Obligation or Calling, Compelled or Duty

"I am prepared for battle when my desire to love is simply stronger than my desire to snuff out the flame of mercy that God has graciously intruded into my heart. I am prepared to go into battle, if I cannot do anything but go...until your heart finds that it must love, not out of obligation, but out of the inner calling that compels you to live out the gospel in the reckless, wild, foolish, mysterious, supernatural path of love." (p. 156, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

Doing it all in/with Love

I Corinthians 16:14 says, "Let all that you do be be done with love."

All done in love, what a wonderful thing to ponder.

Everything done with love, what a wonderful place to be.

What a great person to be around. What a blessing.

Be that blesser today.

Love Poured Does Not Disappoint

Romans 5:5 says "...hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Romans 5:1 says, we have peace with God

Romans 5:2 says, we have access by faith

Romans 5:3 says, we glory in tribulations ~ because tribulations produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.

Then, it concludes with hope does not disappoint ~ because we have the love of God poured into us by the Holy Spirit.

Natural or Supernatural

"Love is a violation of the natural order." (p. 207, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

The natural order is to give when you've been given to. The natural way is to retaliate when you've been harmed. Naturally, you will think of yourself above all others. Sometimes the natural way is not the best for yourself or others.

Love penetrates through the natural order with the higher order.

Let the Higher Order break through your mundane life with love.

Break someone else's natural order of things with the greater things of life: Love.

Invited to Love

"Bold love is a unique blend of invitation and warning - a pull toward life and push away from death." (p. 211, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

You are invited to love.

You are warned to not love.

You are invited to live.

You are warned of death.

You have been invited. You have been warned.

Life is full of both. Which will you heed?

Love is Polite

"Love makes requests, not demands." Gary Chapman

The author of the Five Love Languages said this. He's right. Love is polite. Love never demands. That sounds a lot like I Corinthians 13:5: It is not rude.

If you love, make requests, not demands. Demands are for tyrants, not lovers.

Strength & Tenderness

"Love is never weak, nor is true strength ever lacking in tenderness.

When someone gives love, it should be with a strength that does not fear the loss of the relationship. When someone is strong, it should be with a tenderness that does not use fear to intimidate." (p. 213, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

Love is not a weakness. Love is strong. Love does not intimidate. Love invites. Love is real.

Show the strength and tenderness of love today.

Armed with Love

"Bold love is a weapon fit for the spiritual battle." (p. 132, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

We need weapons to fight the battles in our life. It's just most of us pick up the wrong weapons. We use them incorrectly. Or we fail to be armed. Our battles are spiritual, we need spiritual weapons, not personal attack weapons. Be armed with the best weapon for your struggles: Love.

Love & Profit

First Corinthians 13:3 teaches us: No Love, No Profit.

Most of us want a profit, are we willing to pay the cost? Love is the cost for profit today.

Profit is defined as an advantage, benefit, gain. It is the difference between the amount paid/invested and the gain at the end.

"If I have not love, it profits me nothing."

Without love, no matter the investment, there is no gain. The gain comes from the love.

Love or Nothing

First Corinthians 13:2 tells us, without love - I am nothing.

Consider that: Being nothing.

Nothing has nothing to offer. Nothing has nothing to give.

First Corinthians outlines have a lot of other things, but not having love. Someone can have great powers, big responsibilities, or wonderful things. But the Bible teaches us that even though you have these things, if you don't have love, you are nothing.

No one wants to be nothing. But all your powers or things don't make you anything - love does.

Understand what gives you merit, quality...it's not your things or positions, it's your love.

Prayer for Love

I pray for the love of God to constrain me,

I pray for the love of God to compel me,

I pray for the love of God to undergird me,

I pray for the love of God to uplift me.

Love in the Struggling

Allender and Longman in their book, Bold Love, were describing how our definition of love will expand and require more of us than we imagined. But they offer us comfort by saying, "Love is developed over a lifetime of struggling to comprehend the personality of God." (p. 138)

Struggle in your own way to know God, knowing you will come nearer to the comprehension of what it means to love. Remind yourself, there is love in the struggle.

Loving Takes Boldness

"Love's intention was, in part, to destroy the arrogance and ugliness in the beloved's soul in order to enhance their God-given beauty...Love, in this fallen world, is a weapon to destroy evil...It seems we have perceived love as something saccharine..." (p. 183, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

The authors went on to say: "Bold love is the tenacious, irrepressible energy to do good in order to surprise and conquer evil." (p. 185, ibid)

Allender and Longman challenge us: "But, we must press on to understand the difference between loving with a boldness that provokes change..." (ibid)

Never think of love a sugar substitute (like saccharine, artificial sweetener). Love is potent and strong. It has the power to evoke change. Use it for good. Use it for something beautiful.

A Love that Fits

"Love is the offer a good gift that fits the circumstance, needs, and personal variables of the one being loved. Love embraces another for the great work of redemption. It captures someone by a goodness that is anything but 'unconditional'. It is remarkably conditional."

(p. 185, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

Love is conditional, on the giver and the receiver.

Love is an offer for a better way of life.

Love is a personal invitation to a higher form of being.

Kissing, is it Love?

I thought about kissing.

I found out kissing originally was thought to produce electricity.

Science now states it produces endorphins.

Kissing can be ritual in some cultures.

Kissing can also be a display of passion.

Which does your kiss reveal?

Kiss someone for love's sake today-with passion, and not as a ritual.

The Only Thing

"The only thing we can give to God is our love."

(p. 392, Our Lord Prays For His Own, Marcus Rainsford)

We try to give God so many great things, so many great acts.

He only asks us to love: HIM and others.

It's the only thing He asks. It's the only we can give. It's the only thing that lasts.

Love as the Final Arbiter

"The final arbiter must be considerate love, not knowledge or liberty." (p. 1593, footnote in New Spirit Filled Life Bible)

Think of it this way: the final judge, the final referee is LOVE, considerate love.

Knowledge is good. Liberty is good. But, love should be our final decision.

As you think your thoughts or ponder your actions, remember: Let considerate LOVE be your final thought, your determiner.

Puffing or Building?

First Corinthians 8:1 says Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Determine today to build up...others, or even yourself.

Puffed up things tend to explode or implode.

Building up may take longer; but, it will also last longer.

Be a builder.

In Spite Of, Not Because Of

"God's love is 'in spite of' rather than 'because of.' " (Vonette Bright, In His Hands, p. 73)

Love someone today in spite of something, not because of something.

It will strengthen your loving by faith. It will transform you from human to divine loving.

It will confirm you more to His image and will.

Loving by Faith

Vonette Bright in her book, In His Hands, describes loving by faith:

"I can depend on the Holy Spirit to do it through me. That's the essence of loving by faith." (p.77)

"God gives us the love. He also gives the motivation to love. He gives us the ability to love...

You love by faith..." (p. 79)

Love by faith today, not sight, not record keeping, not worth, but by faith.

Lost in the Wonder of Love

As we sang the last verse of Love Divine, All Loves Excelling written by Charles Wesley (1707-1788), I loved the last line: "Lost in wonder, love, and praise."

What a great thing to aspire to being lost in the wonder of love and adoration.

Today, let yourself get lost in the wonder of life, love, and things/people praiseworthy.

Sanctifying & Constraining Principles of Love

"It is through the truth the love of God is revealed and shed abroad in our hearts; love is a sanctifying principle, "We love him, because he first loved us"; love is a constraining principle, "the love of Christ constrains us." (p. 307, Our Lord Prays For His Own, Marcus Rainsford)

Rainsford outlines 2 principles:

1. Love is a sanctifying principle

2. Love is a constraining principle

Sanctify as setting apart for holy use; and constraining as restricting or compelling, paints a very unique picture of love.

Let love sanctify and constrain you today.

Crawl Out

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

Zora Neale Hurston

Crawl out today. Let love have its way.

Let your soul come alive with the love that is inside.

Why We Love

"We are all receiving Charity. There is something in each of us that cannot be naturally loved...

Only the lovable can be naturally loved...[They] are loved not because [they] are lovable but because Love Himself is in those who loved them." (p. 133, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis)

You don't love them because they deserve it. You love them because in them and you is a spark of the Divine. You love them because it is the right thing to do. You love because it honors God and others.

Tuned & Obedient Instruments of Love Himself

"Charity does not dwindle into merely natural love but natural love is taken up into, made the tuned and obedient instrument of, Love Himself." (p. 134, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis)

Hand over your natural love in exchange for being an instrument of a Divine Lover.

Let His Love flow through you naturally. Exchange the lowly for the heavenly.

Let Love Himself be in you.

Love as a Measuring Rod

"Love is the measure by which my life will be assessed. Such a measuring rod strips me of any self-importance...it does not seem fair to be assessed on nothing more than the quality of how we have loved others." (p. 32, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

What matters is how we love. Why can't we get that?

We go around doing everything but. We try to build ourselves up, not others. We try to do important things, not minial ones. Lord forgive us. Help us be ready for the Judgment Day, when you will judge us for how we loved others and You.

Can You Love TOO Much?

"It is probably impossible to love any human being simply "too much." We may love him too much in proportion to our love for God; but it is the smallness of our love for God, not the greatness of our love for the man, that constitutes the inordinacy." (p. 122, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis)

There is no such thing as loving too much. It's abundance and continuance is needed for it's sustenance. Love doesn't dwindle, it multiplies. It may hurt, but you can never love too much. It may not be reciprocated, but that's not your failure. Your task is to love, not too little, never too much.

Failing Love

"Why do so many seem to love so poorly?" That's what the authors of Bold Love posed on p. 43 of their book. There you have it, the question we should all be asking. If love is so important, why do we fail so much, or try so little? The authors, Allender & Longman, postulate: "If we want to learn to love, we must first face the extent of our hatred for God and others." (ibid)

Now, there's a hard question. Is there a hatred, distance from God, and also from others?

We must face our darkness, to be able to turn to the light and the love.

It may not come naturally, we may need to slay some deep seated absence of love (hatred) in our own hearts.

Further in the book, the authors pose: "I am constrained by His presence to love or at least to anguish over my failure to love..." (p. 85)

Lasting Love Takes Forgiveness

"Love cannot last long or live out its eternal purpose in human relationships without a foundation of forgiveness...Unless the fabric of our involvement with others is woven with the threads of forgiveness." (p. 41, Bold Love, Allender & Longman)

The author then proceeds to say, "I cannot hope to ever love someone unless I am committed to forgive him." (p. 42, ibid)

Then further: "Love is dependent on forgiveness." (p. 43, ibid)

Let forgiveness thread your tapestry of life of love. So, every time it unravels it exposes threads of love and forgiveness. This way when it is ripped, it reveals what you are made of: Love & Forgiveness.