How Easy it is to Offended

A quote from Brant Hansen's book, UNOFFENDABLE.

I read this book because I wanted to live unoffended.

Because The Living Bible (TLB) translates I Corinthians 13 verse 5 as

"...[love] is not irritable or touch.  It does not hold grudges and will 

hardly even notice when others do it wrong."

That's how I want to live and love.

Becoming offended is easy, it is natural.

Loving, that is hard. 

That's why I don't need to offended by everything you do,

so I can love you, better.

Reading The Garden

Jon Gordon in his delightful book The Garden, said:

"Love is the most powerful force in the universe.
Love is what connects you and God.
It connects you to each other.
It connects you to yourself."

(page 92)

The trifecta:  God, others, yourself.  The completion of Jesus's greatest commandment:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  And secondly, Love your neighbor as yourself.  [Mark 12:30,31]

We sometimes look past the part where He said love your neighbor as yourself.  Thus, we have to love ourself as foundational.  This sometimes is the hardest part of that directive.

Enough said

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in his best selling book, The Book of Mysteries, challenges us ~

"Make your life a gift of love."


(Day 276)

Keys to Love & Life

"...the key to life is love;

the key to love is self-sacrifice;

and the key to self-sacrifice is the surrender of our own will
[in order to do the will of the Father]."

Anthony DeStefano stated this in contemplating the centrality of the cross.

The cross is a picture of love.
The cross is a picture of sacrifice.
The cross is a picture of giving up your life for another and your will for God's will.

How are you loving today?
How are you sacrificing your will and your way today?
How are you doing God's will today for something bigger than yourself?

Remember and Remind

Euguene Peterson, the great writer of The Message Bible said,
"To remember God is to have to live strenuously, vigorously, and in love."
If we remember where we came from and where we are going, and our mission in-between, we will remember to live and to love!  Do you remember?  How can you remind yourself?

How do you apologize?

"Love is the greatest apologetic."  So said a great apologist, Ravi Zacharias.
Apologist sounds like a person who makes an apology.
In actuality it is anyone who makes a defense of the faith, explains beliefs.
So our greatest way to show and defend our faith is by loving.
#Thank you Ravi!

Willing to be willing

Dick Halverson, former Chaplin to the U.S. Senate described love this way:

"Love literally means to will the best for another."

You simply have to ask yourself, am I more concerned for myself or for others?

Keep willing to will the best for others, not just yourself.