the Bible, 04:37 I was in a college that was nominally Christian, 04:41 and there were a lot of good Christian kids 04:45 there who expected the institution to be 04:49 more religious, to have values more 04:52 what they had grown up with. 04:54 They were afraid, I do believe they love 04:58 the Lord but they were not getting 05:00 the kind of education they expected, 05:03 and they kind of clumped together in fear. 05:06 And so I started reading the Bible, 05:09 because I figured you know they're probably wrong, 05:13 but at least I should know what they're wrong about. 05:18 And as I read I realized that yes we are sinners, 05:24 and yes something has to be done about it, 05:27 and that something was Jesus Christ dying 05:31 on the Cross. And the most important thing I got, 05:35 and I am not, it was a blend of attending 05:38 a sort of evangelistic series, reading my Bible, 05:41 and these friends answered my questions, 05:44 was that God does love us, he does not look 05:48 forward to punishing us for transgression. 05:52 He wants to save us from sin. 05:55 The word salvation in the original language 06:00 means to save, to heal and to restore, amen, 06:04 its all one thing in God's eyes. Amen, 06:07 so its amazing to me that here you are a 06:11 college student not with a lot of religious 06:14 upbringing or background, but as you came to the 06:18 word, the Bible, you really, you heard it first, 06:22 faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the 06:24 word of Christ, but you got into the Bible 06:27 and you really not only saw God in this, 06:31 the love of God in the Bible, but you embraced 06:35 this and received the love of God. 06:38 Do you believe that we can earn God's favor? 06:42 No, there is absolutely nothing, and this 06:47 knowledge is not something that the fact 06:49 that we can do nothing to earn his favor 06:52 is not something we understand as soon 06:55 as we become Christians, its something 06:57 we grow into. We can have a intellectual 07:02 understanding that there is nothing we can do, 07:04 but it's our own experience that makes 07:08 us grow in the understanding that 07:11 God loves us just as we are, no matter 07:15 what brilliant things we've done, no matter 07:18 what horrendous things we've done, 07:21 he still loves us, and nothing will change that, 07:25 because his love for us is based on who he is. 07:28 Amen, so what I hear you saying is then that 07:32 anyone can come to Jesus, just as they are, 07:37 yes. They can come there now, but even 07:40 though they can't earn his favor, 07:42 because the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:8-10 07:46 that we're saved by grace through faith; 07:48 not by works that any man should boast. 07:51 Even though we come to Jesus just as we are, 07:55 and he loves us. He doesn't really just 07:57 you know I hear people say he accepts us 08:00 as we are. He receives us but would you agree 08:04 that he loves us too much to leave us in the mess 08:07 that we come to him. Oh definitely, definitely, 08:10 but the thing, to emphasize is its God's 08:14 work to clean us up, amen. 08:17 The change in behavior has to be a response 08:22 to his love for us, amen, because it's 08:25 so much easier to change your life, 08:29 to change unproductive ways of thinking, 08:32 unhealthy lifestyle habits. If we realize 08:36 that in Christ we are already winners, amen. 08:40 We are already accepted. Amen, and its something 08:45 that Romans 5:17 says that those who have 08:49 received an abundance of grace and the gift 08:51 and righteousness will reign in life through 08:53 Christ Jesus. It all comes from him working in us 08:57 to interact yes, doesn't it, yes. 08:59 But now you and I both belong to the 09:02 Seventh-day Adventist Church 09:04 and we believe that God's Ten Commandments 09:08 are something that we should keep and 09:10 sometimes because we profess this. 09:14 There are people who will say now Linda 09:17 you are trying to earn your favor with God. 09:20 How do you answer then when they say that? 09:23 Any church that preaches a standard 09:26 of righteousness is going to attract a certain 09:29 amount of people who want to play by the rules, 09:33 who want to get into heaven, because they 09:36 paid their dues by keeping the standards 09:40 of the church. Its human nature, 09:44 it is not wrong to preach a standard 09:47 but it is human nature to want to keep the rules. 09:52 So now wait a minute because I want to make 09:53 sure I am understanding it, what you're saying 09:55 then is in our church I know that we teach that 10:01 we don't keep the Commandments to be safe 10:03 but we keep the Commandments 10:05 because we are saved, amen. 10:07 Just like Jesus didn't keep God's Commandments 10:10 to become the son of God, he kept the 10:13 Commandments because he was the son of God. 10:15 But what you are saying is that if 10:17 I understood you just now is that even 10:20 in our church even though we don't preach 10:22 that you're saved by the Ten Commandments 10:24 there is that group of people who think that 10:28 they can just keep the Commandments and 10:30 not worry about a relationship with Jesus 10:32 and they think they got a right to salvation, 10:34 is that what you were saying? Yes, 10:35 there is a lot of comfort in our finiteness 10:38 when life is out of control, there's a lot 10:41 of comfort in having this measure of control that 10:44 I didn't do the dishes on Sabbath this week. 10:47 I didn't turn on secular TV. I was a good girl. 10:52 Yes, I went to church even though I hated every 10:56 minute of it. We've mentioned that 10:59 I had a nervous breakdown, 11:01 the biggest factor in it was that I stopped 11:04 talking to God, but I didn't want my brothers 11:08 and sisters on my back, so I came to church. 11:12 I sang the hymns, I said the proper words, 11:16 and I felt so hollow and empty on the inside. 11:20 So you came to church in your camouflage, 11:24 the verbal camouflage of happy Sabbath, 11:27 how are you, yes. Oh I am wonderful, 11:29 thank you, well dressed. You were fearful to, 11:32 why were you fearful to let people know 11:35 what was going on inside of you. 11:37 Because sometimes we can be really hard on 11:39 our brothers and sisters, I firmly believe that 11:43 my church did the best thing they help for me, 11:46 but the fact is when I had the nervous breakdown, 11:49 they assumed it was a lack of faith, 11:52 and at that point in time, I didn't have it together 11:57 enough to explain that no, it was a biochemical 12:00 imbalance keeping my brain from functioning right, 12:03 and that skewed all my perceptions of the world. 12:07 So you have I know a very loving church you 12:10 told me about your wonderful church members, 12:12 you have a close relationship, I know that 12:15 you told us in previous programs how supportive 12:19 they were during the time of your husbands' death, 12:22 but at that time they weren't understanding 12:25 what was going on in your life and you did, 12:28 you were afraid you were going to be judged 12:29 if you told them so the two of you, 12:32 it's almost like a standoff, wasn't that. 12:34 Yeah and they were scared to death. 12:36 I had been a brilliant Christian, 12:40 strong in the faith, not only saying the 12:44 right things, but usually they could see the fire 12:47 in my eyes. They knew that these things were 12:49 in my heart, and when I started faking it, 12:54 I went downhill, and I frightened them. 12:57 Do you think that maybe the reason 13:00 people were afraid is because to watch a 13:04 shooting star or a bright shining star 13:06 of the Lord suddenly fizzle its kind of like, 13:10 if this can happen to Linda, it can happen to me. 13:12 Yes, yes very much. Well now let me get 13:16 back to my train of thought was that, 13:20 what part if God is love and God loves all of us 13:25 equally, I mean he shows no favoritism towards man. 13:30 What part does the law of God play in this 13:34 scenario of love? It plays two parts, 13:38 first it is God's character, the law is who he is, 13:45 and we should, we should reflect that law, 13:51 so that when people look at us, 13:54 whenever we claim the name of Christ, 13:57 people look at us and they see who God is. 14:01 Our duty is to try to make that accurate reflection 14:06 of who God is, and then its to protect us, 14:11 if we're not busy cleaning up messes created by sin, 14:18 by our own personal sins, then we are 14:23 better able to hear his voice, better able 14:26 to enjoy his presence and better able to 14:31 accurately reflect God's character to those around 14:34 us. Amen, and you know the Bible does say, 14:37 Jesus said in John 14:15, if you love me, 14:40 obey my Commandments, keep my Commandments, 14:43 and he also says or John said by the inspiration 14:47 of the Holy Spirit I believe First John 5:3 14:49 that this is love and that is to obey 14:53 his Commandments, and they are not burdensome 14:55 to us. But his law, this Ten Commandments 14:59 are really, it's a law of love, ten promises of 15:03 what God will empower us to do. 15:06 The first four being teaching us how to 15:09 love the Lord our God with all of our heart, 15:11 soul, mind and strength, and the others six being 15:15 how to love one and another as we love ourselves. 15:19 And I firmly believe that we were made to keep 15:24 those Commandments, that we are happiest 15:26 to the extend that we keep those Commandments 15:29 by his grace because Genesis says we are 15:33 made in the image of God. Amen, amen, 15:36 by his grace is right, so is it anything that 15:40 in your opinion that we can do to make God 15:44 quit loving us? No, explain that. 15:48 You can take the blackest, you know 15:53 most sinful person, the worst deeds, 15:57 my father often puzzled over how Hitler 16:02 was allowed to kill so many people, yes. 16:05 God loved Hitler, God loved him like 16:10 we can't imagine and he weeps over the loss of him. 16:17 God loved the child Hitler, Adolf Hitler, 16:23 but he hated the sin, yes. And he hated the fact 16:27 that Hitler will be lost if he did not confess 16:30 his sin and repent to the Lord, he will be lost 16:33 forever. But he was very grieved over the acts 16:37 that Hitler committed because they were heinous, 16:39 yes. And it is you know there is something about 16:43 the power of choices in there, yes. 16:45 Its amazing that God loves us enough, 16:48 you spoke of that in your book. 16:50 Explain what you were talking about? 16:52 For hope reason why there is sin on this planet 16:56 is because God refuses to force us to obey him, 17:00 right. Sin started in heaven, and God could 17:05 have put an end to it like that, but all of his 17:11 creation will serve in fear, and that's 17:15 counter-productive, you know just as 17:17 we can't serve to earn his favor, 17:20 we can't serve him well, we can't obey him well, 17:24 if we are scared to death or getting zapped, 17:27 amen, because oh my, we had one contrary 17:32 thought, amen. You know when you said sin 17:35 started in heaven, lets look at what Isaiah 14:13 17:39 says because that sin that started in heaven 17:42 was pride, and we've got this angel Lucifer 17:48 who was the most beautiful, most intelligent 17:52 of God's created beings, and he stood up in 17:56 heaven and this was his thoughts. 17:59 He says in his heart, I will ascend to heaven, 18:03 I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: 18:07 I will sit upon the mount of the assembly, 18:09 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, 18:12 I will make myself like the Most High. 18:14 So Lucifer who stumbled and fell because of pride 18:20 and rebellion, led this rebellion. 18:22 He was the father of lies, and he was the murderer 18:25 from the beginning. He got this in his heart, 18:29 I mean God did not create a devil, yes. 18:31 He created a beautiful angel, 18:32 but pride created the devil. 18:34 So there are things that we can do 18:38 and attitudes we can adopt, that can make us 18:41 actually be eternally lost if we do not repent, 18:45 correct. But that doesn't mean you know 18:47 boggles my mind is that God still loves Lucifer 18:51 and his heart grieves over his loss, yes, 18:53 he really does. But now there is a very popular 18:57 teaching in some Christian circles that 19:02 since God is love and we are his children 19:07 that he will give us anything that we desire 19:10 and that the evidence of God's love is health 19:14 and prosperity, what would you say to that, 19:19 are only the people who prosper loved by God 19:23 and are the rest of them are second rate Christians, 19:25 if they're poor, if they're not healthy. 19:28 I hope not, because I am poor, and I struggle 19:32 with depression, and those could be strong 19:34 arguments that God does not love me or that my 19:37 Christian faith is not valid, but the bottom-line 19:42 in what God allows to happen to us is 19:46 what will save us, what will keep us by his side, 19:52 what will strengthen us, so that we can help others 19:56 understand who God is. Absolutely and we can't 20:00 you know the scripture when he says delight 20:02 yourself in the Lord and God will give you 20:04 the desires of your heart. I guarantee 20:07 if you are delighting yourself in the Lord, 20:09 the desire of your heart is not going to be a 20:11 new Mercedes Benz, right. 20:13 When we delight our self in the Lord, 20:15 his desires become our desires, isn't that right, 20:18 yes. And so we know that Jesus said that 20:22 son of man didn't have a place to lay his head. 20:25 If he was willing and we remember that 20:29 Peter said to the beggar, silver and gold have 20:33 I none, but what I have I will give to you. 20:36 So wealth, is prosperity message has really been, 20:41 would you agree that they have twisted the 20:43 scripture and taken that out of context, yes. 20:46 So that isn't what the signs are then. 20:49 No the signs are sensing his presence and 20:57 sometimes we can think its God's presence 21:01 and it misleads us, and that is where the word 21:04 comes in, amen. The word is our guide, amen. 21:08 And the Bible does not promise that when we 21:11 come to Christ all of our problems are going to 21:13 be gone. In that Jesus even said in this world 21:17 you will suffer many tribulations, 21:20 but now has your poorness, financial poorness 21:27 or your depression has that made your life bad, 21:34 or has it enriched your life. 21:35 It has definitely enriched my life, one thing 21:39 I have learned over the years in terms of finances 21:41 is I recognize that everything I have comes 21:48 from God, the way one does that is what the 21:52 Bible calls tithing, returning to God, 21:56 ten percent of your increase. I have done 22:00 that ever since I became a Seventh-day Adventist 22:03 and God has seen to it that even in the most 22:07 frightening times I have had enough and some 22:11 to share. Isn't that amazing, well it's been our 22:13 experience too, you know we went through, 22:16 when we first married, my husband and I had, 22:19 we owned our own business, we had a business partner 22:22 who took for a large amount of money, 22:24 left us with huge debts, and even though 22:26 we were making a lot of money in a new business, 22:29 it was, all of it was required to pay back 22:32 to all this, yes, and I would eek out a $100 a 22:35 month for. We lived in Dallas, we lived on the 22:38 $100 a month to for all of our grocery and supplies, 22:42 and you know what Linda, there came the time 22:45 when we weren't tithing because there was 22:47 no increase, I mean our business is dead, 22:49 got you, I mean there was no increase and 22:51 I told my husband we need to start giving 22:53 an offering, and he said how much, and 22:55 I was impressed to say $100, so we gave the 22:58 only thing we had to live on, yeah, and I don't know 23:00 how but God stretched our budget, 23:03 he stretched that money, and he really 23:06 is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who meets all of 23:08 our needs, yes, isn't he? What would you say to 23:10 someone if you could look into the camera, 23:13 what would you say to someone right now, 23:15 who is questioning because of circumstances 23:18 in their life, if God loves them, how could you 23:21 respond to that question? He does love you, 23:27 no matter what, sometimes because we are human, 23:33 because we are finite, we can't see what's going 23:37 on behind the scenes. God uses trials, sometimes 23:44 to bless us, sometimes to bless others, 23:47 and sometimes we just have to walk by faith, 23:50 and accept it as the cold hard fact that God 23:55 loves us. You know you're speaking from experience 23:59 here and something you said just reminded me 24:02 of a scripture in James because I just wanted 24:06 to share this, I think this is great. 24:08 What James is writing in James chapter 1 24:11 and verse 2, he says and I will be reading from the 24:13 Amplified Bible. Consider it pure joy my brethren, 24:17 whenever you are enveloped in a trial, 24:21 when you're encountering trials of any sort 24:23 or fall into various temptation. 24:25 He says be assured and understand that the trial 24:29 and proving of your faith bring out endurance 24:32 and stead vastness and patience, and led that 24:36 endurance and patience have full play and do 24:39 a thorough work so that you maybe perfected 24:42 and fully developed. And the way I look 24:45 at this is that if you're going through a trail 24:49 and God has trusted the trial to you like 24:51 he did with you Linda. He has trusted that 24:55 trial to you because he sees a potential in you 24:58 and he is polishing that potential and that's why 25:01 we can count it pure joy, is because we can 25:04 say Lord, thank you I know that you're working 25:07 something in me to perfect me for eternity. 25:10 One last question because we're running out of time, 25:13 okay, so we gonna have to make this quick. 25:15 If God loves us no matter what, then why don't 25:19 we just do whatever we wanted? 25:24 Because we are his, because he loves us, 25:28 this makes us priceless, and you don't take 25:35 something priceless and toss it in the corner 25:38 and trample on it. We deserve the very best, 25:42 and God's law is the best. And you know I am going 25:46 to add one thought to that because the Lord 25:48 just reminded me of scripture. It is true that 25:52 God loves us no matter what, but God does not 25:56 forgive our sins because he loves us. 25:59 He forgives our sins because Jesus Christ 26:02 died for us, and he is the propitiation, 26:05 the atonement for our sin. And he tells us in 26:10 First John 1:9 that if we confess our sin, 26:14 he is faithful and just to cleanse us of our sin, 26:18 but here is that scripture, is Hebrews 5:9, 26:21 that it says, that He Jesus became the author 26:26 of eternal salvation to all those who obey him. 26:31 So I guess the easy way to say is that if Christ 26:35 is on the inside of us, Colossians 1:27, 26:38 Christ in us, the Hope of Glory, that he will 26:41 empower us to do everything he has 26:44 called us to do, and Christ is going to work 26:46 in us to will and to act according to his good 26:49 pleasure, and he will complete the good work 26:52 he's begun in us. So grace is not a let me see 26:58 if you agree with this. Grace is not a license 27:02 to sin, and if we want that salvation, 27:07 that gift of salvation that we received, 27:09 when we receive that he's working in us 27:12 and we will walk in obedience, and if we 27:15 are not walking in obedience, I have to 27:18 question how much we value that salvation is 27:21 that true, yes, absolutely. Its gone too quickly, 27:24 we can talk for a long time. Thank you so much 27:27 Linda for coming and joining us, 27:29 and I want to once again remind you, 27:31 she has written a beautiful book called "Keep Sweet" 27:34 and bottom-line on that one is that she is saying 27:37 don't become bitter, and you can get that at 27:40 keepsweetforever.com. And until the next time 27:44 may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 27:46 the love of the Father, and the fellowship 27:49 of the Holy Spirit be with you. Thank you Linda. |
Revised 2014-12-17