Transformation & Love

"Love, we hear, is patient and kind (I Cor 13:4). Then we mistakenly try to be loving by acting patiently and kindly - and quickly fail. We should always do the best we can in action, of course; but little progress is to be made in that arena until we advance in love itself - the genuine inner readiness and longing to secure the good of others. Until we make significant progress there, our patience and kindness will be shallow and short-lived at best.

It is love itself - not loving behavior, or even the wish or intent to love - that has the power to 'always protect, always trust, always hope, put up with anything and never quit' (I Cor 13:7-8 PAR). Merely trying to act lovingly will lead to despair and to the defeat of love. It will make us angry and hopeless.

But taking love itself - God's kind of love - into the depths of our being through spiritual formation will, by contrast, enable us to act lovingly to an extent that will be surprising even to ourselves, at first. And this love will then become a constant source of joy and refreshment to ourselves and others." (p. 24, Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard)

Brandon Heath - Your Love

[Hit the YouTube hot link to connect to play]

Brandon Heath sings, "Your love is the only thing that matters." He exclaims, "It's All I ever needed."

Good & Better News

I told my husband, "The good news is I love you, the better news is I'll pray for you."

I thought later about the truth of that statement. It's good that I love him. But, the better news is I will pray for him. He benefits from my love, but more so by my prayers. Give someone you love good and better news today: Love them and Pray for them.

Let Love Be Your Drive(r)

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Loving Brings Knowledge

"Yes, thinking brings knowledge. But so too does love!" (p. 147, The Hope of Glory, Sam Storms)

Isn't that a remarkable statement?

Wisdom and knowledge through loving, not just books.

Knowledge from being and not just going to school.

Love today and see how much you learn!

Differences Between Love & Hate

"The major difference between hating and loving is perhaps whereas to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience, to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by it. Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become themselves. Haters simply lose themselves. Theirs is the ultimately consuming passion." (p. 123, Listening to Your Life, Frederick Buechner)

Later he says, "hate has its pleasures as well as love." (p. 128, ibid).

Which will you take pleasure in today?

We can be consumed by one or the other.

Which will consume you today?

"Love Will Keep Us Together"

Matt Maher sings, "Hold Us Together." Sing along..."It is the first day of the rest of your life..." and "it's all you need."