Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of Christ

I was reading on John Pipers website today a talk called "Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of God."

I really think it hits home that God is sovereign, and the only stable thing in this world. The only One we can put our trust in. For me right now, He is calling me to a place of deep trust, of finding joy even when my agenda and goals arent met. And more than that, reading this helps me cope with death.

It is getting to be about a year anniversary that one of my best and dearest friends died. Almost a year ago, Jessica Pety died in a car accident as she was in training to be a missionary and was with a team preparing for what God had called her to. To this day, I don't think I have fully comprehended that she is gone, I find myself expecting to see her again- and I will, just not in my lifetime on earth. It has been one of the hardest things to trust God with, and I still ask why. So, through the healing process, this sermon has been good for me to read. I confess that Im frightened and terrified of death, and i know that I shouldnt be, but I am.


Piper uses Romans 8:35-39-
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And, a woman who has lost her husband in 9/11 shares how the Lord has been and is her stronghold, and gives 10 lessons.
I want to type them briefly, but read it to get a more personal taste-

1..Embracing the sovereignty of God brings strength and hope.

2. Don’t presume to know better than God how to run the world. It is pride.

3. God has a good purpose in all the hard things that happen to his people.

4. Death and suffering press in on us the perspective of eternity.

5. God’s distribution of suffering is not equal, and one hard thing may prepare for another.

6. God’s love takes care of us right now in our suffering, not just later.

7. Calamity calls for quick practical love like meals and baby sitting.

8. Quiet, confidence in God’s power and goodness through suffering create occasions for witness.

9. Trusting in God’s sovereign care in all circumstances frees you from greed and releases love for others.

10. Without God the world is hopeless.


read or listen to it at -http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2002/103_Nothing_Can_Separate_Us_from_the_Love_of_Christ/