Different Versions, Different Readings, Same Meaning

Reading Romans 12:9 in different versions:

KJV:  Let love be without dissimulation.

NKJV:  Let love be without hypocrisy.

NLT:  Don't just pretend to love…

ESV:  Let love be genuine.

They all tell a story.  They all paint a canvas.  The question is:  can we do any of it?

Giving a timeless gift

"The most timeless gifts are peace and love."
~Alexander Breskin

Loving from your brokenness, not your greatness

I loved the title of the book, Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, so I picked up the book.  I identified with the title.  Maybe other people don't…they are 'normal.'  But, I was surprised to even learn something about love:

"We think of people having the capacity to love who have mostly gotten life right - healthy people with high self-esteem and low regret factors.  Normal people.
There is no such thing, dear.  Jesus says the great lovers are those who have come face-to-face with their own great brokenness and have been undone by great grace."  (page 211, John Ortberg)

Be undone by great grace today to be enabled to love more fully.

How Much is Enough?

This is what a son said at his father's memorial service:

"Immortality has nothing to do with how long you live, but in how much love you give." 
~Cory Booker~

Well said.  Can we measure love?  I think not, but we can so fill the other person with it, that they will feel loved.  That is our task.

The Worst Thing

John Ortberg reminds us it is not just moral failures that decry us, but our lack of love.  He concludes that "the greatest crimes against the kingdom of God are crimes against love."
(Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, p. 127, 128)

It's a good reminder that the greatest harm we do to others and ourselves is to withhold love.

The Greatest Gift

Ann Voskamp in her delightful Advent book, The Greatest Gift, says:

"Love is the greatest thing God can give us, for Himself is love," writes 17th Century theologian Jeremy Taylor.  "And [love] is the greatest thing we can give to God, for it will also give ourselves…"

(page 92)

Lacking Love Leads to Sin

"Just as love is the ultimate expression of the law, so lovelessness is the ultimate expression of sin."
(page 60, John Ortberg, Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them)

Do you not know enough about love, so you make it up?

Because of Who He is, Not Because of Who We Are

"God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are."
NIV Stewardship Study Bible, page 236

Protect & Touch & Greet

"Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other."
Rainer Maria Rilke

Incapable

Jean Vanier, in her book, Community and Growth, reminds us:  "While we are alone, we could believe we loved everyone.  Now that we are with others, living with them all the time, we realize how incapable we are of loving."  (page 26)

Community as Sign Pointing to Love

"A community is never there just for itself or for its own glory.  It comes from and belongs to something much greater and deeper:  the heart of GOd to bring humanity to fulfillment.  A community is never an end in itself; it is but a sign pointing further and deeper, calling people to love."  Jean Vanier
(from Community and Growth, p. 102)

What better place could we go?

"May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ."
2 Thessalonians 3:5

10 Suggestions of Ways to Love

What we do, becomes who we are

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."  ~ Aristotle

Therefore, love is not just an act, but a habit.  Make it your habit.

Don't Try So Hard...

Don't Forget...

Judgement based based on Love

"God will judge us not according to how much we endured, but how much we could love."
~ Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs

What is your love contingent on?

"My love for you is not contingent on how you feel about me."  ~ Duck Commander Phil Robertson

What goes along with your love?

"Faith without love is no living grace, and
love without faith is no saving grace."
~William Burkitt

Choices have Consequences

After reading I Corinthians chapter 13, Margaret Feinberg concludes:  "Love is not just something we experience...it's something we choose.  When we love, we choose patience, kindness, humility, and forgiveness."  (page 83, Being Yourself)

That's a good conclusion.  If we chose to love, we chose to follow these paths, however difficult or painful.    Choosing to love is to act courageously.  Choosing not to love is cowardly.  You chose not to be patient, not to be kind, not to be patient, not to endure, not to abide.  You will go away or detach.  You will be rude or self serving.  Lord, we need your help to love.  We cannot do it on our own.  We are not capable.  Lord, help us all.  

Transforming Power out there and in here

"It's impossible to measure the full impact of love...love has tremendous power not only to transform the person we choose to love but also ourselves...when we are truly being ourselves and loving ourselves as God designed us to be, then we are better able to love others."  (p. 80, Being Yourself, Margaret Feinberg)

What Money Cannot Buy

"To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness - these are the gifts which money cannot buy."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

What will you be remembered for?

"The best portion of a good man's life; his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."

-William Wordsworth

How to Always Make A Difference

"Love and kindness are never wasted.
They always make a difference."
~Helen James

The Art of Loving

Vincent Van Gogh, known more for his art than love, said:

"I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."

Chesed Anyone?

While I was reading Chuck Swindoll's book, Living the Psalms, he said that one word:  chesed  is "perhaps the most important word in the entire Old Testament because it effectively sums up the character of God."  (page 188)

So, I started researching chesed.  It turns out chesed and hesed can be used interchangeably.  I had heard of hesed from the loyal love depicted in the Book of Ruth.  From my research on line, I found this quote:

"Love is the single most powerful and necessary component in life.  Love is the origin and foundation of all human interactions.  It is both giving and receiving.  It allows us to reach above and beyond ourselves.  To experience another person and to allow that person to experience us.  It is the tool by which we learn to experience the highest reality - God.  In a single word:  love is transcendence."
(http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/276673/Jewish/Omer-1.htm)

It goes on to say:  "Everyone has the capacity to love in their hearts.  The question is if and how we actualize and express it."  They go on to ask you to ask yourself:  "What is my capacity to love another person?"

I asked a Rabbi friend to tell me the difference between chesed and hesed.  He said hesed conveys covenantal loyalty (remember Ruth in the Bible), whereas chesed shows deeds of kindness.  This is the kind of kindness God shows us, a love that comes from no where to give to people who do not deserve His kindness, with no prospect of reward for Himself.  He explained that the way you show loyal love is to show kindness to each other.  He reminded me the first 5 Laws are about Covenantal Loyalty, where the last commandments are about kindness.  I never realized how they blended together and depended on each other.

One Rabbi (Shimon Leiberman) even said it is "properly described as an act that has no 'cause.'"  He describes chesed as "proactive - it is the initiator of interaction."  He concluded it is "something for nothing."  (http://www.aish.com/sp/k/Kabbala_10__Chesed_-_The_World_is-Built_on_Kindness.html)

If Swindoll thinks it could be the most important term in the Old Testament, I think it would behove us to know more about it.  

Real or Dream?

Control Factors

Second Corinthians 5:14 starts by saying:  "FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONTROLS US..."

I had to stop and ponder:  Does the Love of Christ control me?

It's a great question.   It's  a great measuring tool.  It's a great reprimand.  It's a great motivator.
Something controls you.  What is it?  At least, think about it.

Hitching up to Love

Charles Swindoll in studying Psalm 91 in his book, Living the Psalm (p. 178), says "The Hebrew term used for love is unusual and rare.  Most often it is used with reference to 'attaching something to something.'  The Hebrew term includes the idea of attaching a saddle to a horse."  He says, "It would be acceptable to render Psalm 91:14:  "Because He clings affectionately to Me."

Because He has set His love upon Me....

Something interesting to think about.  It puts new understanding to the old saying, "Getting Hitched."

Hitch your wagon to something worthy of pulling you in the right direction, and that you'll enjoy their company along the way.

What do you believe in?

I believe in the sun, even though it doesn't shine.
I believe in love, even when it isn't shown.
I believe in God, even He doesn't speak.

Some prisoner in a concentration etched these words.
What words are we muttering or etching into lives, and others', today?

A Vocation of Love

"...living a vocation of love in the day-to-day reality of our lives."
(Carl Anderson, A Civilization of Love)

This is an excerpt I found that I think captures what our goal should be everyday.

Think of your loving others as your vocation.
It was you do everyday.  It is your calling.
It is real, not imagined.  It must be lived out in your daily routine.

Remember...

"Remember when all is said and done, all that really matters is who you love and who loves you."
Ken Blanchard
This is what the business expert, organizational pro said.
I think it is a good thing to remember, Now!

How can you love? Only truthfully

"No truth without love ~ No love without truth."  

Dr. Albert Mohler

Efficiency -v- Extravagance

"Love doesn't try to be efficient; when it is most extravagant, it is least wasted."

~ Bob Goff

Today, be extravagant with your love - you won't waste a thing.

Facets of Love

Frederick Buechner reminds us in his writings that love has many facets.  He described it this way:

"The love for equals is a human thing...
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing...
The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing...
And then there is the love for the enemy...This is God's love.  It conquers the world."
(p. 302, 303, Listening To Your Life)

There are different facets of love.  Some love takes more energy.  Some love seems unthinkable.  There is "natural" or reciprocal love.  Then, there is the courageous love that takes more energy, more time, more of you.  That's where He comes in.  He inspires it.  He empowers it.  

How does Self-Love work?

"Love your neighbor as yourself is part of the great commandment.  The other way to say it is, Love yourself as your neighbor.  Love yourself not in some egocentric, self-serving sense but love yourself the way you would love your friend in the sense of taking care of yourself, nourishing yourself, trying to understand, comfort, strengthen ourself."  ~ Frederick Buechner

Were you ever confused about how to love others as yourself?
Hopefully this will help you sort that out.
If you sort it out, you may be able to do it better.
Then, wouldn't the world be better, and you too?

The world needs love, the world needs grace

"Somebody loving you is grace.
 Loving somebody is grace."
Frederick Buechner

Nothing can take the place of love

"Greed, gluttony, lust, envy, pride are no more than sad efforts to fill the empty place where love belongs."  Frederick Buechner

Remember: It's not what you say as much as what you do

Pondering an everlasting, encompassing Love

"Ponder the awesome mystery of a Love that encompasses you from before birth to beyond the grave."
Sarah Young, Jesus Calling, p. 352

Jeremiah 31:3 - "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love..."
Malachi 1:2 - "I have loved you," says the Lord
Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..."
John 14:1-3 - "I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that
                        where I am, there you will be also."

Do you need strength and courage?

Just a reminder

“Sometimes the hardest people to love are the ones who need it the most.”

― Laura Wiess, Ordinary Beauty

Praying to Love More Today

"The way to love life is to imagine losing it."  Ann Voskamp said this in her book, One Thousand Gifts Devotional.  She said this as she thought of losing her Mother.  She ended her devotion with this prayer:

Father God, may I wake to losing someone today — so I can win love. Cause me to realize that someday I’ll lose what I have — so I can win real eyes. Let me experience unlimited elation today — by imagining unexpected limitation. Let me envision life without the loveliness of those I love — and I can see to love more.

May this be our prayer, to love more.  

What language do you speak?

"Thankfulness is not some sort of magic formula; it is the language of Love..."  (p. 341, Jesus Calling, Sarah Young)

What language do you speak?  I often speak the language of frustration.  I've even been known to be bilingual.  I can speak anger and condemnation with ease.  Watch your language.  It reveals where you have been living, the color of your heart, and the origin of your roots.

It's not always what you do, it can be what you don't do that matters

Someone said, "Love's greatest triumph is not always in what love does but - more often than not - in what love refrains from doing."  I don't know who said it.  But, it is a good reminder.  We are what we do, and what we chose not to do ~ even though we could...

The Opposite of Love

Billy Graham posed:

"What is the opposite of love?  It isn't hate (although it may take that form).  The opposite of love is selfishness."  (from Wisdom for Each Day)

Always Learning New Ways to Show Love

Willing to Love

"In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion but an act of the will.  When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy emotional feeling....On the contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone.  Thus in Jesus' terms we can love our neighbors without necessarily liking them.  In fact liking them may stand in the way of loving them by making us overprotective sentimentalists instead of reasonably honest friends...This does not mean that liking may not be a part of loving, only that it doesn't have to be.  Sometimes liking follows on the heels of loving."

Powerful & Powerless

"Of all powers, love is the most powerful and the most powerless."

Frederick Buechner, p. 242, Listening To Your Life

3 stages of Love

Frederick Buechner describes 3 stages for love:

"The first stage is to believe that there is only one kind of love.  The middle sage is to believe that there are many kinds of love and that the Greeks had a different word for each of them.  The last stage is to believe that there is only kind of love."

He concludes:  "To lose yourself in such ways is to find yourself.   Is what it's all about.  Is what love is."

(p. 241, Listening to your Life)

Living Life to the Fullest, to the Holiest

"...Side by side with the Buddha's truth is the Gospel truth that 'he who does not love remains in death'... the pain is so much a part of the love...love would vastly diminished, unrecognizable, without it.  To suffer in love for another's suffering is to live life not only at its fullest but at its holiest..."
(p. 239, Listening to your Life)

How willing are you?

Here's a snipit from Max Lucado from "Grace for the Moment":

Wouldn't it be nice if love were like a cafeteria line? What if you could look at the person with whom you live and select what you want and pass on what you don’t? What if parents could do this with kids? “I’ll take a plate of good grades and cute smiles, and I’m passing on the teenage identity crisis and tuition bills.”

What if kids could do the same with parents? “Please give me a helping of allowances and free lodging but no rules or curfews, thank you.”

And spouse with spouse? “H’m, how about a bowl of good health and good moods. But job transfers, in-laws, and laundry are not on my diet.”

Wouldn't it be great if love were like a cafeteria line? It would be easier. It would be neater. It would be painless and peaceful. But you know what? It wouldn't be love. Love doesn't accept just a few things. Love is willing to accept all things.

If you've loved, you'll lose

"Real loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself." ~ Robin Williams

Fat Head or Big Heart

Knowledge can give you a fat head; but
Love can give  you a big heart.

(I Corinthians 13:4 - Love is not puffed up)

Thoughts to consider from a French Jesuit Priest

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said:

"The truth is, indeed, that love is the threshold of another universe."

and

"A universal love is not only psychologically possible; it is the only complete and final way in which we are able to love."

and

"Love is the only force which can make things one without destroying them."

Life Loved is Hoped

"Hope is only the love of life."
~Henri Frederic Amiel

What does your love do?

                                   

Less of a Theory and More of an Affair

                                

Love is Worship

"I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love."  ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Unlovely yet Loved, Unable yet Free

"A...grateful heart is free to love because it has been captured with the hilarious paradox that we are unlovely but loved, and unable to love but free to try without condemnation."
(Dr Dan Allender & Dr. Tremper Longman in Bold Love, p. 43)

Listening & Loving

Best selling author in her latest writings, Sarah Young, said:

"In any close relationship, listening and loving are vitally important - and they are interconnected."

(p.16, Jesus Today Devotional -ebook)

As you love today, listen with your ear and your heart - they are connected too!

Ideas to Consider in ways we can all serve in love

In Edward Welch's book, Addictions, which is a great book on theology, he concludes his book, with 6 ways we can serve in love:  (p. 283)

1.  Remembering the way that Jesus served us (John 13), what opportunities for service do you have today?
2.  Seeking peace is a profound way to show love.  Consider studying The Peacemaker, by Ken Sande.
3.  Spend group time in prayer for other people.
4.  Key features of love are patience and kindness (I Corinthians 13:4).  In what situations do you react with frustration?  What form could kindness take in your relationships?
5.  Pray for the Spirit of love.  Pray for opportunities to demonstrate love.
6.  Talk about how you have seen the love of Christ in others.

This book is not just for addicts, but for all of us who deal with addicts as well.  He ends each chapter with "Practical Theology."  He lays  out:  "As you face your own addiction," and then, "As you help someone else."  Isn't that love?

How much hope for Love?

"A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love."  -Stendhal

Watch: When We Love the Least...

American poet W.H. Auden penned these lines:

“For the error bred in the bone

Of each woman and each man

Craves what it cannot have,

Not universal love

But to be loved alone”

To See God's Face ~ LOVE

Victor Hugo wrote in Les Misérables, "To love another person is to see the face of God."