Tag: 1 John 4:7-21

If We Are The Body of Christ, The Church: And Seeking God Through Our Community? Hebrews 10:19-25

How much do we believe we need God and how much do we believe we need each other?

We have long since proven, time and time again, to everyone who is with us, who is around us and against us we cannot make it on our own.

God calls us to “get it together,” to get together regularly to encourage and to motivate each other to live vibrant lives of service and faith.

With the day of Jesus’ return and our ultimate victory on the horizon, we should be motivated even more to help and to encourage each other.

Question is, are we as completely, fully, motivated to be together in community as God is always and forever in Community with Himself?

Hebrews 10:19-25 New American Standard Bible

A New and Living Way

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let’s approach God with a [a]sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let’s consider how to [b]encourage one another in love and good deeds, 25 not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

If We Are the Body of Christ and Seeking God’s Face?

For the Body of Christ, disciplining ourselves, learning to seek the face of God is the very foundation for our experiencing the amazing life Jesus died to give us.

As the Body of Christ, we have available to us through our Savior Jesus Christ all of the opportunities, the wonders, excellencies, and satisfaction we can fathom.

As the Body of Christ, God has granted us grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy, forgiveness after forgiveness, affection upon affection, and love upon all love.

As the Body of Christ, as we pursue him through all the avenues available to us, a door is opened in which we discover all our heavenly Father longs to give us.

Our Savior Jesus Christ did not die and we, the Body of Christ were not created to go about this life apart from a real relationship with fellow children of God.

Without the friendship, without the fellowship of our brothers and sisters, we will never authentically experience the true fullness of life God intends for us.

Together, in community, we inevitably discover our place in the body of Christ.

In community, we learn what it is to actually serve out of love, honor, respect.

And in the fullness of community, we receive the healing and love that can only come from those who gather together in friendship to share in the same Spirit.

And We Are Seeking God Through Our Community?

Acts 2:40-47 Amplified Bible

40 And Peter solemnly testified and continued to admonish and urge them with many more words, saying, “[a]Be saved from this crooked and unjust generation!” 41 So then, those who accepted his message were baptized; and on that day about [b]3,000 souls were added [to the body of believers]. 42 They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles, and to fellowship, to [c]eating meals together and to prayers.

43 A sense of awe was felt by [d]everyone, and many wonders and signs (attesting miracles) were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] [e]were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. 45  And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. 46 Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, 47 praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2 describes the Church community that my soul fully longs for.

We, who are the Church was created by God for honest, vulnerable fellowship.

We were created by God through the life blood of His own Son Jesus to help each other, eat together, celebrate and worship our God, also celebrate, love others.

Through engaging with fellow believers, we become an authentic witness to the world of what happens when our One true God works in the hearts of each of his children – we gather together to celebrate and declare through our love for each other, the life and joy that comes from a relationship with our heavenly Father.

Scripture is clear that true community requires sacrifice and vulnerability. 

1 Corinthians 12:25-26 says, “That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

God’s desire is for all his children to humble themselves and live as one body.

Division and Rancor among His Children is Satan’s idea right from the start. (Genesis 3:1-7 The Message)

3 The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”

2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”

4-5 The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”

6 When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

7 Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.

When one part of a physical body “sees what is really going on,” they “see themselves as being naked” the rest of the body sees what is going on, sees themselves as being “naked” and start “sewing their own makeshift clothes.”

When one part of a physical body hurts, the rest of the body feels the pain and is supposed to come together, one body, with the goal of working together to heal.

Instead of this ideal situation, in our rush to panic, to cover our hurt and our naked embarrassment we rush to become our own kind of specialized doctors.

We sew together our own fig leaves.

Then when God comes to His Garden for a standard “Wellness Check” we panic further, get embarrassed by our nakedness all the more – and rush to “hide.”

We forget what we know about God, that we are created in His Image, not ours.

For God so loved the world, which would soon include His Children, created by His own hand, that He spoke into the darkness of chaos, the mess of disorder and brought one order – His order, not ours – poured His love into that order.

God desires His order, to be the same One order, One community, as He is in Community with His Son and Holy Spirit, among the spiritual body of believers.

As we stand before the world, in the embarrassment of our nakedness being our mistakes, missteps, misjudgments – “trying to sew all our fig leaves together,”

He desires to fill us with his love and use us to provide healing for one another.

From our embarrassment at being naked, He longs to guide us to a lifestyle of humility and sacrifice in pursuit of being his hands and feet for each other.

To find consolation together, to find the “mind and humility of Christ Jesus” and to work together and together to make it our own, to model it to the world as Savior Christ did. (Philippians Chapter 2:1-16 The Message)

He Took on the Status of a Slave

2 1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

Rejoicing Together

12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.

14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.

It takes receiving the love of God in the same spirit it was given to give love the God in the same spirit God first gave it. (1 John 4:7-21 The Message)

God Is Love

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

To Love, to Be Loved

17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

It requires a work of the Spirit to fill us with courage to be vulnerable with our community in order to receive and give the love we’ve been given in Christ.

So, will you be a child filled with the very first love of your Father God today?

Will you allow God to use you to help a brother or sister?

Will you choose the purpose and joy and humility, the “mind of Christ” that comes from carrying the cross of Jesus, living sacrificially and vulnerably?

If so, you will discover a satisfaction second to nothing else, only found in the mercy of God and the edification that comes from believers loving one another.

May you one day, find the fellowship your heart longs for as you courageously celebrate and love your brothers and sisters as God celebrates all His Children.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the importance of community. Allow Scripture to fill you with a desire to love and be loved by your community.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”- Acts 2:42-47

2. Reflect on your need for community. Where do you need the healing that comes from relationship with others? What people has God placed in your life? How can you in humility reach out to them for help?

3. Take time and pray for an increase in God-filled community in your life. How does he want to use you to help another person today? How can you lead out in being courageously vulnerable? If you lack such a thing, ask God to provide you with this type of community to share life with.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working . . . . My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” – James 5:13-16, 19-20

God does not ask us to wait forever in our Upper Rooms for others to step out and live in accordance with his Spirit before He calls us too. (Acts 2:1-4)

His will for us doesn’t hinge upon others’ obedience.

God is calling you and me to come away from our “nakedness” to a lifestyle of joyful service, sacrifice, and love regardless of people’s initiatives or responses.

He longs to make garments of praise, fill us with the courage to love others well and help them through their brokenness to a place of honesty and vulnerability.

May you and I one day come together to be the loving hands and feet of Jesus to your brothers and sisters who so desperately need a forgiving touch from God.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

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Utterly Unconventional Love of God and Saint Valentine’s Day. Ephesians 3:17-19

Ephesians 3:14-21Amplified Bible

14 For this reason [grasping the greatness of this plan by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ] I bow my knees [in reverence] before the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth [a]derives its name [God—the first and ultimate Father]. 16 May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, 18 be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; 19 and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

God gave us Jesus as a way of saying, “I love you and you are special to me.”

That is a really great gift, isn’t it?

Much better than Valentine’s cards, or candy, or flowers.

Still, we have those special people in our lives whom we need to give our fullest possible attention to – our wives, our sweethearts, our very good friends, those co-workers who work with us and beside us and those whom we may supervise.

Treat them special because they are special – who and what and why they are is absolutely 100% irreplaceable – every single one of their lives utterly matters.

They need to know that they are truly respected, loved and deeply appreciated.

God’s Unconventional Love versus Valentine’s Day

Ephesians 3:14-19The Message

14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

Everyday is a special day when we open our eyes, take that next breath, set our feet upon the floor, walk forth into the kitchen get that very first cup of coffee.

We look outside, greet the morning, are welcomed by the dawn’s new sun.

A hand that raises the blades of a Venetian blind to look out the window at the sky of a sunny day.

Tomorrow, however, is a wee bit more of a special day.

Yes, it is Valentine’s Day.

But does everyone know the origin of this day?

It is a very old tradition which started because of a Bishop named Valentinus.

He lived back in the days of the Roman Empire.

Long ago, Roman officials were against young people getting married in the church.

Many young Christians wanted to be married by the priest, in the church, with God’s blessing.

Valentinus was sympathetic to these people and continued to help marry them, even though he was often threatened by the government authorities.

Sadly, he was taken to Rome and put to death for his faith and his defiance of the Emperor’s rule.

In memory and honor of Saint Valentinus, young couples started talking about choosing a Valentine, when they were actually talking about choosing a bride.

Now we call this day, Saint Valentine’s Day.

In the modern era, many people give their sweethearts Valentine’s Day cards with hearts all over them.

Some people give candies or flowers.

A red carnation or a red rose means “I love you.”

These are all ways that people show their love.

But God also gave us a gift to show us that He loved us.

It was Jesus. God gave us Jesus as a way of saying, “I love you and you are special to me.”

That is a really great gift, isn’t it?

Much better than cards, or candy, or flowers.

Today, let us meditate on biblical love, the greatest love of all time.

There once was a very old pastor, who was suffering from a long battle with cancer.

A few days before his death, he continued to hold on to a special verse that was the source of his inspiration.

He placed a bookmark where his favorite scripture passage was written:

“Who shall separate us from the love Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:34-35 KJV).

Despite facing such a trail in his life, the old pastor was most certainly blessed with the power “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ;” a love that surpasses knowledge.

As children of God, we understand the fact that the root and foundation of creation is love.

It “surpasses knowledge.”

We know about human love.

Human love comes with the understanding that love comes as a reward for being good, for being faithful, being trustworthy and true, for being kind, for giving gifts, and for acting and for responding with appropriate behavior.

But this is not the same as the love which is embedded in the foundation of creation.

This is not the love that surpasses knowledge.

This is not the love that Paul prays we might have the power to grasp.

God’s love flows freely, without consideration of reward or any plan of equal or unequal or non-existent compensation.

This is a love that is not inherent to human nature.

We are more inclined to return love for love.

But the Scripture says,

“… how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:20-21).

If we are to approach love in the way of biblical love, we must meditate on what it means when the Bible says, we must love God and each other as ourselves.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:13-17)

Today, I would like to meditate on 3 questions about this amazing kind of love.

The first question is this:

Where does Love come from?

Where Does Love Come From?

Now some of you would answer, ‘that’s easy–it comes from within.’

Some may say, ‘It’s something that happens naturally as we mature as human beings.’

However, remember how hard it is to teach children to share?

That sharing instinct is not natural to them, but it is taught.

A human instinct is: self-survival.

C.S. Lewis, the famed English scholar, studied the various Greek words for love.

He came to distinguish the difference between what he called “needed love” and “gift love.”

Needed love is described as self-evident.

It is the most common kind of love in our world.

It is a mortal and human concept of love.

I love you, BECAUSE you love me.

I love you, because you provide for me, because you support me, and because you meet my needs.

Mr. Lewis illustrates that when we humans say to another, “I love you,” what we are really meaning is, “I need you, I want you. You hold value in my life.”

Now in contrast to “needed love” Mr. Lewis describes “gift love.”

This form of loving is born of fullness and wholeness.

The goal of gift love is to enrich and enhance the person whom it loves.

It does not require anything in return, nor does it hold requirements.

“Gift love moves out to bless and to increase rather than to acquire or to diminish. Gift love is more like a bountiful, artesian well that continues to overflow than a vacuum or a black hole. (C.S. Lewis)”

Mr. Lewis concludes this is what God’s love is all about. God’s love is gift love, not needed love.

This, of course, is the meaning of agape love; unconditional love.

Are we capable of agape love– loving as God loves?

To an extent we are.

But, we must go to the source of love, and the source of all love is God.

Jesus says in John’s narrative today, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. (John 15:13)”

Perfect love does not come from within, it only comes from above.

And when God lives within us, we become capable of expressing perfect love.

Please take secure hold of your BIBLES and turn with me to 1 John 4:7-11.

In his first epistle, John writes,

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” So, that is the answer to the first question: where does love come from? It comes from God. Then John adds, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:7-11).

The Second Question is ….

What does this Love look like?

A young girl came home one day bursting with good news.

“Mom, Dad, I know why we had to learn grammar!” she exclaimed.

“It is so we can understand God.”

Her mom and dad gave her a puzzled look, so the young girl explained.

“God is love, and love can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a verb.”

What a powerful concept!

Now doesn’t that preach a sermon or three lasting all the live long day!

Love isn’t just a vague feeling.

It is an action, an attitude, a spirit, and a character trait.

Since Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God, his every attitude, thought, word, action and deed was motivated by the love of God for Him and too, vice versa.

He was motivated completely and without reservation by love.

So, what does love look like?

Gift love is best illustrated with Jesus, a blameless man, hanging on a cross simply and solely because of God’s love for us.

We cannot meet any of God’s needs or even all of God’s commands.

But God’s nature is to give love, unconditionally, unconventionally, even at times when we do not deserve it.

As John writes,

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

God’s gift love is a pure and perfect love.

It is an unconventional, never-ending, and everlasting kind of love.

It does not ask for you to meet up to requirements, and it does not ask for compensation.

No matter how many times we sin or fall short of the Glory of God, His love never left us.

No matter how many times the world rebuked Him, His love never left us.

What does love look like?

There is no Greater and more Powerful image than Jesus on the Cross.

That is perfect love.

Perfect love looks like God, for He is love.

God and love are not two realities; they are one.

God’s infinite power of being is: the infinite power of love.

In every movement of love we are dwelling in God and God in us.

And when we accept the Holy Spirit into our lives, we allow God’s perfect love to be pictured through us.

We can also illustrate perfect love through the way we live.

Through every attitude, thought, word, and deed, we have.

Christians are called to be a reflection of the image of God.

We reflect God’s perfect love so that others can also see what true perfect love looks like.

Love unconditionally, unconventionally to all.

Now, the third and last question is:

What does such love require from us?

Jesus answers this question in John 15:13-17,

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

Jesus has issued the command: “Love each other as I have loved you.”

We are required by God’s command to love others as he has loved us–not with needed love, but with gift love.

Not because of anything they can or have done for us, but because of what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has done for us.

Luke 6:27-32Amplified Bible

27 “But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: [a]Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, 28 bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 Whoever [b]strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one also [simply ignore insignificant insults or losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity]. Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. [c]Whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. 31 Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. 32 If you [only] love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

The world lives by the philosophy: “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

To do good for people who are incapable of doing anything for you in return.

This is gift love, agape love. It is the love of God.

And of course, dear brother and sisters, this is the hardest form of love to give.

It is hard to love someone unconventionally when they cannot or will not or refuse to do the same for you.

But when the Spirit of the Lord is within, He will give you the strength to love.

The strength to be patient and compassionate.

The strength to reflect agape love to others who do not know God.

For the greatest command was to love God, and the second greatest command was to love one another.

Concluding Reflection’s: Love That Surpasses Knowledge

Ephesians 3:16-19Easy-to-Read Version

16 I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. 17 I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. 18 And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. 19 Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

Love is commonly considered an emotion—a feeling, inclination of the heart.

Love involves knowing the person we love, and yet even that knowledge is not the end of love.

Paul reminds his readers of this basic truth when he prays that they may “know this love that surpasses knowledge.”

Paul is talking here about the love of God, and he’s saying that it’s not enough to know about God without having love for God.

The standard of love that believers strive for is to “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

That’s a high standard indeed!

God is, in every way, far beyond what our minds can comprehend or our hearts can contain.

We will never achieve this total fullness!

But what a powerful prayer this is—and what a wonderful goal to guide us in living our life!

To be continually growing in this “fullness of God” and his love is the delight of discipleship.

This is a wonderful prayer offered for us—but it’s also a prayer to offer on behalf of others.

What a transformation of our relationships when an entire community of Christ’s disciples experiences together a growing fullness of God’s love.

It’s beyond our ability to imagine!

Valentines Day is known as the day of love.

But God’s love lasts for eternity.

It is a perfect LOVE that loves unconditionally and unconventionally.

Where does perfect love come from?

It comes from God alone, and works within us when we become His children.

What does perfect love look like?

It looks like Jesus, a blameless man, hanging on a cross, for a world which did not deserve Him.

And as His children we reflect that image through our actions, our attitudes, thoughts, words, and deeds.

And what does such perfect love require out of us?

It requires us to move beyond “needed love” and give “gift love”.

To look around at others who are in need of God’s love and to give it to them–not asking what they can do for us, remembering what Christ has done for us.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

We bow our hearts before You, Father God. You are the Creator of everything we see in heaven and on earth. We pray that out of Your glorious, unlimited resources, You would strengthen our hearts and minds through the power of Your Holy Spirit. May Your love be the rich soil in which our lives are rooted. May Your love be the only firm foundation upon which we build, so that, together with all Your people everywhere, we would come to truly understand how long, how high, how wide and how deep Your love really is—how it far surpasses anything we can imagine. God, fill us with the fullness and the power that comes from You alone, so that our lives would reflect your goodness and grace to the world around us.  Lord, fill us to overflowing with the knowledge and the wisdom of your fullness so that we love you more and serve you better. Help us to keep offering this prayer for others, that we may all grow in you.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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“It is ALL in Our DOING!” 10 Ideas to Bring Your Family, Your Friends and Your Neighbors a Wee Little Bit More of God’s Love this Christmas. 1 John 4:7-21

1 John 4:7-21The Message

God Is Love

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

To Love, to Be Loved

17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

It is ALL in the DOING!

John speaks directly to the heart of love as he writes, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.”

Loving is not an abstract, optional concept.

It originates with God,

and we pass along God’s love in our relationships with others.

Renowned Author, Ethicist and Theologian Lewis Smedes put it this way in his book Love Within Limits: 

“God’s love song is in many ways like other great love songs. . . . Our challenge is to find ways to bring the heavenly rhapsody down into our own worldly ­realities.”

How true—and also realistically, truthfully how difficult! Only one person, Jesus, lived out perfectly the demands of perfect love, and he was crucified.

Living with one another gets messy, and people can be so difficult!

We live with family, friends, and neighbors who often seem determined to test even our desire to love.

But God didn’t command us to like one another. Jesus, after stating that the greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God . . .” reminded everyone that the second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).

That is not an optional command.

Jesus also described it as a new command and gave the reason for us to obey it:

34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” John 13:34-35

Jesus expects us to live out His love in very visible ways, to obey his commands.

I fervently pray the Christmas season, or any season for that matter, also reminds us of what Jesus said in Matthew 22:39, about the second most crucial commandment Christians should keep. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

While I could focus solely on myself this Christmas,

My Wife and I find it infinitely more rewarding to help spread the merriment of the holidays to those around us, including to those who are our literal neighbor.

By doing this, our lives becomes engulfed in God’s love and Immanuel’s joy, and both our hearts become more focused on the reason for the season: Jesus!

To help you the reader do the same, here are 10 ideas to bring your neighbor, your family, yourself a bit more of God’s Love, Immanuel’s joy this Christmas.

1. Host a dinner.

Savor the Christmas season this year by cherishing time spent with the people in your life.

Invite a few of your neighbors over for a potluck dinner.

Cook the main dish and ask a few people to bring sides and desserts.

If you’re feeling extra hospitable, provide all aspects of the meal and let your neighbors enjoy their evening.

Just make sure you communicate with all your neighbors about any dietary restrictions.

When it comes time to have your neighbors over, make your home extra festive: turn on your Christmas tree, lighting your favorite Christmas-scented candle.

Have light Christmas music playing in the background, too! Sit around the fireplace (or this video of a fire) and enjoy God and one another’s company.

When it comes time to leave, give your neighbors a small gift, like a mug with hot cocoa packets and marshmallows – maybe their souls will be warmed up!

2. Organize a cookie exchange.

Every year, my wife and I know a great couple who will spend hours upon hours in the kitchen, over a nice warm oven and bake well over a thousand cookies of all flavors and will distribute them to their family, their friends, and neighbors.

Or perhaps, instead of baking however many varieties and myriad different types of Christmas cookies, maybe try hosting a cookie exchange this year.

Find a handful of neighbors who would like to participate and have each select one or two types of cookies to make.

You can ask everyone to bake their holiday favorites, or you can assign cookie types to prevent repeats.

Then, invite everyone over to to the house, exchange cookies with one another.

Everyone will leave a variety of cookies, without having to be chained to their kitchens all of December.

You can even turn the cookie exchange into an entire afternoon celebration.

Put on your favorite Christmas movies and music and provide hot cocoa and and coffee and popcorn and the aromas of God’s Love. Invite neighbors to stay for a couple of hours to watch a flick and nibble on those delectable cookies.

3. Provide babysitting. (as much as you are able and it is needed by your guests)

Christmas is a hugely busy time.

There are never-ending parties and celebrations, a million and a half things to bake, and gifts to purchase and wrap.

This last part can be especially tricky for parents of children who still believe in Santa or just want to manage to keep the gifts they’re giving a hidden surprise.

If you have a neighbor with small kids, offer to watch them one evening so their parents can get their Christmas shopping done.

Or even just take a night off together.

If you have kids, too, see if you can work out a child swap for a couple of hours.

With their approval and their permission, watch their kids one night, send your kids to the neighbor’s house another night – share some cookies and hot cocoa.

This way, they can get their shopping done in peaceful bliss.

4. Shovel their driveway. (as much as it may be required and you can safely do)

After a particularly heavy snow, I came home from work one day to find that our neighbors had shoveled our driveway.

Well, actually, I came home to see our neighbor in the middle of snow blowing our driveway, so I looped around the block one more time, parked my truck and picked up my shovel and I summarily started on my other neighbors driveway.

I know, I know—kind of, sort of, just a might bit and largely neighborly gesture.

But, I love shoveling the driveway, even though it might be some dense snow.

You too can be that great neighbor to someone else. Grab your shovel or snow blower, help someone out, especially someone like an ailing or elderly person.

But honestly, truthfully everyone will then appreciate having the “shovel the driveway” checked off their list for them so whoever you help will be thankful!

5. Go caroling together.

I know, I know, I know – so utterly and completely old fashioned, isn’t it?

A wise man once said, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.”

Okay, yeah.

You caught me ….

and now my cheeks are blushing ….

The guy I’m talking about is Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, but that does not detract from his wisdom.

Christmas caroling spreads God’s love and great cheer at lightning speeds.

Grab your family and friends and go door to door singing some of the all-time classics, like Silent Night or Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

If your feeling extra festive, feel like you want to go over the top with your caroling, bring a plate of cookies along and offer your neighbors a sweet treat.

6. Organize a neighborhood food drive. (with a bit more neighborly planning)

Nothing gets people in the true Christmas spirit quite as well as helping others. Bring your neighborhood together this Christmas by organizing a food drive.

Contact your local food bank and ask what nonperishable food items they need.

Print out a list of those foods, along with an explanation of what you’re doing, and deliver that info sheet door to door.

If someone isn’t home, either leave the sheet in their mailbox or on their front door. Let your neighbors know they can drop off the goods on your doorstep at any time and also designate a day that you could come to pick up any items.

Together, you will help restock your local food bank in the midst of the season during which they serve the most people.

7. Be a secret Santa.

My Wife and I love to do this ….

Our absolute favorite way to give Christmas gifts is secret-Santa style.

We absolutely love the idea of people anonymously receiving a present they were not expecting.

It can be such a huge blessing, and with no one to thank, they turn their gratitude towards God.

Your secret-Santa present can be something small like a Christmas movie, caramel popcorn, or hot cocoa.

Or your gift could be something life-changing, like a new washing machine.

Another secret-Santa idea I love is to collect pocket change and loose dollar bills throughout the year.

Then deliver that jar of money to the doorstep of a random homeless neighbor.

By giving these gifts without receiving credit, it really highlights how generous, compassionate our Heavenly Father is and how he abundantly blesses all of us.

8. Host a wrapping party.

I do not know about you, but I often have a gift for weeks before I actually get around to wrapping it, mostly because of my lack of wrapping paper. Or tape. Or ribbon. Or gift tags. (I’m pretty much a wrapping-mess!) (I despise wrapping!)

So why not host a present wrapping party for you and a few neighbors?

Have each person bring a pair of scissors and a few rolls of wrapping paper.

Provide tape, ribbons, and snacks.

Put on a Christmas movie, crank up some festive music, spread some Christmas Cookies around and spend your day wrapping all the presents you are giving.

It is an especially great idea for college dorms or student apartment buildings.

It provides students with an opportunity to get together, have a party, wrap their gifts, eat some favorite cookies, all before going home for the holidays.

It’s also a fantastic stress-buster during the chaos of finals week!

9. Help Decorate

Driving through a neighborhood where almost every home has lights on their house and a tree in its window is such a joyful treat.

But the problem with Christmas decorations is that they often have to be set up in crummy weather.

The cold, snow or ice can be especially tricky to brave, and the last thing you want is someone slipping off their roof.

Also, let’s be honest: setting up Christmas decorations can be exhausting!

Some years, it’s a struggle to find the time to set up your decorations.

So, if you have a neighbor who usually decorates but hasn’t yet this year, reach out and see if they need help.

It’ll bring God to their doorstep and Immanuel’s joy to your neighbor, and to the rest of your neighbors who get to look back at the beautiful decorations!

10. Give a Simple Card

It’s hard to explain my joy when I open our mailbox, and there’s a piece of mail that is neither a bill nor a mass of advertisements all addressed to “our current resident.” It’s almost like the Christmas-morning-equivalent of adulthood.

Why not give our God a chance to freely advertise some of His great love for “all of our current residents,” take advantage of this super simple, inexpensive way to bring Immanuel’s joy to your neighbors?

Buy a multi-pack of Christmas cards and write a small heartfelt note about how much these people mean to you.

Tell stories of how they have blessed you this year, and thank God for them for being great neighbors.

Bonus:

this is a great way to introduce yourself to neighbors you do not know as well.

Introduce yourself via a card and follow up with your neighbors with one of the other ideas in this article.

The Christmas season lends itself exceedingly and abundantly well to forming yearlong relationships with your neighbors.

You just never know what God will do with such a relationship ….

It is ALL in the DOING ….

John’s letter gives us magnificent clues on how to stretch the season.

We celebrate Christmas all year when we stick to the basics of “loving God and carrying out his commands.”

And these “commands” are not complicated.

The central command is to love God and neighbor. For example, says John, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.”

So, as we finish our Christmas gatherings, finish unwrapping gifts, take down the Christmas tree and box and store the lights and decorations, we should keep celebrating our FIRST love of the birth of Jesus, by loving others as he loves us.

“Peace and goodwill to all”

must become FOR ALL a blessed and highly favored year-round labor of love.

It is ALL in our DOING!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 100 The Message

100 1-2 On your feet now—applaud God!
    Bring a gift of laughter,
    sing yourselves into his presence.

3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
    He made us; we didn’t make him.
    We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.

4 Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
    Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
    Thank him. Worship him.

5 For God is sheer beauty,
    all-generous in love,
    loyal always and ever.

Almighty, all-merciful God, through Christ Jesus you have taught us to love one another, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even to love our enemies. In times of violence and fear, let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, so that we may not be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good.

Help us to see each person in light of the love and grace you have shown us in Christ. Put away the nightmares of terror and awaken us to the dawning of your new creation. Establish among us a future where peace reigns, justice is done with mercy, and all are reconciled. We ask these things in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord Jesus, as your neighbors often we are difficult to love. Thank you for always loving us and being our example of patience and perseverance as we seek to love others in your name. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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The Absolute Surety of God’s Love for Us. What More is there for us to say? What More is there for us to do now? 1 John 4:7-21

This probably comes as no surprise to you, but since covid-19 rearranged so many of our lives and schedules, we have changed how much time we spend looking at a screen, whether it’s a tv, smartphone, laptop, or computer screen.

As a whole, we are spending a significant amount of time on these devices.

With that increased usage comes an increase in our exposure to hateful and divisive behaviors.

Anger, violence, and unrest that is posted to social media platforms only reflects and magnifies the anger, violence, and unrest in our communities.

With all of this unrest in our global communities, some people may reasonably wonder exactly where God is in all of this.

Others are max tempted to question the quality and quantity of God’s goodness.

They might ask,

They might shout,

They might scream at the top of their collective lungs,

They might march in the streets, raising high signs of protest and indignation,

“If God is so good, then how can He allow all of this hate and violence to exist?

But just because there is human hatred and violence in our presence, this in no way negates God’s goodness and love.

You see, the world’s concept of love cannot hope to compare with God’s love.

I am referring to God’s love that was on display when He gave His one and only Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world.

We can’t do anything to deserve God’s love, but He loves us anyway.

God’s love abides forever, and He wants us to be sure of His love for us.

Today we will be using 1 John 4 for our focal passage.

John has already spoken to us twice on the theme of love as we looked at his writings in 1 John chapters 2 and 3.

Now he was dealing with the topic for the third time.

It is critically important here to know this about Scripture: when Scripture addresses a matter even once, it is important, but when God inspires a biblical writer to address a topic repeatedly, we should really sit up and take notice.

So, let us “sit up” and take notice once again to what God tells us about love.

1 John 4:7-10Amplified Bible

God Is Love

7 Beloved, let us [unselfishly] [a]love and seek the best for one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves [others] is born of God and knows God [through personal experience]. 8 The one who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love. [He is the originator of love, and it is an enduring attribute of His nature.] 9 By this the love of God was displayed in us, in that God has sent His [One and] only begotten Son [the One who is truly unique, the only One of His kind] into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [that is, the atoning sacrifice, and the satisfying offering] for our sins [fulfilling God’s requirement for justice against sin and placating His wrath].

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Love is the very nature of God.

So, John writes,

“Love is from God, and love comes from God because God is love.”

Love is not just another characteristic of God among many.

It’s God’s very nature from which all the other attributes come.

Everything that comes from God can be attributed to His love for us.

So, if God judges, He judges in love.

That does not mean God condones sin, but in love, He is exposed to that sin and sent His son to die for sin’s penalty.

Most all of us are familiar with John 3:16, that says

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

1 John 4 verse 9, John is reminding us that God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we can know that God loves us.

The origin of Love is God.

Love began with God.

So, Jesus is the manifestation of God’s love.

God showed his love toward us by sending His Son to pay our sin debt.

How great is God’s love?

The answer to that is that God’s love is seen in the value of the gift: God gave His one and only Son (John 3:16-17).

And that is an extremely valuable gift.

So, God sent His Son as a demonstration of His love for us.

The Greek word used in 1 John 4 verse 9 for “only son” is the same word that was used to describe Abraham’s offering up of his only son, Isaac.

Let’s go back in Scripture several hundred years and I will explain that.

In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham.

He told Abraham to take his only son, Isaac, whom Abraham loved, to the land of Mariah and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountain to God.

Abraham did not question God but obeyed God immediately.

The story reaches its climax when Abraham, who had bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, raised his knife to the sky.

It was not until then that God’s angel called to Abraham, telling Abraham not to harm the boy.

Abraham proved his reverent fear of God.

God knew Abraham’s heart and knew that Abraham would carry out God’s order to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Then, in a beautiful display of His vast mercy and grace, God provided a ram to sacrifice in young Isaac’s place.

God, out of His love, provided the substitute sacrifice.

Do you and I see the similarities?

God spared Abraham’s son, but the difference is He didn’t spare His own Son on the cross.

God willingly gave His Son to die in our place, and Jesus willingly took the punishment for our sins upon Himself.

God did not do this because we are lovable, rays of sunshine on a stormy day.

By no means.

He loved and sent His Son to rescue us, not because we are lovable, but because God is love.

So, the greatness of God’s love is seen in the costliness of His self-sacrifice for us who are so utterly and completely undeserving.

So now with all of that in mind John writes,

“Let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

1 John 4:11 – “Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.”

We’ve already seen in 1 John 4:7 the command to love one another.

John repeated that twice more here in 1 John 4 verse 11 and then in verse 12.

With this call to love one another as God loved us comes great responsibility.

We are to love others as God has loved us.

That is an enormously tall order.

Are we even capable of such an indescribable magnitude of Love?

God has loved us with a boundless, changeless, ultimate self-sacrificing love.

God still loves us in the same way today, as he seeks to display that magnitude of love through us.

So, we saw in 1 John chapter 4 verses 8-9, that God revealed His love when His Son, Jesus, became the sacrifice for our sins.

He took away our sin, but He didn’t just take away the bad.

He gave to us as well.

What did he give us?

Jesus gave us life that we might live through Him.

Now you are perhaps asking the inevitable question, what does that mean?

That clearly means that we are to live in Him, which means we are to allow others to see His love in and through us.

People should see Jesus’s love shine from us without us saying a word.

To love with God’s love gives evidence that we have a relationship with the One who displays His love through us.

Then, if we didn’t understand the positive side of that, John States it negatively in 1 John chapter 4 verse 8. “The one who does not love, does not know God.”

Now that all sounds pretty and nice doesn’t it?

But here comes the test.

Think about your relationships right now.

It is reasonably safe to say there is someone that you find difficult to love.

It is reasonably safe to say there is someone that you find impossible to love.

It is reasonable safe to say there is that someone you have no trouble hating.

Your instructions here are to ask God to help you love these individuals as He loves them.

Again, that is a pretty tall order.

Kind of like standing or sitting still as someone runs nails down a chalkboard.

But it is not something that, through God’s miracles, we cannot accomplish.

John goes a little deeper and says:

1 John 4:12 – 13 – “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.”

John reminds us here that no one has ever seen God.

So how do we even know that God is around?

Believers reveal the presence of God through the way they love one another.

The very fact that we love one another serves as evidence that God remains in us, and we remain in Him.

We embrace God’s love, He comes to live in us, and His love pours out of us as we love others.

So, when individual or groups of people see the mutual love given and shared between brothers and sisters in Christ, they see the display of God’s love.

A quick recap.

When we accept Christ as our personal Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us.

In that, we now possess the fruit of that spirit.

One of those fruits is love.

As a Christian, love is the fruit of God’s indwelling Spirit.

God is perfect in His love.

He Lacks nothing.

But God’s love is made complete when that love flows through us.

God has chosen to use His people as channels of His love.

So, we are to present ourselves to Him daily as instruments of His continual love.

When we love others, we cooperate with God’s redemptive plan for the world, so that others can be sure of God’s love for them.

Let me ask you.

If you ever plan on going to another particular church and you see the church members fighting and quarreling among each other, is that a church you would want to attend, give of your time, tithe and other material spiritual resources?

On the other hand, if you go to another church and the people are loving and caring and show a genuine love toward one another, is that a church you would like to attend and be part of, give of your time and tithe and material resources?

I rest my case.

And here’s the thing.

Putting God’s love on display is to be a continuous, ongoing activity.

Now we will all have to admit that there are times when it is hard to love, especially when we feel that we have been wronged or hurt by someone.

It is in those moments, in our humanity, that the last thing we want to do is express forgiveness and extend acts of kindness to that person.

But God has commanded us to love one another as God first loved us, and what God commands, He makes possible through the max example set by His Son.

Will we, do it?

Sadly, probably not!

It is in our sin nature that we simply find it much too easy to magnify hate.

Can we, do it? Can we unconditionally love one another as God first did?

Yes, we can!

If we willingly surrender our whole selves – hurts, hang-ups and hates too – and sacrifice all of those hurts, hang-ups and hates on the altar of His Mercy.

Psalm 103:1-5Amplified Bible

Praise for the Lord’s Mercies.

A Psalm of David.

103 Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is [deep] within me, bless His holy name.
2 
Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
And do not forget any of His benefits;
3 
Who forgives all your sins,
Who heals all your diseases;
4 
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you [lavishly] with lovingkindness and tender mercy;
5 
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the [soaring] eagle.

So, we are to love, not for our enfeebled sake, but for the sake of Jesus Christ.

And the key to transforming boundless hate into loving others is in loving God.

Luke 6:27-36Amplified Bible

27 “But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: [a]Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, 28 bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 Whoever [b]strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one also [simply ignore insignificant insults or losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity]. Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. [c]Whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. 31 Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. 32 If you [only] love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend [money] to those from whom you expect to receive [it back], what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to receive back the same amount. 35 But love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, and do good, and lend, [d]expecting nothing in return; for your reward will be great (rich, abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High; because He Himself is kind and gracious and good to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful (responsive, compassionate, tender) just as your [heavenly] Father is merciful.

The more we love God, the more of God’s love will flow out of us toward others.

Picture it as a garden hose attached to the outdoor faucet of a house.

When the faucet is turned on, the water flows.

The hose doesn’t produce the water.

It is only the conduit for the water to flow freely.

In ourselves, we might find it difficult, impossible to love, especially to love unconditionally, as God loves.

But when we are attached to Him, when we remain in Christ as Jesus said (John 15:1-5), His love flows freely through us.

And I would commend all of you reading this for your demonstrations of your sacrifices of unconditional mercy towards one another, love of one another.

God loves watching us constantly encouraging others. Writing notes, making phone calls, giving of your time, and just spending time with one another.

That lets others know we truly care. And remember what God has always said. If we want to make a lasting impact on our society and community, then just care.

Our lives ought to be characterized by daily acts of kindness.

We should serve in order to share Christ’s sacrifice that gave us salvation.

To love others is to seek their highest good.

God’s presence, God’s mercy, God’s love does not just seek to meet needs, but it aims to max exceed those needs in maximum abundance in the name of Christ.

Let me give you a biblical example.

The gospel of Mark 2:1-12, illustrates for us a crystal-clear example of loving sacrificial service with genuine gospel intent.

You might remember the story.

Four men carried a paralyzed man on a mat to meet Jesus, believing Jesus was able to heal the man.

But when they arrived, the crowd’s size made it impossible for the men to get their friend to Jesus.

But they refused to give up.

They would not be denied.

Their love for their friend compelled them to max out the extra mile.

They had that man’s highest good at heart.

The men climbed to the top of the house, removed the roof, and lowered their friend before Jesus.

And Jesus, who is love, not only healed the man but also forgave his sins.

What a beautiful example of tangible acts of kindness.

What a glorious example of seeking someone’s highest good.

If only you and I had such a story to tell …. imagine the max impact on others!

1 John 4:19-21 – “We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.”

John didn’t leave any gray areas here, did he?

Nor did he sugarcoat his words. “If anyone says I love God and yet hates his brother or sister he is a liar.”

Then to further stress that truth, John said, “For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

The statements strike to the core of the issue.

Of course, some would say it’s easier to love God because He first loved us.

But John argued just the opposite.

Logically, it’s easier to show love to people who are visibly present, rather than God, who is an invisible spirit.

So here is the issue.

A failure to love people whom we can see is a failure to love God whom we cannot see, and a failure to love is hate.

It gets down to this, we live out our love for God when we choose to love other people whom we would find it easier to rationalize and fully realize our hate.

Love overcomes hate.

There is so much visible hate in our world today that it is vitally important that Christians love one another. But our love should not stop with other Christians.

Impossible love needs to go out into the world and seek to win the lost to Christ.

Jesus came in human flesh because He loved us. He gave His life out of love for the lost, and we are to follow His example.

We, too, are to love the sinner.

We are to love the down cast and broken.

We are to love the weak and lonely.

We are to love the sick and needy.

We are to love the least of these as Jesus said. (Matthew 25:34-40)

So, to be sure of God’s maximum love, there is something we must do.

How can we be sure of God’s love for us?

Commit yourself to love like Jesus, who unselfishly gave His life for others.

Try to keep in mind and max love like the four men who did whatever it took to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus.

Practice sacrificial, transforming love like the Good Samaritan who willingly set aside the traditional hatred of others towards him, to meet a stranger’s needs.

This is the kind of love that grabs someone’s attention and changes the world.

By showing our love for one another, even those we declare our worst enemy, it will “heap coals on their heads,” help others to be sure of God’s love for them.

Maybe you have never felt God’s love. If you have not, is it because you have never asked Jesus Christ, God’s son, to come and pour his love into your life.

Why not do that now?

Stuff your pride under the chair and take that first critical step toward Jesus.

Your heart and your soul and your whole life will surely be glad you did.

Pray unto the Father and Author and Weaver of your life and ask Him to come into your heart and instruct and guide and love your life from this day forward.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Loving Heavenly Father, You have loved me with immeasurable love. You are love. I pray that I will be strengthened in my inner being – in my soul – with the love that is wider than I can understand, deeper than I am able to imagine, and greater than I could ever know. As You encourage and embolden me, may I more fully know the mystery of the Gospel as revealed in my life. In the love of Christ, I pray. Amen.

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Happy Valentine’s Day! The Love of God in the Light of Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day is a special day for those in marriages where there is a mutually enriching relationship. It is a special for couples who are dating or engaged. It is a special day for dear friends. It is a day is for gifting with boxes of chocolate candy all wrapped with a red and white bow, flowers, loving cards, enjoyable times together, lunch dates and dinners all with the most romantic of flares.

But there are some people would like to ignore Valentine’s Day: recent widows and widowers, those living together who are estranged, separated or divorced, those struggling as single mothers or single fathers or anyone because of age, depression or infirmity who feels alone. How can those who are celebrating look at their celebration of shared love from another perspective? How can those who want the day to be invisible, live in their lives from another perspective?

The answer is contained in the pages of God’s Word to us. Whoever we are, we ought to try and remember we are first loved by Creator God at the moment of conception in our mother’s womb. This love remains a constant in our lives. The truth is: God’s love is our first valentine. So, whether we celebrate openly or simply desire the day to fall off the calendar, we can all celebrate God’s love on Valentine’s Day. We do this by reflecting on his word to each of us individually:

1 John 4:7-21 GOD’S WORD Translation

God’s Love Lives in His People

7 Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. 8 The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love. 9 God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10 This love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 We know that we live in him, and he lives in us because he has given us his Spirit.

14 We have seen and testify to the fact that the Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God lives in those who declare that Jesus is the Son of God, and they live in God. 16 We have known and believed that God loves us. God is love. Those who live in God’s love live in God, and God lives in them.

17 God’s love has reached its goal in us. So we look ahead with confidence to the day of judgment. While we are in this world, we are exactly like him ⌞with regard to love⌟. 18 No fear exists where his love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn’t have perfect love.

19 We love because God loved us first. 20 Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates another believer is a liar. People who don’t love other believers, whom they have seen, can’t love God, whom they have not seen. 21 Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

We often think of Valentine’s Day as the day for couples to show their love to one another, but rarely do we use the day to remind us of God’s unmatched love for us, His children. For many single people, Valentine’s Day can be a bitter reminder of their singleness and desire for a relationship. Luckily, God doesn’t leave anyone, single or in a relationship, out of His unending love and grace.

In 1 John 4:8, the author says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

God is love itself. We wouldn’t have any conception of “love” at all if it weren’t for God, the definition of love.

God further defines love in the classic 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 passage that reads, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

God continuously describes love in this way, and then continually tells us that He IS love. This further emphasizes that God himself is all of these things.

God is continually and continuously patient and kind. He keeps no record of wrongs. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. God’s love is a perfect love that no one on earth could ever possibly emulate.

We frequently read this 1 John 4 and 1 Corinthians passage near Valentine’s Day or at weddings to remind us of what continuous and continual love should look like. We sin and tragically fall short, but God is the perfect demonstration of it.

John 3:16 says, “for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

In His continuous and continual love for us, He gave up His only son for us. He gave us eternal life because of His great and unmatched love for each of us.

The theologian C.S. Lewis once said, “He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.”

Ponder upon and today meditate upon this thought: God loves you so much. If you were the only one on earth, He 100% still would have sent His son for you.

Mark 12:28-34 GOD’S WORD Translation

Love God and Your Neighbor

28 One of the experts in Moses’ Teachings went to Jesus during the argument with the Sadducees. He saw how well Jesus answered them, so he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of them all?”

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. 30 So love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

32 The expert in Moses’ Teachings said to Jesus, “Teacher, that was well said! You’ve told the truth that there is only one God and no other besides him! 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself is more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34 When Jesus heard how wisely the man answered, he told the man, “You’re not too far from God’s kingdom.”

After that, no one dared to ask him another question.

So, on this Valentine’s Day 2022, remember to set your sights not on earthy relationships, but on the God above who loves far more fully and abundantly than we could ever imagine. Strive in your life to continually, continuously learning everything there is to know from God’s Word about His love for you.

Translate that knowledge and experience into your everyday life with whoever it is you may meet. Celebrate and share the perfect love of God in Christ Jesus. Love others in the exact same way in which God, through Christ first loved you! Pray openly or secretly, with those you meet today, “may God’s love embrace you not just on this Valentine’s Day but in every single moment of every single day!”

There is no such a time that is ever a bad time to express your love for someone, and if it takes a formal holiday like Valentine’s Day, to help you to express your affection to the loved ones in your life, then I’m all for it and you should be too. For the occasion: don’t just send a card or note that says “I love you!” Include a personal message from God’s Words of Love and Life, of Faith and Hope about what it is that you love about that person, why you find time to cherish them.  

Please, Do not put off saying “I LOVE YOU.”

For God’s Sake, do not assume someone knows how you feel about them. Tell them. Tell them right now. The matter of one person’s soul hearing God’s love for them should never be taken for granted. God’s first love transforms utterly. Give God, Give Jesus, Give God’s Holy Spirit the opportunity to grow loves seed. We plant the seed of His abiding love with our love we first received from God. Love is always meant to be communicated. Love is always meant to be known.

Try and imagine all those moments when you did not speak or hear of 1st love. Did you love the feeling? Do you regret not even knowing of all the feelings? I encourage each and every one who eventually comes to read this devotional to pick up their Bibles, clean, wipe the dust off the covers – learn of “first love” all over again. Reacquaint and refresh your hearts and your souls with His Truth.

“Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, you soul, mind and strength!”

FROM GOD TO YOU, THROUGH ME, HAVE A HAPPY VALENTINES’ DAY 2022!!!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

A Valentine’s Day Prayer

I said a Valentine prayer for You
and asked the Lord above
to fill your heart and bless your soul
with the precious gift of love.

I asked Him for sincere love
the kind that’s meant to stay
just like the generous love
You give to those You touch each day.

I prayed for love from family
and from every cherished friend
then I asked the Lord to give you
His love that knows no end.

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By what standard ought We to Love all others? By Whose standard? We love only because God first loved us!

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

The eternal God loves us in three tenses: past, present and future – for He is the same yesterday today and forever. It is a divine love that cannot be compared with the inadequate love of fallen man, but is a love so penetrating, that He sent the unique, and only begotten Son of His love to be the propitiation for our sins.

That single act of the Father should stagger us to the core of our being… that our God sent Christ as a gift of His grace… to be made the penultimate curse for us – so that, for the sake of love we might be made the righteousness of God, in Him.

But having redeemed us He sent His Holy Spirit to abide in our heart and day by day, He seeks to transform us from ugly, bitter, antagonistic sinners into good, obedient and mature children of God, having the same, godly nature as the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself.

But His love extends into the never-ending, eternal future, for no eye has seen, nor ear has heard – nor has it entered into the imagination of man the glories that God has prepared for those who love Him. Since the eternal God loves us in three, staggering tenses – the standard set, we ought also to love one another.

1 John 4:7-21 English Standard Version

God Is Love

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Today’s passage is all about love. The first couple of things that probably pop into your mind when you hear “love” likely involve romance, dating, marriage, I know because it did for me the very first time, I remember reading the text!

Today, we will be devoting our time to talking about a love that is much greater, very much stronger, and much more powerful than any love we could possibly conjure up or imagine we can bound within our human limits. The answer to “What kind of standard of love is that?” God because God is love, so God’s love. 

The New Covenant text for today explores the scope of God’s love and the vast implications of it: how that love was presented to us, how it was displayed in Jesus Christ, and how that standard of love both transforms and changes us.

A short caveat: for the organizational purposes of exploring these three topics, the verses referenced in this devotional offering might be a bit out of order, so just be aware of that. Man’s boundaries all come back to the center who is God!

How the standard of God’s love is presented to us

The first thing I wanted to take a look at today is how this beloved passage from 1 John answers for us the question of “How is/was God’s love presented to us?”

There are two verses in particular which begin to address that question today:

1 John 4:10Authorized (King James) Version

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:19Authorized (King James) Version

19 We love him, because he first loved us.

What is so special about these two verses?

They both show the initiative of God. Who loved first? God loved first. This isn’t meant to be a dive into any meaningful discourse or theological discussion on predestination or whatever, but to really take a well-considered look at the initiative that God takes in setting before us, His children, his standard of love.

And this exercise of personal initiative is significant, because it shows reveals to us God is in no identifiable way shape or form passive. God does not just sit back and twiddle His thumbs and leave us alone to figure this sin problem out, but rather, He takes and is taking an indescribably active role in the redemption of his children. Let’s let our fingers wander back to the first couple of the books of the Bible and bring to remembrance some of the events and characters there.

The Creation Story. Who initiates it? Who speaks creation into being? God!

Noah and the ark. Who initiates there? It was God!

Abraham and his covenant. Who initiates there? Again, it was God!

Moses and the burning bush. Who initiates there? Once again, God! 

And once we realize this pattern in the Old Testament of God initiating and taking an unimaginably active role, we can recognize that it doesn’t end there. As we keep thumbing through the pages, God’s undeniably active role continues in the sweep towards the sacrificial work of Jesus on the cross unto Revelation.

How God’s love was displayed through Christ Jesus

And now, with God’s initiative in mind, let us advance our thoughts into and unto the second topic. We are able to allow our souls to genuinely and deeply appreciate how God displays his love through Jesus. Let’s take a look at our text:

1 John 4:9-10 Authorized (King James) Version

9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

How was God’s love displayed and made known to us?

Through the death through which Jesus paid, and in return, the life that was given to us. His atoning death has led to the forgiveness of our sin. But what makes that love so grand and almost baffling? It’s that God is not obligated to send Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, he does not have to do it, but he does so willingly. He takes the divine initiative and unconditionally loves us first, even if it is for a people that do not––and may not–– ever, ever, ever love him back.

God’s standard of unconditional love inevitably transforms and changes us all

The final thought I wanted to take a look at regarding this passage is how God’s love transforms and changes us. At the beginning of this post, I had mentioned how powerful God’s love is, and this entire passage really brings that into focus:

8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8 AKJV)

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:11-12 AKJV)

17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:17-18 AKJV)

20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21 AKJV)

Again, God’s love is never a passive love. And in that same way, God’s love does not act passively in us. It drives us, it transforms, and it changes us. It drives us to love one another (v.11), to care for our brothers and sisters (vv. 20-21), gives us confidence towards God even in judgement (vv. 17-18), and transforms us to be more like Christ (v. 17).

As God was willing to take and exercise His divine initiative to love and sacrifice His ONLY Son, for these people, surely, I can go out of my way to love them too. 

God’s love does not, has never and will never act the least bit passively in us. It constantly and continuously drives us, it transforms, and it 1000% changes us. God’s love is inevitable! It never changes! It can never change because our God never changes. God’s love is limitless! His love is not bound by our standards! His love can never be bound up or be held in bondage by frail human standards! These thoughts ought to just blow our minds outside the bounds of what we will tightly tape, wrap up securely inside gift boxes titled “impossible and possible.”

With what I fervently pray is a much better understanding today of how God exercises initiative in his love, how can we, today, take initiative in our love?

What does it look like to take initiative to love a friend in a mental health crisis? A difficult to talk to neighbor. A family member with different political views?

Maybe it is something “smaller,” like asking and then listening well to how someone’s been doing. Or maybe it’s something a bit bigger, like apologizing to someone, asking for their forgiveness from a mistake which caused them grief.

Regardless, we do not love because it’s something we have to do, or because we are obligated to do, but because God’s love drives us to do it. As much or as little as we follow Jesus, we serve a loving God who decided to take initiative to give His one and only Son as a “paid in full” ransom in exchange for many. And that should charge, change us, and transform us, to take some initiative of our own.

The only questions and answers we need to give a maximum accounting unto God for is: What did that God driven, Jesus loved, Holy Spirit inspired initiative look like? Did we recognize the divine nature of it? Were we obedient unto it or we all too deeply living and loving from deep inside our all too typical passivity?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us now collectively gather as the Body of Christ, God’s Ecclesia, in some prayer.

Gracious God, you give us the Word that turns us again and again to you. You give us Jesus who is the greatest manifestation of your word, your love and your purpose. Help us to live fully as baptized people, those grafted into Jesus the branch, the crucified and risen One. God of the risen Jesus, hear our prayer.

God of all dominion and power, God of love; we can love only because you first loved us. Empower us by your Holy Spirit to be and do the same. When we rest in your love, fear—though present—cannot overpower us. Help us to rest there always. God of the risen Jesus, hear our prayer. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen

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