Examine

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

Examine today your love life.

Examine how you give love.

Examine how you receive love.

Now is a good time to think of how you can be a better lover of life and others.

Love & Persistence

"The art of love is largely the art of persistence." Albert Ellis

Just being there...just still being there...you can frame that as love.

Persistence is the tenacity to still be there, when others are gone, when you don't agree, when you don't feel well, when you don't have the energy. Persistence, like love, is still being there.

Be there for someone today. Persist, love does.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. (Romans 8:25)

Love Came Down

I heard a hymn sang at Christmas: Love Came Down At Christmas. (Christina Rosetti, 1830-1894)

The words read:

Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, love divine;

Love was born at Christmas,

Stars and angels gave the sign.

The second verse had a phrase I liked: Love incarnate, love divine.

Love came down and it never left. Look for love today. Let it be apparent.

Love to Love

"We don't love to be loved; we love to love." Leo Buscaglia

Love to love, what a great thought.

Make it your heart's desire...not to be loved, but to give love.

Give it away today - with no thought of return.

But, be careful, what you give away, make come back around to you.

Love loving!

Need or Desire?

"A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it." Frank Howard Clark

That's what Frank Clark said. Are you born with an inbred need for love? They say babies need nurture, cuddling...love. They thrive better. Their mortality rate is better. I think we can all agree, we need love. If we all need love, then we never outgrow that need. We don't grow beyond it. We don't become mature, and no longer desire it. You always need it. You never outgrow it.

It's a non-negotiable. It's a done deal. Just because you don't have something, doesn't mean you don't need it.

Cultivate Love

"Love does not dominate; it cultivates." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Christ did not come to conquer but to love.

He came to cultivate as He spoke to people about a sower sowing seeds. He wanted to cultivate a garden of people, not lock them up in rules and regulations. God started mankind in a garden, and He cultivated them there. Think of God, and Love, as cultivating...trying to grow up seeds, trying to prune back wayward branches. He just needs good soil. Be receptive to cultivation. Let Him till your heart's soil. Be an environment that is receptive to cultivation, especially love!

Immanuel

"For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given,

And the government will be upon His shoulders.

And His name will be called ~

WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE."

(Isaiah 9:6)

Isaiah prophesied this around 700 years before Christ birth, which we mark this day. It doesn't mean He was born on this particular day. But, it reveals that the historical person documented in so many nation's records was born, and it was prophesied. It's a mighty thing to comprehend. His name (also prophesied in Isaiah 7:14) tells it all, "Immanuel," meaning God with us. If God is Love as I John 8 tells us, then Love is with us. I John 4:16 went on to say, "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." Immanuel. God be with us.

Anticipation

Anticipation...

It's Christmas Eve...we anticipate what is to come.

It's a lot like love. Anticipate it. It is there. It is coming. It is worth waiting on. It is worth rejoicing over. Let the birth of Christ in a stable in Bethlehem remind you of the birth of love. It may come where you least expect it. It may not be in the form/package you expected it. But, it is delivered from on high, with great plans. Meet it with great anticipation. And, be like the angels and rejoice (Luke 2:13), and praise God (Luke 2:14). Be like the shepherds and tell others (Luke 2:17). Be like Mary and ponder these marvels in your heart (Luke 2:19).

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

(Romans 8:19)

Grace sounds a lot like Love

"Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty." (from Babette's Feast)

Feast on that. Grace sounds an awful lot like love: Await it with confidence. Acknowledge it with gratitude. Be freed by it.

Bravery

"Fortune and love favor the brave." Ovid

It takes bravery, sheer guts, to love.

You have to risk to gain.

How can you be brave today?

Love & Joy

"Joy in the Lord can never be according to our love, nor indeed according to anything in us. It must ever be according to our faith. Many persons make a great mistake; they try to find in their love to Jesus a ground for their joy. Try it the other way; seek the ground for your joy in His love to you..." (page 244, Our Lord Prays For His Own, Marcus Rainsford)

John 17:13 - that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves

John 15:11 - that My job may be in you and that your joy may be complete

Neh 8:10 - The joy of the Lord is their strength

Matt 25:21 - Enter into the joy of the Lord

Heb 12:2 - Christ for the joy set before Him, endured the cross...

Love & Beauty

"Love is the beauty of the soul." St. Augustine

Everyone wants to be beautiful. But we look to the hair dresser, the cosmetic counter, or the department store. The most beautiful thing about you can be your soul, your spirit.

The first thing that hits me about a person is their spirit.

Today, work on your spirit, your soul. It needs your attention.

Prov 31:30- ...Beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised

I Peter 3:3- Your beauty should not come from outward adornment...

4- Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle & quiet

spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight

Stop Vindicating, Start Loving

"O Lord, deliver me from the lust of always vindicating myself." St. Augustine

I think if we can learn this lesson, we will be better at loving.

Trying to explain, trying to defend, all seem pointless in the realm of love.

Restrain yourself from making yourself look better, by defending or explaining.

Instead, accept humility and find ways to make the other person look, or at least feel better.

Loveable?

"If you want to be loved, be loveable." Ovid

It's that simple. It's that divine.

The "if" carries a therefore...BE.

To be or not to be, that is the question, as Shakespeare posed it.

Today, BE LOVING, then you will be loveable.

Free To Love

Galatians 5:13 tells us to use our freedom to love.

How do you use your privilege of freedom?

Most of us use it for ourself.

The Bible teaches us to not use our freedom to self indulge, but to love.

Remind yourself of that today.

Your greatest freedom is to love.

Do you feel like crawling?

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place." Zora Neale Hurston

What do you need to crawl out? What are you hiding from?

Just know, it is only love that can empower you to "come out."

Don't let anything else drive you out, such as fear or anger.

Because then when we "come out," it's not so pretty.

When love draws you out, it is a beautiful thing.

Fear & Love Do Not Coexist

"Fear will melt in the presence of love." Creflo Dollar

Fear and love can't coexist. It reminds me of the angel speaking to Mary about her upcoming birth, "Don't be afraid." (Luke 1:30) And again with the birth of the Christ child, appearing to the shepherds and telling them, "Don't be afraid." (Luke 2:10)

I've heard it's the most often commandment found in the Bible.

There's got to be a message there. Fear Not. Love.

Authority, Power & God's love

"Authority and power comes from the love of God." Creflo Dollar

Have you ever thought of your authority as flowing from the love of God? I haven't.

Authority and power is a gift from above, and we should use it with and for the love of God.

Time & Love

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."

Henry Van Dyke

This time of year when Christmas is too slow, and the year end is too swiftly coming, it's a good time to reflect on what time does to you.

How is time for you? My hope is that you are living in eternity.

Kingdom Power

"Money is the world's power. Love is the Kingdom's power." Creflo Dollar

Use your Kingdom power today: LOVE.

The currency of the world may be money. But, the power and currency of God and eternity, is in love. Dispense some today.

Know Love

Maya Angelou who was abused as a little girl, concludes it is love that matters:

"Not mush, not sentimentality, not even indulgence, but love...The only way we can heal and grow hearty is if we know love." (AARP, The Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011, page 57)

This coming from an eighty two year old lady who was suffered and achieved over a full life.

We can learn from her. If we want to heal and grow, we need to know love.

Loving ≠ Losing

"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Alfred Lord Tennyson

One of the great quotes by Tennyson.

One of the great quotes of all times.

One of the great quotes for you to know.

Don't be discouraged. Realize the privilege of love, even if it is lost.

Criticism ≠ Love

We need to remind ourselves that criticism does not equal love. When you are criticizing, stop and ask yourself, "Are you loving?" If you want to love, stop criticizing and start helping, or praying, or being quiet! You decide, but chose not to criticize and chose to love instead!

It's That Time of Year

Kelly inspired me today. She said she was using her check out experience at the counter, during this busy shopping time, to love. She was making a determination that she would not "use" the check out person as a utilitarian check point, but a time to love a random human being. What a great idea! Use the moments you are checking out to focus on that person and give them love. Don't just use them as a means to an end, but as a special focused random loving moment with a stranger.

The Enemy is the Problem

Have you figured out that love has an enemy?
"The devil does not want you to love." Those words by Creflo Dollar startled me into reality.
The devil will do anything to keep you from loving.
Don't be surprised by this. Everyday something will try to get in the way of your loving.
You have an enemy. But be encouraged, you also have the answer: LOVE through it all.
Maybe you can't do it on your own, but you can through His Spirit, through His strength.

The Answer is Love

Creflo Dollar says, "The answer is always [around] love."
So whatever your question, whatever your dilema, the answer is always to be found in love.
Quit trying to "figure it out," and start loving your way through it.
No matter what your issue, the answer is always love.

Love Takes Faith

Creflo Dollar preached, "Faith works by love. Fear works by selfishness." He went on, "Love is the power God intended us to operate in." Where there is faith, there can be love. Love needs faith as it's fuel, or as Creflo put it, "You need faith to love." Loving is an act of faith. Fear comes when we're more concerned about us than others. Fear comes when we take our eyes of our Lord and put them on our circumstances. Fear exposes that we don't really trust God. Pastor Dollar reminded us, "The seduction is always from love to selfishness." (The Armor of Love CD, #1)

Losing & Loving

"The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost." G.K. Chesterton

If you haven't come to that understand, realize that today.

Anything alive can die. Anything real can leave.

The way to truly treasure anything, is to realize it's only here for now.

Value = Love

Someone pointed that out today. If you value something you love it. If you love something/someone, you value them. Value and love are so closely related. Value is giving worth to something, usually great worth. It's how we make our purchases. It determines how much we are willing to pay for something, how much we value it. Sometimes we buy for value, a price we think is good. Sometimes, we buy out of desire, regardless of price. Watch what you value, because you'll end up loving it. Watch what you love, because it/they have great value!

The Therefores Matter

In my Bible Romans 14 has two subtitles: The Law of Liberty, and The Law of Love. The Law of Love section (verses 14-23) has a conclusionary "Therefore" in verse 19. "THEREFORE, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another." Therefore, let us do that. Pursue the ways and means of peace today.

Today, pursue ways to edify another - not yourself. This may be the hardest thing. Looking intently for ways to edify another, since seeking ways to edify ourselves comes so naturally. Be unnatural today, be supernatural, be otherminded, be loving.

Love Shows No Partiality

On this day 55 years ago in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person. Doesn't that make you sad? That is not the way of love. Today, vacate your seat to someone else, in honor of those who are less fortunate than us. If you see someone is relegated to a lower position, you be the one to give them your place. Honor others by loving all people, no matter their race, no matter their economic position, no matter their ideology.

Deuteronomy 10:17-For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality...

DO NOT DISTURB your loving

Creflo Dollar (page 50, How to Overcome Hurt) made a vow:

"I simply cannot allow anything anyone says or thinks about me to disturb my peace or disrupt my love walk."

Make that vow today. Don't let anything disturb your peace. Don't let anything disrupt your walking in love today. Because, believe me, everything/anyone will try. Anything can pop your bubble in a moment. Don't let it anything/anyone dissuade you from loving.

Let God's Love Overwhelm You

Creflo Dollar teaches us that self protection is selfishness-based. He says when we "make walking in love our priority and allow the love of God to overwhelm and overtake our lives, fear, selfishness, and hurt have to go." (page 35, How to Overcome Hurt)

I love the thought of letting God's love overwhelm us, overtake us!

Let it be so today!

When that happens, that other stuff (fear, selfishness, etc) just has to go.

Let it be true to you!

Is Love Governing Your Life?

Creflo Dollar reminds us, "God never said we wouldn't go thought things in this life; however, He has commanded us to allow love to be the governing force in our lives. When we allow ourselves to be ruled by hurt feelings, we are not walking in the love of God." (page 25, How to Overcome Hurt)

Is love governing your life? Is love governing your actions and your decisions? Sometimes, it's the other things that we allow to govern our reactions and actions. Today, determine not to let it. Don't let the hurts govern you. Don't let the pain rule over you. Let God's love be sovereign over your choices.

Circumstances, Conditions, & Commitment

"Love goes beyond feelings," Creflo Dollar preached. Pastor Dollar taught that love is not based on conditions, but on a commitment. Is your love determined by conditions or circumstances, or your commitment?

Pastor Dollar reminded us the best place to learn unconditional love is in the home.

Don't leave home without learning that lesson. Your feelings are secondary to your commitment.

Arguing and Loving

"You've got to figure out how to have your arguments and still come out loving." Creflo Dollar

What great advice. Isn't this part of the problem? Learning how to have disagreements, and still love the person. On the other side of the discussion, even if heated, we always need to love the other person.

Thankful for enduring Love

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; his love endures forever. I Chr 16:34

Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever. I Chr 16:41

Gave thanks to the Lord, saying, "He is good; His love endures forever. II Chr 7:3

Gave thanks saying, "His love endures forever." II Chr 7:6

Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever. II Chr 20:21

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 106:1

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118:29

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1

Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever. Jer 33:11

I think it's clear: Give God thanks. His love endures forever.

Start your thanksgiving now. Let your thanksgiving be endless, because His love is.

Offering Thanks for Love

II Corinthians 9:15-Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Ephesians 5:20-Giving thanks always for all things to God

I Thes 3:9-For what thanks can we render to God?

His indescribable gift is love. We should always be thankful. What thanks can you offer for love?

The Wonder of Love

Second Samuel captures the words of David: "Your love for me was wonderful..." (1:26)

Love is not just for lovers, but also for friends and family members.

I wonder how many people around you think your love for them is wonderful.

How often do you ponder the wonder and wonderment of someone loving you?

Are you responsible for your love?

Since the title of this blog is "Responsibility to Love," I started to ponder the meaning of "responsibility." The definitions I found included: answerable or accountable for something within one's power; reliable; dependable. The word comes from the root of "response" which is to answer.

It's good to remind ourselves we are answerable. We are accountable. It is within our power, to love. Our love should be reliable and dependable. Love should be our response. It's how we should answer, with love.

Teaching Love

Titus 2 contains instructions to men and women. Titus reminds us at the beginning of the chapter and it's end that we must teach (verse 1) and should teach (verse 15) what is sound, good. The older should teach the younger. We need to help each other. I just realized that when it says the older women should teach the younger women "to love their husbands and children," that it infers we need to learn to love, it may not be "natural." It may not come naturally to you. You may need some instruction from someone older and wiser. You may need to seek counsel. Or you may need to take the initiative and help a younger novice. Either way, we need to learn the ways of love.

The Eyes and Words of the Lover

When Song of Solomon describes his beloved in chapter 7 you can tell he really loves her.

He thinks everything about her is beautiful. Verse 6 captures it: "How beautiful you are and how pleasing, O love, with your delights!" He exclaims this (exclamation mark, not period). Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What do you see of your beloved? What do you tell them?

Do My Words Reflect Love?

Nancy Leigh DeMoss says, "Your speech should reflect I Corinthians 13 love."

Oh, that's a scarey thought! I know I'm falling short.

Verse 1: Do I speak with tongues of angels?

Verse 4: Does my speech reflect patience, or impatience?

Verse 4: Are my words kind? Haughty?

Verse 5: Have I been rude? Am I self serving in my words?

Verse 5: How easily am I provoked into words I shouldn't speak?

Verse 5: Do evil words slip into my vocabulary?

Verse 11: Do I talk like a child or an adult?

Encouragement another name for Love

Nancy Leigh DeMoss says, "Encouragement...is a synonym for love in action."

How is your love in action today? How are you encouraging the people you love?

Is your love in action today encouraging those around you? If not, why not?

I Thes 5:11 - Encourage one another and build each other up

Hebrews 3:13 - Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today

Love is the fulfillment of the Law

Romans 13:10 concludes with ..."love is the fulfillment of the law." I started contemplating what the law was and represents. Can we agree that the law represents what we should do to be "good people" or people in right standing with God. If there is a law giver, and that law giver is God, He knows what is good for us. He knows how we should act. He knows what will make us happier. He knows how we can better live with each other. Laws keep our societies running smoothly for all people. They tell us we can't kill each other, or steal their stuff, or drive that fast around that corner. It tells us when to stop at red lights, so others can go through without interference. It all works when we all abide. So, I now I read that love is the fulfillment of what is good for me and other people. Love is the fulfillment of what is right. A fresh new way to look at "love is the fulfillment of the law."

Not doing can be showing love

Romans 13:9 says if we don't commit adultery, if we don't murder, if we don't steal, if we don't lie-or bear false witness, if we don't covet...if we don't do these things - we will have loved! Isn't that amazing? Not doing certain things, such as those listed above, shows love. So much of how we show love, is by what we don't do. What should you not do today?

Love All. Serve All.

Since it's that eating time of year...Hard Rock Cafe also has a motto that includes love: "Love All, Serve All." Isn't it great? Where you sit and see the signs, it reminds you the employees are empowered to love and serve all. Wouldn't it be great if everyone did? Empower yourself. Direct yourself: Love All. Serve All.

Live, Love, Eat

This is in the entrance to Wolfgang Puck's Restaurant at Disney Village. It reads: Live Love Eat. It is also the title to his cookbook. He claims it's his motto. Living, loving, eating...it sounds like the cycle of life.

Live today. Love those around you. Eat and enjoy the sweetness of life.

Loving in the Spirit

Using Colossians 1:8's conclusion: "love in the Spirit," Sam Storm says that "points us yet again to the divine origin of this affection. It is a God-given love, one that cannot be cranked up or willed into existence by human grit and determination." (page 43, The Hope of Glory) This reminds us we cannot clench our teeth and pull up our boot straps and just do it. No, we must rely on a greater source than our wills, His Spirit. The Bible says God is Spirit (John 4:24). It only makes sense then, that love is spirit and depends on Spirit.

Loving From Grace

Sam Storms in The Hope of Glory says love "is ultimately the work of divine grace in our hearts."

(page 42)

Isn't it great to think of grace having it's way in our hearts and thus producing love.

Let grace work its way in your heart today.

Loving Strangers

Romans 8:13 calls us to hospitality. My notes described this as "pursuing the love of strangers." (page 79, Romans, John MacArthur). What a description of hospitality, pursuing people we don't know with love! Pursue them today with love, be hospitable!

Love in Honor

A section of Romans 8:10 says "love, in honor giving preference to one another." It just struck me, the words "love - in honor." How do we honor others with our love? How is honor involved with our love? Do we really show preference for the other? If we do, this honors them, and brings honor to the relationship.

How's Your Love Life?

When someone asks how "your love life is," we deduce they are referring to our romantic or sex life. But the quality of our life is tied to the quality of our love. How can we reduce love to just two qualities? If your life is full of love, your love life is full. Be full. Be fulfilled. Enhance your love life, and maybe someone else's.

What Matters in the End

Number 38 on the list of life's lessons was: ALL THAT TRULY MATTERS IN THE END IS THAT YOU LOVED. This is how Regina Brett, at 90, said it in the Plains Dealer of Cleveland, Ohio. I don't know if it is true or not. But the lesson certainly is. Think about it. What really matters in the end?

One Question

There's only one question today: How are you going to love?

How are you going to love them in this situation?

How are you going to love through this discomfort?

How are you going to love over all the distractions?

Impairing Love

"When our hope is diminished, our love is impaired." My pastor said this.

How true this is. When we lose hope, there is no place for love in our hearts. It is filled with doom and doubt. So don't let doom and despair take over your heart. That's easy to do today, just watch the news. Save your heart for love. It needs all the room your heart has.

What Hinders Love & What Doesn't

"It is not heavenlimindedness that hinders love.

It is worldlimindedness that hinders love."

(page 37, The Hope of Glory, Sam Storms)

Thinking of good things. Thinking of heaven. Being other-world minded is not an obstacle to love. Being inundated by the things of the world will load us up and weigh us down and keep us from being free to love others. Free yourself of the binds that restrain you from loving others.

John Piper went on to say: "When religious people fail to love, it is not because they have fallen in love with heaven, but because they are still in love with the world." (page 38, IBID)

Love is the Fruit of Hope

To put it another way, John Piper said "The fruit of Hope is Love." (Sermon 07/13/86)

He said, "hope bears the fruit of love." (page 37, The Hope of Glory, Sam Storms)

Hope when it is ripe, produces love. Hope when it is full manifest love.

We need hope for our love to grow.

Hope is something we can't see. But, love is something we can hold.

Hope as the basis for Love

"Hope is the basis for faith and love." (page 33, The Hope of Glory, Sam Storms)

To say it another way, he said, "hope produces faith and love." (IBID)

Hope is fertile soil for faith and love to grow and mature.

It takes hope to live a life of enduring love and expectant joy.

Let hope reign in your life to produce great fruits.

Love is a Personal Passion & a Commitment

Sam Storms in his book, The Hope of Glory, says, "both faith and love are personal, they are hardly private and certainly never secret. They are visible and vocal in their expression." (page 30) He goes on to say, "Love is certainly a personal passion, a commitment of the heart. But Jesus declared that the tangible expression of affection for one another would be the hallmark by which the world would know that we are his disciples (John 13:35). True love is something seen and known by others." (page 31)

How is your faith and love visible today?

How is your personal passion and commitment of your heart being expressed?

Enduring Love & Gratitude

Psalm 136

verse 1 - Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.

verse 2 - Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.

verse 3 - Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.

verse 26 - Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

Reasons to give thanks:

1. God is good

2. He is God of all gods

3. He is Lord of lords.

4. He is the God of heaven

5. HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER

Gospel Fueled Love

"A gospel fueled love energizes you to love others, especially the unlovable ones. Moving beyond your ability to love, is Holy Spirit driven love." Chan Kilgore (sermon, October 24, 2010)

Let the gospel (good news) feed your soul as it pours love out.

Hope Drives, Love Steers

If hope drives us, shouldn't love steer us?

As we travel down the road at break neck speed with hope as our North Star, let love be how we maneuver our vehicle through traffic. Travel with hope, steer with love.

Love as Compelling and Constraining

"Love is both a compellent and a constraint."

Gray said it so casually, my ears had to perk up. I had to ask him to repeat it, and then ponder it.

How true: Love both compels us into action and constrains us from other actions.

Think about how your love is compelling you and how it is constraining you? Or, how it should be!

Faith Goes With Love

"The deeper our faith, the greater our love."

"The greater our faith, the more freedom we have to love others."

"Love and faith cannot operate independently. They are conjoined. It takes faith to love."

Chan Kilgore

(sermon October 24, 2010)

How is your faith leading you to love?

How is your love growing your faith?

Learning Love By Listening

"Just as love of God begins in listening to His word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them." Dietrich Bonhoffer

Learning to listen is learning to love.

Finding God by opening yourself to Love

"The surest way to find God is not to make Him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love."

This is credited to Rev. John Powell, Professor, Loyla University.

I don't know if the email is correct or not, but the sentiment is.

We try to find God by our intellect. We want to use God for our improvement.

We want God to fix our problems. When we open ourselves to love, we discover He is there.

Reasons for Love

"Sometimes we hear sermons teaching that we should learn to love ourselves so that we can love others as well. But in the Hebrew of Leviticus 19:18 where this command is given, it can also be interpreted in a slightly different way: "Love your neighbor who is like yourself." In other words, they are not so different from us. Maybe that's what is hard about loving them, they are like us.

The author continues, "The time when we show the most love is not when people are easy to love, but when they are unlovable."

[Page 128, Listening to the Language of the Bible, Tverberg & Okkema]

The Paradox of Love

"I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt but only more love."

Mother Teresa

Sometimes we are afraid to love, because we might get hurt.

Perhaps, we should be afraid of what we'll become if we do not.

Can you do one thing well?

Ann Spangler says "if I could learn to do one thing - to love people in whatever circumstance I found myself. Why? Because love lasts. Because love never fails..." Then she goes on to to detail all that love does from I Corinthians 13. She continues, "Love, in fact, is the hardest, most powerful thing in the world...Love is the secret to making a lasting impact." (page 335, Praying the Names of Jesus)

Love Fervently

1 Peter 1:22 instructs us to "love one another fervently with a pure heart." Greek's Strong's definition of the word fervently tells us this involves: fight, labor, strive.

What an eye opener: Love involves strife. Love involves fighting for each other and love and purity. Don't be disillusioned: love is not always peace. Love involves a good fight, a fair fight, a worthy fight. If you are going to fight, make it for LOVE.

Love Sincerely

1 Peter 1:22 instructs us to have sincere love, to love sincerely. Strong's definition (#505), says sincere is without hypocrisy, which means playing a part in a play. This would denote doing this without acting, but truly being that person who does this. In other words, not to play the part, but to be that person. This verse contains purity and sincerity. They are linked. Link your pure love with sincerity.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

The Miracle of the Common is the Miracle of Love

"This inborn ability to find and enliven a common beat is the miracle of love." (page 40, The Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo)

Are you looking for a common beat with someone around you?

Are you discovering you have a common beat with someone that surprises you?

Discovering the commonness among us is the discovery of love.

The Blessing of Love Indwelling

First John teaches us "since God loved us, we also ought to love one another." (4:11)

This instructs us in what we are to do, since we are loved. Since we are loved - BY GOD - we should love other people.

Isn't that interesting? Since God loves us, He doesn't requests or behest that we love Him (back). But that we love other people. What a gracious God.

The next verse (v. 12) tells us though if we love other people, then God lives in us. Isn't that amazing? If we love other people, which is a response to God loving us, then God will dwell in us. What a choice. What an invitation. What a blessing.

The Love Potion: We are Loved

First John is chock full of love nuggets. They should call First John, the love potion.

Take this potion:

"This is love: not the we loved God, but that He loved us." (1 John 4:10)

We get love so turned around. We think it's all about us. First John sets the record straight: It's all about God.

This is love: not that we love, but that we are loved.

Loving is Giving & Forgiving

"The shaping of more loving relationship patterns - is also a description of forgiveness...[the] remarkable parallels between forgiving and loving. Both are gifts, no commodities to barter. Forgiving is, after all, a specific kind of giving...Giving and forgiving, then are embedded in an economy of love...In an economy of love...forgiveness means surrendering our defenses, our excuses, even our wounds." (p. 230,231, The Beautiful Risk)

Writing Love into the Script of Life

James Olthuis challenges his readers to "begin to write a different - more loving - script for our lives." (page 224, The Beautiful Risk)

How would your script read?

Now, write it more lovingly.

Write love into your lives.

Loving More Effectively

One of James Olthuis' patient journaled about "being led to a place where I can, in fact, love more effectively." The patient described how he had "to gain some sense of myself as having a legitimate stand in the world of love, a place where I can own love for myself. It is one thing to say you want to love, but quite another to know that love can go through you, because you're not blocking it off by the refusal to be loved yourself." (page 212, The Beautiful Risk)

The Miracle of Love

"The beginning of the miracle of love: [is] being open to another, guards down, and - no questions asked, no demands, no judgments - being respected, received, affirmed, and blessed. To show oneself as the person we are - wounded, blemished, hurting, longing - and to feel welcomed and accepted is to experience grace." (James H. Othuis, The Beautiful Risk, p. 207)

The Circulation of Love

"Unattended anger, fear, or despair clogs the arteries of the heart, slowly cutting off the circulation of love necessary for the full embrace of life." (James H. Othuis, The Beautiful Risk, p. 185)

What is strangling your love today?
What needs to be tended to in your life to free you up to love more fully?
Whatever it is, you need to, as my Father would say, "take care of your business." So, you can get on with life ~ fully embraced in life.

How Precious is the Gift of Love

James Olthuis commented, "how precious the gift of love is, how breath-taking, how easily tarnished." (page 210, The Beautiful Risk)

How precious, how marvelous, how awesome is love.

How easily we can abuse it or misuse it.

Be careful how you treat your gift of love today.

In Love

There are three "in love" citations in Ephesians 4:

verse 2 - bearing with one another in love

verse 15- speaking the truth in love

verse 16- edifying itself in love

These are three great ways to be in love.

Make sure you are in love in these ways.

The Goal: To experience Love

James Olthuis says the goal is to experience love. He goes on to say, "The experience of love is so crucial because it is in being loved (or not loved) that I come to love (or not love) myself and others. It is in being seen (or not seen) that I come to see (or not see) myself and others." (The Beautiful Risk, p. 207)

What's your goal?

The Time of Love, the Right to Be Extraordinary

"Hope is the time of love and the space of grace." (James H. Olthuis, The Beautiful Risk, p. 153) He goes on to quote Julia Kristeva with "love is the time and space in which 'I' assumes the right to be extraordinary." (IBID, p. 154)

If you love, assume the extraordinary.

If you love, there is hope.

Using Your Brain to Think & Love

Listening & Observing the Mystery

"Listening is a primary gesture of love." That's how James Olthuis puts it in his wonderful book, The Beautiful Risk. He goes on to say, "Listening gives space. Listening says, "I am available, open, ready to hear your call, eager to meet you and travel with you. Listening with the ears of the heart is to take in the other, not as a problem to solve, but as a mystery to meet." (page 153)

Listening to take in the other person as a mystery and not a problem.

What a great idea!

We all love a mystery. Listen to yours today. And don't complain, be amazed!

Love is Being With

James Othuis calls it "with-ing." "With-ing is a healing dance in the wild spaces of love, a meeting-in-the-middle to mark out space together...With-ing is a two-way movement of connection, a matrix for healing." (page 130, The Beautiful Risk) His term, "with-ing", seems to be describing love. Love is being with someone. Nothing more, nothing less. Be with someone today in a meaningful way.

Eyes of Love

James H. Olthuis calls us to live a life that is "listening from the heart...(and) seeing with the eyes of love." (page 110, The Beautiful Risk)

What do you see with your eyes?

Are you seeing with love, or with resentment, or a critical spirit?

What you see effects how you act and who you are.

Use your eyes not only to radiate love, but to look for love.

Love as a Currency

"Loving is the currency of authentic human life: trading in anything less is counterfeiting." (page 101, The Beautiful Risk, James H. Olthuis)

What currency are you trading in? Guilt, manipulation, pride, or even self-gratification?

What we exchange life with each other is our trading currency.

Make sure your exchange rate is love.

Love as Your Pulse & Rhythm

"To live is to let love well up and stream through us as the beat, pulse, and rhythm of our lives..." (James Olthuis, The Beautiful Risk, p. 44)

What is the undercurrent of your life?

What drummer do you march to?

What is the meter of your life?

If it were a song, what would the rhythm be?

Today left love well up in you and carry you in ways you never dreamed. Let it be the rhythm of your life.

Loving & Thinking

James Olthuis in his great book, The Beautiful Risk, challenges us:

"Instead of 'I think, therefore, I am' - Descarte's classic starting point - it is 'I was loved, therefore I am,' and 'I love, therefore, I am.'" At this point Olthius says thinking then defines humanity. "When by contrast, 'I love' becomes the mark of authentic humanity, relationships with others, with God, and with the creation" then takes it proper place at the top of our crown. (page 69 and 70)

Asking the Right Question

"The fundamental human question is not - as we have become accustomed to think - Hamlet's "To be or not to be." The cardinal question that marks and measures our humanity is "To love or not to love." We love in order to be and become who we are." (page 69, The Beautiful Risk, James H. Olthuis)

As Robert Fraley used to say, "If you're not getting the right answers, you might not be asking the right questions." Make sure you are asking the right question. It's not so much about what you do, or even who you are, but if you love.

How you Love is Who you are

"Love- is not something, first of all, that we do. Love is who we are."
"Love is not an additive, a spiritual supplement reserved for saints, for those few consecrated to some higher purpose. Loving is of the essence of being human, the connective tissue of reality, the oxygen of life."
"Love is the oxygen that sustains the universe, the glue cohering the universe, the fire impassioning the universe. Love calls us - claims us - to responsibility, engagement, and mutuality." (page 69, The Beautiful Risk, James H. Olthuis)

I love how Olthuis ties love with responsibility. What a huge responsibility it is.

Acting as Love's Agent

"God is love, and humans are made in God's image. Love, then, is who we are - love's agents.
God is the giver, we are the gifted, love is the gift. God is the caller, we are the called, love is the calling." (page 68, The Beautiful Risk, James H. Oltuis)

Othuis says Emmanuel Levinas called "the beautiful risk" as the ability "to live openly in the present as love's agents..." (page 74, IBID)

Think of yourself as an agent for love. Represent 'him/her' well. Act on their behalf.

Love & Freedom

Saint Augustine is famous for his line: "Love, and do what you will."

Could anything be more simple and profound than that?
Put love first, and everything else will work out.
Love is the primordial thing.
If we are loving, what we do after that, will be good.

Living & Loving

"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love." Henry Drummond

Live today: Love.
Love today: then you will have really lived.

Isn't it exciting? Living and Loving are inextricably bound together.

Dwelling in God's Love

"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). David Wilkerson says, "In short, if we "dwell in God's love," we're keeping ourselves in God."

The word dwell here means "to stay in a state of expectancy." In other words, David Wilkerson says, "God wants us to expect his love to be renewed in us every day."

http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/devotions/2010/know-believe-and-keep-trusting-in-his-love

Everlasting Love with an Everlasting Power

"...God is loving us with an everlasting love, which is backed by an everlasting power." William Barclay

Everlasting love with an everlasting power. There's only one place, there's only one source.

Genuine Love

Romans 12:9 and 10 teaches us to not "pretend love", but to "really love", "genuinely." (New Living Translation)

What a challenge. Discard pretend love. Throw out any love that is not genuine, certified-by-God, bonafide love! You know the difference, and so do they!

Small Love, Great Fears

Martin Luther's 14th Theses said in part: "the smaller the love, the greater the fear."

Do you have fear? Consider your love. Maybe the issue is not how big the problem is, but how small your love is.

Make sure your love is greater than your fear.

How Love Grows

Martin Luther's 44th Thesis reads: "Because love grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better."

Love grows as we work love. As our love grows, we become better people. Then, we will become better couples, and then better families, then better neighborhoods, then better communities, then better...Oh, you get the picture!

Love & Overcoming

David Wilkerson said: "Understanding the love of God is the secret to an overcoming life. Multitudes grow spiritually cold and lazy because they're ignorant of the Lord's love for them. They don't know that their greatest weapon against Satan's attacks is to be fully convinced of God's love for them." (http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/devotions/2010/the-revelation-of-gods-love)

Be convinced and convicted today of God's love for you.

It's the best thing you've got going for you, to overcome any obstacle in life.

Doubt or Failure

David Wilkerson wrote: "The Bible is filled with the truth of God's love. But at times I allow myself to wonder how the Lord could ever love me. It's not that I doubt his love; it's more a failure on my part to keep myself in the knowledge and assurance of his love to me." (http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/devotions/2010/the-revelation-of-gods-love)

Living with the assurance of God's love makes all the difference in how we live and treat others.

Be convinced and convicted today of God's eternal and perfect love and care for you.

Love is Moving

"Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your soul" Kahlil Gibran

What a picture of love flowing like a roaring sea, between the shores of our soul.

Nothing can stop the waves of love. It's momentum is greater than us. Stand in awe.

Does Your Love Show?

"They do not love that do not show their love." William Shakespeare

How does your love show?

If your love does not show, you must ask where it is.

Discover where it is, and rediscover the love in you and around you.

And let your love show. Or as the Bellamy Brothers sing, "Let Your Love Flow."

Bellamy Brothers - Let Your Love Flow 3 min - Apr 8, 2009 Uploaded by sirhcnehcsig www.youtube.com

Love & Work

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." Confucius

Will Rogers said, "If you want to be successful, it's just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing."

Love & Courage

"Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment." Napolean Bonaparte

Nourish your life today, have hope.

Then, with hope you can have courage...to love!

Traveling With Love

Ernest Hemingway said, "Never go on trips with anyone you do not love." This from a man who had traveled the world. He might have some wisdom to offer us.

We leave today for a trip with my Mother. We are following Hemingway's advice.

We are traveling with people we love. May our love as we travel make the road kinder and the memories sweeter.

Love & Living

"By identifying the greatest commandment as loving God with all we are , Jesus reinforces this message by calling us to vigorous, creative, full-throttled living." Carolyn James said this, and it challenges me.

If loving is the most important thing we do, then we need to live "full-throttle" as Carolyn said. We need to live to the hilt. We need to be fully present, fully engaged. We need all of us living out and pouring out. Love requires us all to give our all.

Rejoice in Your Love

"I will be glad and rejoice in your love..." Psalm 31:7

How are you rejoicing in love today?

How is your gladness evident?

Have you counted your blessings lately?

Be glad. Rejoice. LOVE!

Let Your Love Show

"...I do not conceal your love and your truth..." Psalm 40:10

How do you hide God's truth? How do you deny God's love?

Question your actions and intentions and examine whether you are not living out fully and truthfully all the truths and love you have found in God, that God has shown you.

Don't hide your light as Jesus explained in Matthew 5:15.

Does Love Follow You?

"Surely, goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23:6

What an assurance. Look for the love that is following you. And, while you're looking, notice:

"The Lord Himself goes before you, and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:8)

So, if God goes before you, and love follows you...it's going to be good!

Love & Comfort

"Love opens the door for comfort. Where there is love, there is comfort." Gray said this and it's truth hit me. Since it's his birthday I celebrate today. I celebrate this truth. I thank God for the comfort He has given me through him. I thank God for opening a door I had closed. I have been comforted. Be comforted: Love, and accept love.

Difficult Can Be Good

"It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get." Confucius

What's easy, may not be best.
Sometimes, the harder is the easiest (best) in the long run.

Sometimes, making a choice to make it harder on you, will be the best thing you ever did.

Love may be difficult, but it is worth it. You're worth it. Learn to love.

How You Respond

"Let His greater love shape your response to every disappointment and to every fearful thought."

(Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of Jesus, p. 219)

What a grand goal. What a great desire.

Let His love, that is greater than anything we can perceive, shape our very responses.

It will change our lives.

The Remedy for Love

"There is no remedy for love but to love more." Henry David Thoreau

Do you need a remedy to the situation you are in?
Love more. Love will last forever(I Corinthians 13:8) as the NLT renders its. Or, love never fails as the NIV translates it.

The only answer to love, is to love. The only thing that will rectify the situation, is to love.

We all need more love.

Tools for the Trade

"Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it." Benjamin Franklin

How is your love being sharpened or strengthened today?

Let any absence sharpen your love.

Let any presence strengthen your love.

Either way, your love will be enhanced.

A Life Without Love?

"Life without love is like a tree without blossoms." Kahlil Gibran

How barren are you?

How frozen are you?

Blossoms on a tree are so gracious and gorgeous.

They invite us. They ask us to pause and notice their grandeur.

They are a gift to the beholder.

Let your love be a blossom of beauty today.

Your Source for Love

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish it's source."

Anais Nin

If the source of your love is you, you will run out.

If the source of your love is Love Himself, God, it will never run out.

It will never cease to amaze you.

It will never cease to delight you - and others.

It will never case.

"Love never ends." I Corinthians 13:8 (NRSV)

Love as a Teacher

"Love is a better teacher than duty." Albert Einstein

Do you learn from duty or guilt? If so, try a better teacher: LOVE.

Love teaches us true life lessons everyday that change our lives, and those of others.

Love is a kinder teacher. Love is a patient teacher. Love teaches us the greater lessons of life.

Are you learning from Love?

Work & Love

"Work is love made visible." Kahlil Gibran

I'd bet that what you love, you work on/with/for.

If I knew your work, would I know your love?

Does your work fulfill you or deplete you?

If your work is a way of showing your love, it should enrapture you and release you.

Stick With Love

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Consider how great a burden it is to carry hate around with you.

Now consider the pleasure and joy of "sticking with love."

Stick with love. Lighten your load.

How Free is Your Love?

Here's one man's definition of love: "Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you."

(Wayne Dyer)

How "free" is your love?

Do you have conditions they must meet for you to give them more?

How other-centered is your love, or is it really about meeting your needs/expectations?

Is it about satisfying them or you?

Do you love them -so they can better, or you?

These are great questions to keep your love pure.

Love as Your Guide

"Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries." Rumi

An astrolabe is an ancient instrument of navigation. It helped discovered stars alignment, and the sun's time.

So, if we think of love as a navigation system to all the mysteries in life and God, we would do well.

Or, in today's vernacular, think of love as your GPS system. Let it guide you.

Love & Beauty & Doing

"Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do." Rumi

Friendship is the Basis Building Block

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages." Friedrich Nietzsche

Friendship which is the basic building block of relationships, is the base upon which relationships are built - to last. If you are friend, you are a friend forever, regardless of what happens. If you are friends with your mate, you will always want the best for them. You will always give them the benefit of any doubts. You will be there, no matter what. What kind of friend are you in your marriage? Perhaps you are better friends to those outside your marriage. If so, that's a shame. Be a friend today, to your spouse!

Love is Oneness

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." Aristotle

Doesn't that picture oneness of spirit and soul?

You are one.

You were one before you knew it.

You are better together than apart.

You are stronger for the other.

You are completed with them.

You are made whole with this unity.

'A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.' Genesis 2:21

Love is Blind

"Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes." Friedrich Nietzsche

Voltaire said, "It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love."

Which is true to you? Is love blind? Or, is self-love blind?

Self love is perhaps blind (or in denial) to it's own faults, but not those of others.

Love that is blind, may see the faults of others, but loves them anyway.

Be blind to their problems and fully aware of their giftedness ~ to you!

Love is an Education

"The giving of love is an education in itself." Eleanor Roosevelt

Educate yourself today: love someone.

Educate others today: love them.

Learn the lessons that love has to offer.

Learn them now, before it's too late.

Love is Refreshment

Love is the greatest refreshment in life." Pablo Picasso

We think of Picasso as painting. But before he painted, he thought. His art was inspired by what he thought. His art expressed what he thought and felt.

Isn't it great to know he felt love was the greatest refreshment in life.

Is love refreshing you?

What Defines Your Life?

Second John (verse 6) gives us a definition of love: "This is love - that we walk according to His commandments." In other words that we obey, that we do what He says, what He wants.

James 1:27 gives us a definition of what "religion" is: That we care for widows and orphans in their distress and keep ourselves from being polluted by the world. First Samuel (15:22) tells us to obey is better than sacrifice. It pleases God more. Proverbs 21:3 says, "To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."

Love as a Guide

Neb Hayden asks in his book, When the Good News Gets Even Better, "How can my love for Jesus guide my lifestyle?" (page 129)

How is love guiding your life?

How does love direct your choices?

Let Love, guide you today.

Let Loving Be Your Voice

Jaci Velasquez has a song, Love Out Loud. As I listened on the radio, one line, hit me the most: "Let your loving be your voice."

What a great picture: Let our loving speak for us.

Speak loudly today with your voice of love in action.

Your Love Potential

"The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!" Anne Frank

This great wisdom comes from a teenage girl in war times.

Do you know the good news?

If you don't know how great you can be, do you comprehend how much you can love?

Probably a lot more than you know!

2 Ways To Fullness of Life

"It seems there are two basic ways to feel the fullness of life, and both arise from the authenticity of our relationships. One is from our love of life, and the other is from our love of each other."

(page 33, The Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo)

"Our most frequent obstacle to experiencing the fullness of life...is the hesitancy that keeps us from being either fully alone with life or fully alone with each other. Being half anywhere is the true beginning of loneliness." (page 34, IBID)

Loving Those Over You

In reading I Thessalonians 5 verses 12 and 13, it became clear that I was to esteem "very highly in love" those who work with me and are "over me" - for their works sake. That hit me. I might respect, or pay respect to my 'bosses,' but did I esteem them, or even "highly love" them? It says I am to do this for their work's sake. I should appreciate their work and love them for what they do. There's a challenge. I should really check myself with this admonition.

In faith, love, patience, spirit, faith, & purity

As Paul instructs Titus (in chapter 2) in how to have "sound doctrine", he used a string of words that caught my attention...in faith, in love, in patience (verse 2).

In I Timothy (4:12) there is a similar admonishment for believers...in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

If we could desire, attempt, and aim to do everything in faith, love and patience, we'd all be better for it, and so would others! If we could in our words and conduct, act in love, faith and purity, with a humble and godly spirit, how much better all our worlds would be.

I know I'll fail. But, today, again, I will make it my goal. God help me!

We Are Loved By God

"...It is about knowing ourselves to be deeply loved by God as the first step in becoming genuinely great lovers of others and God." (page 11, Surrender to Love, David Benner)

God loves you. [John 3:16]

God has loved you for a long time. [Jeremiah 31:3]

God made you. [Psalm 139:13,14]

God chose you. [Ephesians 1:11]

God has plans for you. [Jeremiah 29:11]

Learning To Love & Be Loved

"There is nothing more important in life than learning to love and be loved.

Jesus elevated love as the goal of spiritual transformation.

Psychoanalysts consider it the capstone of psychological growth."

(David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 11)

Learning to love and to accept love, that is the question.

Are we going to do?

Are we going to accept it?

We need it: we need to give it, we need to receive it.

Grow in love. Learn the lessons love has to teach you. To learn we have to be humble, we have to be willing, we have to be open. How humble and willing and open are you?

Loving the Least, is Loving More

Matthew 25:40, "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it for Me."

Francis Chan explains this in his book, Crazy Love, (page 119):

"Jesus is saying that we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are suffering. He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ Himself."

How are you loving the least around you?

How are you extending love to the least that perhaps you don't even see?

Faith & Love

Galatians 5:6 says, "The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love."

Francis Chan challenges us, "Is loving God - and, by extension, loving people - what you are about? Is it what being a Christian means to you? Do you live as though faith, demonstrated through love, really is the only thing that counts?" (page 102, Crazy Love)

What matters to you?

How can you show your faith through love?

And, how can you express your love by your faith?

What's the Most Loving Way to do Life?

Chan Francis challenges us to ask ourselves in his book, Crazy Love, (page 166):

"Is this the most loving way to do life?"

I don't know what you are doing, but it's a great question to ask yourself.

Whatever you are doing, do it with love.

Or as the Bible tells us, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord..." (Colossians 3:23); and "Whatever you do...do it all in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to God" (Colossians 3:17); and "Whatever your do, do it all for the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31); and "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (Proverbs 16:3)

Loving with More Than Words

"My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
I John 3:18

Francis Chan in Crazy Love (page 119) says, "Our love is shown by how we live our lives..."

What does your life show? How are you living in such a way that people know you love them?

Is your love in words only? Is "I love you" spoken as you breeze by or hang up the phone?

Do we pay lip service and avoid "losing time" with them?

It's humbling to consider how we truly love in deed and in truth.

Your Love is Better Than Life

"Your love is better than life..." Psalm 63:3 (NIV)

Have you experienced a love like this?

This is David expressing his love toward God.

He speaks of seeking him (v. 1), thirsting for him (v. 1), longing for him (v. 1).

He desires to praise him (v. 3), bless him (v. 4, 5), to follow after him (v. 8).

He states he is satisfied with him (v. 5), and he rejoices in him (v. 7).

Isn't this a great picture of a love relationship?

If you are not experiencing this, try to follow David's example.

Love Love

Francis Chan in his book, Crazy Love, (P. 101) says that his wife's grandmother, Clara, used to declare:

"I love love!"

Don't you just love it?

I love love too!

Love love, it's the best way to live - and love!

Love Through the Ages

"Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age." Anais Nin

Today is my brother's birthday. People tire of celebrating their birthdays. But, I say it beats the alternative! If we have the privilege of life, we gain the effects of aging. The best antidote to aging miserably is to love fully. Life is full only when lived with love.

I pray love protects your life today. As you age, seek to love more.

The World's Great Love Religion

"Christianity is the world's great love religion. The Christian God comes to us as love, in love, for love. The Christian God woos us with love and works our transformation through love." (page 10, David Benner, Surrender to Love)

I love how Benner says ~

1. God comes to us as love. 2. God comes in love. 3. God came for love.

It's a great religion, a religion of love, because God is love - He is for love.

Is Love Central to You?

"If I am meant to represent what love is, then I often fail to love people well...

It must be central to everything we do and are." (Francis Chan, Crazy Love, p. 94)

How central is love to you and what you do?

I know we fail. But, the point is do we even try? How hard do we try? How much do we depend on God to love through us?

Is love at your core? If not, why not?

What Matters To God? LOVE

"God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love...According to God, we are here to love. Not much else really matters...God assesses our lives based on how we love." (Crazy Love, Francis Chan, page 93, 94)

When you grasp the fact that you will be judged on how you loved, because this is a reflection of how you acted and how you felt.

I think we all worry about our bad actions and forget about the quality of our love and relationships. Start worrying about that and not the other ~ and hopefully your behavior will change!

Love Self = Love World

"In loving ourselves, we love the world." (page 29, Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening)

I don't know how this is true. This is one man's belief.

But it makes you think, could the world be a better place, if I loved myself, a little better, or perhaps a little more properly? What I mean by that is if all the people who are so down on themselves, or have such a skewed sense of themselves, could get it more in positive alignment, then perhaps the world would be better. We all would be better. Just something to think about. After all, it was Jesus who told us to love others ---- as we love ourselves. (Matt 22:39)

The Courage To Love...Yourself

"I've learned that loving yourself requires a courage unlike any other." (page 29, The Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo)

How courageous can you be? Not only are you called to others, you are also called to love yourself. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Today, don't leave out the second part of that command.

Meditate on Love

"Meditating on God's love has done more to increase my love than decades of effort to try to be more loving." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 92)

Today, meditate on God and His love. Ponder His great love toward you and this earth.

Don't make love your efforts. You will run out of desire or strength.

Let His love for you flow through to others.

From "Me" to "We"

"Transformation into love is a shift from a focus on me to an awareness of the greater we. David Benner in Surrender to Love (page 93) says this and refers to Fritz Kunkel's "psychology of the we."

Shift your thinking today from "ME" to "WE".

It's a small shift, but it will make a big difference.

Just that one small letter, changes everything.

Like an attitude adjustment, a perspective adjustment, is just what we need.

Benner concludes: "When love draws me from isolation into community, your life touches mine - your pain touches me, your afflictions touch me, your anxieties touch me. In short, you become a part of me. My solidarity with you and with all human beings expands the boundaries of what I experience as my self." (page 94)

Love is Humanity

"Love is the fulfillment of everything that makes us human." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 96).

"Love is who we are. Love is not, first and foremost, something we do." (p. 97)

"The point of being human is to learn love." (IBID)

"We are in the school of love." (IBID)

One of the blessing of being human is that we can love. Hopefully that balances that other human attribute - not being perfect! We fail. Thus, we need love.

Don't know love? Learn love. Now's the time.

"It is in loving (or not loving) that we are (or are not) human. It is in heeding the call of love - in making life-affirming connections - that we become human...Loving is not merely one thing among others that we are called to do - and extraordinary achievement, a heroic gesture that completes ordinary acts and raises them to a higher level. Love is not an additive, a spiritual supplement reserved for saints...Loving is the essence of being human, the connective tissue of reality, the oxygen of life." (David Benner in Surrender to Love, page 97, quoting James Olthuis from the The Beautiful Risk: A New Psychology of Loving and Being Loved, p. 69)

Learning Love

"Learning love is a journey back to the reality of the First Love...

Learning love is accepting the invitation to reclaim the truth of our belovedness...

Learning love is letting ourselves be loved fully...

There is nothing more important than learning love, because this is learning that counts for eternity."

(David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 98)

But lest we think we should just be students of love, Benner points out, "Growth in love is not an accomplishment but the receipt of a gift." (p.100)

He concludes, "Learning to love is learning to live." (p. 101)

Great God - Great Lovers

"He [GOD] wants us to be known as great lovers because love is his way."

That's how David Benner tells it in Surrender to Love (page 90).

If "God is love" (I John 4:8,16) this only makes sense, that He would want us to lovers!

It's not our idea, it's His way.

What are you known for?

What should you be known for?

Love is a Yes and a No

"Love always involves not just saying yes to someone but also saying no to self." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, page 91)

There is a 'yes' to love, and a 'no' to love.

You say yes to one thing, and at the same time you are saying no to something else.

You can't choose to love one thing and not ignore another.

Love is a decision. It does make a choice.

Make a good choice today.

Say no to yourself today so you can say yes to someone else.

Love & Surrender

"Love is dangerous precisely because it invites surrender." (page 44, Surrender to Love, David Benner)

But he goes on to say, "Surrender to anything other than love would be idiocy." (page 59)

Love is a giving over to another. Love is a giving up.

Surrender is not something we should take lightly. Surrender should only be to something more important than us.

Love as Glue

"Love is the glue of connection." That's what David Benner called it (p. 12, Surrender to Love).

Thinking of love as glue is a great picture. I can get my fingers caught in glue! That's what I usually do. I use it to put pictures in the scrapbook. I use it to hold broken pieces together. I use it to hold things together that perhaps don't want to stay together on their own (like my shovel handle and shaft)! Glue is a wonderful thing to have handy. How much more is it to have glue in our relationships. Use some today!

Love as an acid test

"Love is the acid test of Christian spirituality." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 90)

That's what David Benner thought and expressed in his book.

What do you think is the acid test of true Christianity?

Is it keeping the law, acting well, going to church, not sinning?

It's something to consider, and it's something to test in ourselves.

Love as the Pinnacle of Fulfillment

"The ability to love others is the pinnacle of fulfillment and health for all persons." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, p.13)

How you love matters. It matters here. It matters later.

Fulfillment and health - from love?

That's what one man, David Benner thought, what do you think?

Love is the strongest force in the universe

That's what David Benner claims in Surrender to Love, (p. 10):

LOVE IS THE STRONGEST FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE.

Just think of that, and know it is at your disposal.

You, my friend, can have the strongest force in the universe in your hands, in your heart.

It only depends what you do with it!

Love Changes Everything

"It is the experience of love that is transformational." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 26)

Love transforms.

Love changes everything.

Want to change? Start loving.

Knowing God by Knowing Love

David Benner said, "If God is love, he cannot be truly known apart from love." (Surrender to Love, p. 28)

St. John of the Cross went even further by saying "that God refuses to be known except by love."

(Ibid)

Want to know God, know Love.

Know Love, discover God.

Love is the Antidote to Fear

Using I John 4:18 that says, "In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love: because to fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love." David Benner then concludes that love is "the antidote to fear." [page 43, Surrender to Love]

Apply love liberally today as needed, as prescribed by The Great Physician, to heal - to deliver - you from fear.

Love as Source & Fulfillment

"God's love is the source and fulfillment of all creation." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, page 22)

Benner goes on to quote Carl Jung on this subject: "It is the passion - the oxygen, the flame, the glue - fueling, firing, connecting the universe in its amazing array." (from Aspects of the Masculine, p. 59)

God is the Source.

Love is the fulfillment.

God & Love, hold it 'all' together.

Love Reaches Out

"Love, by its very nature, always reaches out." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 20)

If you are not reaching out, you are failing to love.

Love reaches out. Love reaches out beyond itself.

Love extends. Love extends itself to others.

Who are you reaching out to?

Nothing Can Separate Us From God's Love

Romans 8:38 and 39 tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

We can be separated from so many things and people so easily. Isn't it nice to know that nothing can separate us from the love of God - the most important thing!

Living in such a separated, if not divorced world, it's great to be reminded - NOTHING can separate us from the thing we need the most, the love of God. Let nothing deter you from the love you need, so you can supply the love so many desire.

Be careful to love

Joshua 23:11, "Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God."

Joshua said this in his farewell address when he was an older man. Before he said this, he said what we are more familiar with Joshua for saying, "Be very courageous..." (verse 6)

He went on to say, "fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth (24:14), and "choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve (24:15), and "incline your heart to the Lord" (24:23).

When you string all of this together, you discover...

I need to be courageous. I need to be careful to love the Lord, to fear Him and serve in sincerity and truth. I have to make a choice, and to do this I need to incline my heart to Him.

I need to be careful. I need to love the Lord and it involves choices and inclinations.

What are you careful of today? What are you inclining your heart toward?

A Chinese Fortune Cookie That Keeps on Giving

After eating at a Chinese restaurant, we opened our fortune cookies.

Mine read: "Love is a present that can be given every single day you live."

Love is a present.

You can give it.

You never run out.

It never runs out.

While you live - LOVE!

Walking in Love

Ephesians 5:2 says, "Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us..."

How are you walking in love?

Walking is a fluid movement. It is a motion. It is an action. It is a moving forward.

It really is a "stepping out." How is love being fluid motion in your life? How do your actions reveal love? How are you moving forward in love? How are you stepping out in love?

Conquering Through Love

Romans 8:37 says, "We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

First it says we were/are loved. Secondly it tells us we can conquer through that love.

That love is so compelling, we can conquer things.

What things do you need to conquer today ~ because you have been loved?

You are Loved

Psalm 91:14 says "He has set His love upon me."

Just ponder that a while today.

The God of the Universe, the Creator of all things, the Alpha & Omega, has set His love upon you.

It's pretty humbling.

It's awfully empowering and ennobling.

You are loved by the highest power and the greatest source.

Three Things We Need

I Timothy 1:5 tells us: "The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience; and from sincere faith."

I noticed the triad:

a pure heart

a good conscience

a sincere faith

We don't get by with one facet. We need all three. We can't neglect one. One doesn't trump another. Lord, give us the Trinity of You, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ~ and the trinity of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith...so we can fulfill Your command to love.

Love as Vitality

"All of the Law and the Prophets are summarized by a commandment to love God (spiritual vitality) and to love our neighbor (relational vitality). It's like two sides to the same coin...The strongest indicator that our love for God is pure and obedient is when it results in a more faithful and effective expression of love for others." (page 3, Leading Congregational Change Workbook)

I like how the writers boil all of life down to 2 spheres: spiritual and relational vitality.

Vitality, which is the life essence, is in our spirituality and in our relationship healthiness.

I like the law being summed up into spiritual vitality: Loving God; and relational vitality: Loving Others.

How healthy are you today?

Are you Abounding in Love?

Paul prayed in Philippians 1:9, "that your love may abound still more..."

And in II Thessalonians 1:3, he gave thanks that "the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other."

This made me think, if God is abounding in love (see July 8), why shouldn't we?

May Paul's prayer be heard today, that our love may abound more and more.

May we be able to give thanks when our love abounds more and more toward others.

God is Abounding in Love

Jonah described God as "abounding in love." (Jonah 4:2)

Lest we think it is only Jonah who described God this way, I found it also in Psalm 103:8 and 86:5,15; Nehemiah 9:17; Numbers 14:18; and Exodus 34:6. So, really from the beginning, God has been described as 'abounding in love.'

It makes me wonder what I abound with? Frustration, anxiety, apathy, bitterness....Hmmm. It is something to think about.

It also makes me wonder what I picture God abounding with? Anger, judgment, pity, requirements? Hmmm. I better correct my picture of God, and work on the picture others see of me!

First, Do No Harm

Physicians have a creed: "First, do no harm."

This should e our first goal as well: Don't harm the people around you.

But secondly, our goal should be to do good for those around us.

We can love by not harming, and we can love by doing good.

Be a physician today. Help heal someone around you.

What will you continue, and How?

I Timothy 2:15 says to 'continue in faith, love and holiness...'

Consider today how you can continue in faith, love and holiness.

I don't know what you're doing. I don't know what acts you will continue. Perhaps you need to change course so you can continue on the right track - in faith, in love, and in holiness.

It's your course. It's your choice. How will you continue?

It's a Privilege

"The second greatest privilege of a relationship with God is personal, profound communion with each other." (page 176, Dangerous Surrender, Kay Warren)

That sounds a lot like the second greatest commandment, after loving God, is loving one another.

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:36-39)

After our personal relationship with the God of the Universe, our next privilege is relationship with another human being. Have one today.

Free to Love

FREEDOM DAY

I found 3 Scriptures outlining Freedom and 3 warnings:

Galatians 5:1 - It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

II Cor 3:17 - Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Ephesians 3:12-Through faith we may approach God with freedom and confidence

HOWEVER, be careful, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak (I Cor 8:9)

DO NOT use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. (I Peter 2:16)

BUT do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love.

(Galatians 5:13)

In the end, it's always about loving and serving others. Freedom to love. You have it. What are you doing with it?