A soul generated by love

My friend Julie, has this as her tag line on her email. It's a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Everyone can be great. Because anybody can serve...You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." That seems to sum it up. We need reminders from people like Julie and Martin Luther King, Jr. Today someone else may need a reminder from someone like you.

Today's challenge: Have a soul generated by love.

Responsible to Love

Oh Lord, my heart's cry is ~ I need You to love me in such a (mighty) way that I can love others rightly. O Lord, you call me to love, you equip me to love, you instill in me love. Help me to love - rightly, not my way, but Yours. As John quoted Jesus who said: "I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father..." (5:30 and 6:38). As you said, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24) Help us to not love according to appearance, but with righteous love. Mature our love that it may be mature and complete, lacking nothing (see James 1:4). Have your way with us, and help us be responsible human beings who love each other, for Your sake, for Your glory.

Compelled to Love

Is there something in you compelling you to love or withholding you from loving?

Philippians 2:13 says it is God in us who is working in us both to will and to do His good pleasure.

Ephesians 1:4 says He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in Love.

God desires us to love. I Corinthians (12:31) teaches us to desire the greater gift. And I Corinthians 13:13 tells us love is the greatest.

Desire the greatest. Be compelled to love - today!

Commanded To Love

In John 15, Christ makes it clear: WE ARE COMMANDED TO LOVE.

Verse 12- "This is My commandment that you love one another." Then once again in verse 17 - "These things I COMMAND you, that you love one another."

But Christ did not leave us alone in this commandment. He did not leave us to our devices. He told us we could not do it alone. He said to abide in Him or we could do nothing (verse 5). He also sent us a "Helper" (verse 26) to help us in all in our ways. So, to fulfill this commandment, abide in Him and rely on the Helper, and go and love.

Looking for Love in all the wrong places

Matthew 5:46 says if you love those who love, "what reward do you have?" Because even the sinners do that. Perhaps we are not loving where He wants us to love.

I John 2:15 says don't love the world or worldly things. It expounds by saying if we do that, the love of God is not in us. If the love of God was in us, who would we love? How would we love? Then, we might not only love our brother and neighbor, but also those who do not love us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus even gives a blessing to those who withstood persecution and were reviled by others. Jesus certainly did that and He was most assuredly blessed. Look today to Him and where He wants you to love. It may not be where you want to love, it may involve more of you than you want to give. It may not be here and now. It may mean there and later. But, if the reward is from Him, look to Him who is the rewarder of all, and you will be blessed.

What's your problem? What's your purpose?

After a long exhausting day one time I proclaimed: The problem is people!

To which my wise husband retorted: The purpose is people!

When we begin to see people as the problem, we have lost our focus.

Our focus, our purpose each day should be for others, not our "To Do" list.

It's not our accomplishments that matter, it's their hearts.

If the purpose is people, then the greatest tool and gift we have is love.

The object of our love

The object(s) of our love, longings, desires - reveals our foolishness or wisdom; our wickedness or our uprightness.

Are we "looking for love in all the wrong places"? If we are, we will be defeated.

If we are not, we will be blessed.

Look for love - in the right places, at the right time, with the right heart!

Love reveals our desires

The Hebrew translations and interpretations of love indicate 3 things:



1. Desire

2. Attraction

3. Attachment



In pondering these indicators, it is good to ask: What do I do desire?

What am I attracted to? What do I feel attached to?



This will reveal a lot about who and what I love and what my focus or attitude is. Revealing can be good ~ when we learn and adjust to it.

Be a lover of good

Titus 1:8: "A lover of good"

I want to be a lover of good.

II Timothy 3:2 says people became lovers of self. This is so natural and so self defeating. If we default to this, we will collapse as a people.

If we become lovers of good, we will be uplifted as a person and as a culture.

Go out and look for the good - and love it!

Friends & Love

One of the translations for "love" in Hebrew is "friend" [aheb].

Abraham was referred to as God's friend (II Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; and James 2:23).

Proverbs 17:17 says a friend loves at all times. And later (18:24) it says, a friend sticks closer than a brother. Finally, Proverbs (27:10) exclaims: "Do not forsake your own friend."

James 4:4 explains "friendship with the world is enmity with God."

We can learn a lot about love through friendship:

1. Loving at all times
2. Loving is sticking together
3. Loving is not forsaking

To be liked or to love

I heard someone say they just wanted everybody to like them.

That's when it hit me, God didn't call me to be liked, He called me to love.

And, that's a lot easier! It frees me up to not worry about what you think of me as I pursue love. I don't have to be liked. I need to love!

Galatians 5:14 - THE ENTIRE LAW IS SUMMED UP IN A SINGLE COMMAND: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.

Live a Life of Love

The New International Version of the Bible interprets Ephesians 5, verses 1 and 2 as:

"Be imitators of God...and live a life of love..."

Ponder those big words. To imitate God, we are to live our lives in love, for love.

He demonstrated that. He gave His all for us. He called us to this. He even commanded it. It is for our good. It is for His glory. How can you not, this day, just attempt to do this in anyway you can. Imitate God - live a life of love.

Love & Live

Deuteronomy 30 holds some interesting perspectives on this:

verse 6 - The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts...so you may love Him with all your heart and soul and live.

verse 16- For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commands...then you will live and increase, and the Lord will bless you...

Love and then live. It's really that simple. Put it in that order: love and live.

You can live, and not love. But can you love and not live? It seems love makes life more worth living.

I John 4:9 - This is how God showed His love to us: He sent His one and only son into the world that we might live through Him.

Love & Live - through Him.

Love & Pray

I love how Jesus links loving and praying together in His sermon on the mount: "But, I say, Love your enemy and pray for them." [Matthew 5:44] I think these two need to be interconnected. To love we need to pray. If we pray, surely we will be enabled to love.

Not only is this true for your friend, but even more so for your enemy. I don't know who your enemy is, but Jesus pushed us beyond loving our friends and neighbors to that barbaric desert place of loving, caring, and praying for those who are not.

If you need help to love, pray.

Renew Your Commitment to Love

Lamentations 3:23 says His compassions fail not and are new every morning.

Isaiah 40:31 says those who wait on God shall renew their strength...they shall not fail.

Psalm 51:10: "Renew a steadfast spirit within me."

If God's mercies are new everyday, can we not commit our love afresh every day?

Commit this day, to love anew, with a renewed sense of urgency and with compassion that fails not, by His means and grace.

Tests

There are lots of tests...

Psalm 26:2 - Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart & my mind

Deuteronomy 8:2 - to test you in order to know what was in your heart

II Corinthians 8:8 - to test the sincerity of your love

I Thessalonians 5:21 - test everything, hold on to the good

I John 4:1 - test the spirits to see whether they are from God

I've never liked tests. But it seems the Bible even tells us to ask God for testing. Testing reveals what's in us, what we have learned, or if we have learned. We should not be afraid of tests, but eager to learn from them. A new paradigm: We can learn from tests. Test me O Lord and show me my heart's end is to love You and others.

Searching & Pouring

"I will search for the one my heart loves." [Song of Solomon 3:2] Have you ever thought that your heart loves, you just need to find where it can show that love. Your heart longs to love, it's just where is it going to pour out that love.

Psalm 139:23 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Lord, you know my heart. You made my heart. Pour in the love you have for me, and help me find where you want me to pour it out.

A Blanket of Love

Proverbs 10:12 teaches us that "love covers all wrongs." Hmmm, I'm suppose to let my love cover the wrongs. This doesn't mean I cover up wrong doings. The Hebrew idea here of covering is forgiving. I need to blanket what has been done wrong to me in love, and let love have it's way. I'm so glad love covers wrong, because there is a lot of wrong in me and the world. If love has it's way, it won't keep a record of wrongs (see I Corinthians 13:5) but it will be a wrong corrector (see Romans 8:28).

Oh love, cover me.

NOTICE

1 Corinthians 13:5 says, "love keeps no record of wrongs." So, if I'm not to keep a list of the wrongs done to me, what am I to do? Isn't this the way of the world? Yes.

The Living Bible version of 1 Corinthians 13:5 reads, "love hardly notices when others do it wrong." I have to keep reminding myself of this every time I notice others do me wrong. One day, I may not need reminding...until then, remind yourself.

Sincere Love

Romans 12:9, "Love must be sincere."

Love must...it insists on. Love must be sincere. It cannot be mixed with division or adulterated with lesser objects. In the Greek, sincere is without hypocrisy. And what is hypocrisy, but being what you are not. It was play acting to them. We can't play love, it must be from within us. It must be who we truly are. From the Latin, 'sin' denotes 'one' and 'crescere' carries the concept 'to grow.' How wonderful to see the root of one growing. That is what we want to do in love, become one as we grow in love. There is the idea of unity - all for one - sincere.

Sure, Pure Love

How can you love except you pray, "CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART, O GOD, AND RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME." [Psalm 51:10]

David prayed this. We should pray this. In the Greek, "pure" is unmixed; and steadfast holds the idea of firm and enduring. This is a true picture of love. May our goal not only be loving ~ but also pure love, sure love - enduring, ongoing.

09-09-09 - Life is Repetitious, Love Repeats

As I see these numbers repeat themselves, I realize how love is often repetitious. You do it, and you do it again, and then again. Life is full of repetition. The things we do daily, we repeat tomorrow. Today, instead of the drudgery, see the beauty in the repetition.

'AS' is a big word

"This is my commandment, that you love one another AS I have loved you." John 15:12

My biggest concern is that small word 'AS'. That means I can't love as I want to love. I shouldn't love as they deserve. It says I must love others AS Christ has loved me. Now, that's a whole different thing. My love is measured to His love for me. I can't even comprehend His love for me. How He came down from heaven and loved and healed and taught others. He willingly went to be crucified for the love of His people. He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit when He wouldn't be here any more. He has gone to prepare a place for the people He loves to come and be with Him. How great a love is this? And this is how I am COMMANDED to love - AS He loved us.

Labor Day - Labor of Love

Is love work? Sometimes. And sometimes, it's rest.

You think of labor with delivering a baby. If only we saw our small labors of love as life giving. The next time you think of loving as hard, realize it's life giving qualities.

Work hard - give lots of love!

Being Christlike means I must love

At 86 years of age, in his final sermon, John Stott concluded: "Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God." To support this he used Romans 8:29 that God predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son. And I John 2:6: "He who abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way as He walked." Also, Philippians 2:5, "have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ." And finally, Ephesians 5:2, "walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Being like Christ is abiding in Him. It is walking the way He walked, looking up to His Father the way He did. Being like Christ means I must love.

Pursue Love

I Corinthians 14:1 says "to pursue love." I start to ask myself, "how am I pursuing love?" I am trying to understand where I am looking for love, or perhaps even longing for love. Am I healthy in this? Am I looking for love in the right places? If you fail in that question, you should redirect your love to God intended places-in God like ways. If the Author of Love is God, it is He who we should be pursuing. And He tells us how to pursue Him (Love) - "seek Him first" [Matthew 6:33]. Am I seeking Him first and foremost? If not, I am failing in finding the greatest source and amount of love. Lord, don't let me fail.

Humility is a part of Love

I read about Lauren going to an orphanage in Africa and taking coloring sheets for the kids to color. They sang, "He's got the whole world in His hands." I thought about how she was loving those kids over there. I also thought of I Peter 5:6 that says, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God." Humility is part of loving. Humility is putting the other first. Humility is what drives people like Lauren to Africa to serve others. Humility is what says 'not me first, but you.' Humility is what we do when we recognize there is a Power and Source beyond us, and that we need it. Yes, we long for it. Humility says, 'I love you.'

As Jonathan Edwards said: "Humility promotes love."

Infectious Love

During this season of Flu and Colds, we begin to understand how easily germs spread.

If we're not careful, we might "pick up something."

Wouldn't it be great if love was in the air more than germs?

I heard Tertillian quoted during the Roman plagues that he wanted to "infect people with love". Picture your kind words and good deeds spreading through your home, your work place, your community. What could be better? Inoculate yourself against anything that might hamper your love: bitterness, anger, pride, anxiety.

Tolstoy proclaimed it too: "I have reached the conclusion that the only purpose in the life of every man is to strengthen love within himself, and by strengthening it within himself, to infect other people with it."

Seeking Perfection, is Seeking Him

Gray contends that perfect love casts out fear (I John 4:18), but that we don't always love perfectly. We love out of our fallen human nature that is spiked with selfishness and infiltrated with insecurities. So our love is not always expressed or received purely.

Checking the word origin here for perfect, you find the notion of maturity, completeness. It conjures up a bearing fruit concept. This is a better picture for us who want to live in the John 15 notion of abiding and bearing fruit.

We need to seek the One who is perfect and His perfect love, so we can share that and not our own. We want to overflow with His love, not our problems.

First Do Not Harm

The medical profession has a mantra: "First Do No Harm." This is to help them in their decisions in dealing with a patient. Perhaps, we should also ask this question before we "treat" others.

Romans 13:10 says "Love does no harm to a neighbor..."

I should consider not only my actions, but also my words and thoughts before I act. Because Jesus said if you have even thought these things you have done them in your heart. (See Matthew 5:28)

I don't want you to harm your neighbor - or yourself. God doesn't either.