I like leftovers.  Sometimes the leftovers are better than the original meal!  Of course I am referring to food but I also have leftovers in my sermon and lesson preparation.  One of the keys to clear communication is figuring out what to leave out.  For example, so far in this study of the Great Commandment I have read all or portions of over a dozen books and I have written at least 20 pages of notes.   Reducing all that to a 35 minute sermon means there are leftovers.  I’ll have to leave some things out on Sunday so I thought I would share some leftovers with those of you that are readers.  In J. I. Packer’s book titled “Knowing God,” he makes helpful observations about what it means that “God is love.”  He explains that since love is God’s disposition, everything He is and does is characterized by His goodness and mercy.  As Packer (and others) point out however, we cannot reverse the order of the words and say, “love is God.”  This is because God is also spirit, light, just and covenant keeping etc.  Therefore Packer writes, “Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love, we may look to Him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness or to shield the ones He loves from trouble when He knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification…”  It is pain and trouble that people often use as an objection to God’s love for the world.  But it is often that very pain and trouble that causes broken creatures on the run from Him to stop and return.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  Laura Story asks reflectively in song, “What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy? And what if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights are Your mercies in disguise?”  God’s love and mercy is sometimes quite severe.  We so often assess God’s love based upon our current circumstances.  “He loves me, He loves me not…”  There is only one way to get past this fickle undulation.  We must give ourselves to knowing Him.  The more we know Him the more we’ll realize His disposition forbids Him from allowing anything in our lives that is not driven by love.  To know Him, prayed Jesus, is to know life eternal!  If we want to experience the abundant life Jesus said He came to give, we’re going to have to get on with it.  The knowledge of the Holy is not possible without practices.  A personal relationship with God is developed like any other relationship.  Time.  Effort.  Conversation.  Struggle.  People who love God most know Him best.  He really is quite lovable once we get to know Him.  What is in the way of that knowledge and experience for us today?  How could we rearrange our days to get to know Him better?  What lesser thing could I set aside for the surpassing greatness of knowing Him and receiving His love?  And, if His mercy seems severe right now, will I look beyond my present circumstances to His character and love Him by trusting Him?  “God is love.”