Archive for love
Can You Remember Your First Love?
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Ah, the first love. The one who first consumed our hearts, our thoughts, our dreams. What do you remember about that one? Often thoughts of first love are mixtures of happy thoughts of hopes and dreams and painful memories of crushed hearts. Later we may wonder if it was really love at all because we more clearly identify the blind desires with which we embraced another in immaturity. Yet there is a reality of a first love that is true.
The apostle John wrote to the church of Ephesus to remind them of their first love experiences with God. He spoke these painful words to them, “…you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen…” (Rev. 2:4-5).
Ouch. Those words must have stung when the believers at Ephesus read them. Left. Fallen. No fault on God’s part obviously. The Ephesian believers had moved away from the place of first love.
How did it happen?
They were still involved in working for God. “I know your works, your labor…”
Their lives still bore evidence of the fruit of His Spirit. “I know you patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and found them liars, and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My names’ sake and have not become weary.” Patience. Discernment. Steadfastness.
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Who Will Love Me for Me?
Posted by: | CommentsTears filled her eyes as the words formed on her quivering lips, “No one loves me for me.”
The unasked question that haunted this woman is the same one that every human asks, “Who will love me for me?” The words of J.J. Heller expresses this longing in all our hearts:
We are made for love, both God’s love and the love of others; yet, we all at times, find ourselves feeling empty, feeling unloved.
There is no more powerful force than unconditional love. It has the power to transform the heart of the most hardened criminal and the hardest part of my heart and your heart for none of us are that different from each other. Our hearts all need healing, and we all long for the unconditional love of another.
If we all need this kind of love so desperately, why don’t we just freely give it to one another? It would seem such an easy answer to the problems of this world. Let’s just love. Love well. Love deeply. Love unconditionally.
Yet we are all caught in our own stories, seeking to be filled ourselves, too busy, too self-absorbed or too wounded or too defensive or a myriad of other things which keep us stuck, unable to move beyond our own insecurities and needs to offer others what they need and what we so desperately long for ourselves.
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Love of God
Posted by: | CommentsLove of God – Has it captured your heart?
I could paint with a broad stroke and speak of His love for all humanity. I could talk about the affection of God as it relates to the Church. Those aspects of God’s love form an important framework, but what we all long to know – or perhaps to know increasingly -is the love of God for each of us individually.
And lest you think that is selfish, let me assure you that that is precisely what God wants for you! God has moved from the beginning of time to insure that any who wanted, could have a very personal relationship with Him and receive the affections of His heart.
As a child, when I first committed my life to God through Christ, I was looking to escape judgment. I came to the foot of the cross in fear. I was motivated more by the fear of God than the love of God. Yet the longer I walk with God, the more my understanding of Him becomes relational. The more I have come to know Him, the more I understand that our relationship is anchored in love and the less I am motivated in immature ways by my fear of God.
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It All Comes Down to Love
Posted by: | CommentsWell, fellow travelers on this journey, we have reached day 21. We will now prepare to break our fast tomorrow. I pray these days have been days of insight for you and days of personal growth in your relationship with God and others. Remember, God is always doing more than you can see and He honors every sacrifice we have made because we wanted to know his heart more.
When Jesus summarized the two most important things about a believer’s life, he said 1) love God, and 2) love others. It all comes down to love so today I end these devotionals with this section of Scripture from 1 Corinthians 13. Read it prayerfully, slowly, listening and being sensitive for any way the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you.
Even if I can speak in all the tongues of earth—and those of the angels, too—but do not have love, I am just a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophesy such that I can comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, or if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own to feed those poorer than I, then hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
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Who Wrote the Book of Love?
Posted by: | CommentsIn the late fifties, a group called the Monotones wrote and recorded a song called “Who Wrote the Book of Love?” I woke up singing that old song this morning which led me to thinking about who really wrote the book of love. Of course, you know that I am referring to God. But I wonder sometimes if we really understand that the Bible is the book of love. Yes, we may give mental ascent to that. God is love. But knowing the love of God is totally different than having a head knowledge that says that God is love.
Knowing the love of God has changed my life more times than one. For me, the knowledge of God’s love has come bit by bit, piece by piece. When I committed my life to Christ as a very young girl, I distinctly remember wanting to avoid hell. And of course that is important. But my journey to knowing the love of God has been a life-long one. In my early twenties, I was overtaken by the love of God when I first knew that God had called me into ministry. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that God wanted me. I became consumed with knowing Him. I read the Word for hours and hours. However, in a few short years, I became drained by religion. I had somehow equated knowing God with keeping a list of rules (i.e., read five chapters of Psalms every day, 1 chapter of Proverbs, and part of the New Testament; keep a prayer journal which covered all the needs of the world and everyone else I knew, etc.) Now the rules represent important principles but living for the rules replaced living for God and I found myself hopeless. You can be sure that God doesn’t lead us into hopelessness.
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