Tag: loving neighbors

Do We Really ‘Feel’ What This Means Anymore: “We Love Because He First Loved Us?” 1 John 4:17-21

Sometimes, one too many times, believing God loves us so deeply can be hard.

When we mess up, we make bad choices, it can be difficult to believe God cares.

We are likely to ask of ourselves “why should God care about me anyway, I know what I have done, surely God knows what I have done, so why should He love me?”

The thing of it is – we are only likely to be asking this of ourselves, to ourselves.

In the real world we encounter today, we do not openly express such thoughts in an outward manner – we are not likely to be shouting this on the city streets.

We will be internalizing these ideas, blasting them against the walls of our souls until even the most ardent believer will find themselves poking very substantial holes, if not trying to dig vast canyons into their steadfast and immovable faith.

When we see all our failures and flaws we can often think that we’re unlovable.

Vulnerability overtakes us – we can’t help it nor can we seen to slow it or stop it.

However, in the midst of all our failures and shortcomings, and sudden onsets of unconquerable vulnerabilities – guess what – God chooses to love us anyway!

1 John 4:17-21 The Message

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.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

Sometimes, one too many times, believing God loves us so deeply can be hard.

When we mess up, we make bad choices, it can be difficult to believe God cares.

We are likely to ask of ourselves “why should God care about me anyway, I know what I have done, surely God knows what I have done, so why should He love me?”

The thing of it is – we are only likely to be asking this of ourselves, to ourselves.

In the real world we encounter today, we do not openly express such thoughts in an outward manner – we are not likely to be shouting this on the city streets.

We will be internalizing these ideas, blasting them against the walls of our souls until even the most ardent believer will find themselves poking very substantial holes, if not trying to dig vast canyons into their steadfast and immovable faith.

When we see all our failures and flaws we can often think that we’re unlovable.

Vulnerability overtakes us – we can’t help it nor can we seen to slow it or stop it.

However, in the midst of all our failures and shortcomings, and sudden onsets of unconquerable vulnerabilities – guess what – God chooses to love us anyway!

God’s love for us should energize us to love other people.

When we focus on all God has done for us, it makes loving other people easier.

God’s love is empowering.

God’s love is an overcoming love.

It gives us the strength and motivation to truly love others.

So when you have those onset moments when you struggle with vulnerability, struggle with loving a “someone” who is less than lovable (including yourself), realize that you have got the power to yet do “love” because God loved you first.

When you were your own first and worst enemy, when you were convinced that didn’t deserve anybody’s “first love” and were an enemy of God, God loved you.

That knowledge gives you first burst of knowing what you need to love others.

What Does the Word of God Say of “First Loves?”

First love. 

The phrase evokes powerful feelings.

For many this phrase evokes the image of a newborn baby just placed on its mothers chest immediately after birth and the two make their “first contact.”

For some this phrase evokes the image of a new father looking at their very first newborn child for the very first time, and all the love in his world becomes real.

For many, the term conjures images of a first crush when a toddler recognizes mom for the first time or as a teenager, or impressions of “love at first sight.”

But first love is a much more intimate concept than simply a first recognition of of mom or dad or any raging hormones and pictures of pulsing cartoon hearts.

It’s God, Himself. 

1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love.

This means that any worldly love falls short of the true definition.

Think about the most dynamic couples, real or fictional, that are well known throughout history—Romeo and Juliet, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Billy and Ruth Graham, President Jimmy and, Rosalynn Carter to name a few.

Now think about current celebrity match-ups in the media that make you sort of swoon – Bob and Betty Hope, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Fred Astaire and the incomparable Ginger Rogers, Humphry Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

As romantic as any of those might seem right now, those examples aren’t true love.

Without God involved in the process, without that cord of three strands that is not so easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12), no human relationship could ever be real love – it will always and forever “miss the mark.” 

1 Corinthians 13, known as the “love chapter,” states that “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 

I believe it’s important to note the greatest of these character traits only comes from God!

He is the source of love—not romance novels, not sonnets and poetry, and certainly not Hollywood.

Here are three things the Word of God reveals to each of us about “first loves.”

1. God Loved Us First

Everything springs from this. 

Such a beautiful message of hope is found in 1 John 4:19.

“We love, because He first loved us.” 

We don’t love because we manage to “dig deep down” and “conjure up our best effort”—no, we love because God put it in us first, via the Holy Spirit, to do so.

Any desires toward love, holiness, purity, etc. toward others or toward the Lord only come from God.

We are incapable of love on our own—yet we love because God first loved us.

What a relief!

Don’t you feel the burden rolling off your shoulders?

Love is a gift from God, who is love Himself—Who became love in the flesh through Jesus Christ, who came to “deliver us from the domain of darkness and transfer us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).

“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)

Let the depth of this truth saturate your weary and vulnerable soul… let it seep in, let it comfort you and hug you with all the coziness of your favorite quilt. 

You are held.

You are loved. A

nd it has nothing to do with you or what you bring to the table, and everything to do with the God who created you, who knew you from before the foundations of time (Jeremiah 1:5), planned every one of your days way long before you were even in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:16).

2. We Often Leave Our First Love (GOD)

As comforting as it is to sit and bask in the reality of God’s love for us, we must also acknowledge and recognize the sobering concept of leaving our first love.

“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4)

Even as believers, we are not immune to apathy.

Sometimes, we lose our fervor and passion for the things of the Lord.

When we are busy catering to our sin rather than confessing it, we are blocking communication with the Holy Spirit.

Conviction becomes fewer and farther between.

We grow farther away from Christ.

We stop praying, we stop reading and studying the Word, disciplining our lives and start listening to the lies that we can never love or worse—be loved—again.

Rather than heeding the dark deceptions from the enemy, we should recognize our behavior, turn, and repent.

Do we have unconfessed sin in your life?

Admit it already.

God already knows.

Avoiding prayer will only keep you feeling more and more disconnected, leaving ample room for the enemy to continue to tempt you.

There have been times in my Christian walk where it felt like my prayers hit the ceiling and stopped and splattered there and it made me prone to not pray at all.

In those times, the only prayer we need is “Lord, give me the want to want to.”

Rather than hide in our vulnerability and shame when we’re “prone to wander” and aren’t feeling a desire toward the things of God, we must shine truth on those dark thoughts, bring them to the light, simply ask for God’s desires again.

The Holy Spirit is infinitely more than capable of filling us back up.

In my experience, believers tend to occasionally disregard various disciplines of the faith because “that’s not what saves them.”

I agree—it’s not.

But I also realize when we only go through the motions of daily Bible reading, daily prayer, consistent fellowship with the church, we’re more prone to stay in communion with the Holy Spirit and on the right path in our Christian walk.

Sometimes, sitting down with the Word of God despite “not wanting to” will be exactly what’s needed to bring forth the desire.

Actions often breed feelings, and this is one of the greatest offenses we have against spiritual warfare.

The Word of God is our sword! 

Ephesians 6:17 says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart…” (Hebrews 4:12)

Even when we don’t feel like it—maybe especially when we don’t feel like it—pick up your sword anyway and start swinging it against your vulnerabilities.

Psalm 84: 8-9 The Message

8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
    O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
    our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

Standing tall, Steadfast and Immovable, Protect and Fight for your first love.

3. We’re to Stay with Our Second “First Love”

“Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth.” (Proverbs 5:18)

Christ is and should always be our first love.

But on earth, we are granted the blessing of marriage between a man and a woman (that won’t be recognized in heaven –Mark 10:5-9) that reflects the union of Christ and His bride—the church.

It’s a holy and sacred covenant before the Lord himself, because it reflects His relationship with His beloved.

To participate in that reflection is a gift and an honor.

It’s not to be taken lightly.

Unfortunately, in our current culture, marriage today is often considered to be “open to man’s socio-cultural interpretation” or an extreme version of dating, where choices of divorce are made as recklessly as high schoolers speed dating.

Mark 10:9 says, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

This verse does not mean that all divorce is forbidden.

There are unfortunately circumstances of abandonment where spouses didn’t have a choice (Malachi 2:16), or marriages of physical abuse and unrepentant adultery (Matthew 5:31-32), the Bible allows for the dissolving of a marriage.

It’s impossibly painful to those involved and indescribably messy, regardless of the circumstances, and every story is unique to the person who then carries it.

But far too often, marriages dissolve solely for the lack of commitment and desire to keep them going—lack of reverence for the covenant they represent.

“For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2)

“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” (Revelation 19:7-8)

While our ultimate first love is the Lord, our first love on earth—or what I’ve termed our “second first love” is our spouse.

They deserve to be respected and treated as such.

They are worthy to the utmost to be maximally protected, cherished, guarded, and loved for as long as both spouses shall live.

It’s so vitally and critically important to remember that it’s impossible to follow through with our role in a godly marriage if the very first truth of our very first love, about first love isn’t recognized—that “God is love, that He first loved us.”

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

Let us Pray,

God, you are LOVE! Absolute, from everlasting to everlasting , perfect, unconditional, incomparable, pure, incomprehensible. And all creation is of your love. We are all born of this love. And your splendored love, ever existent, commands us to love you unceasingly, wholly, with all our minds, hearts, souls, strength. And to love our neighbor as ourselves. Lord, we are your chosen people and as Christians, who are born again, of the Spirit, as your children, we are set apart and identified by our love.

Jesus, in obedience of your Will, has taught us the meaning of true love, in serving our fellowmen with humility, and with compassion, without prejudice and without judgement. Father, you are the fountain of love, which emanates from you to us, and if we love as you do, it is because you are the source and origin of selfless love. Love, not just to our own, but also to our detractors, our enemies and our persecutors.

Loving Father, Precious Savior, Intercessor Holy Spirit, nothing more animates and inflames our love, than the One truth of the existence of your love for us, before ours, which shows that it is free, true, sovereign, and unmerited. Living in Savior Christ, aspiring to work and obtain salvation by our faith and your free grace, we know that when we stand before you, it will be because we have lived in obedience to your Will, have finally risen above pride, arrogance, ego, and have decreased ourselves in the purity of love, thereby increasing Christ, living in the counsel of the Spirit, in Christ.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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Our Love’s for God’s Most Generous Expression: Our Learning, Growing, Living, Doing, in the Family of Faith. Hebrews 13:1-3

Hebrews 13:1-3 Amplified Bible

The Changeless Christ

13 Let love of your fellow believers continue. 2 Do not neglect to extend hospitality to strangers [especially among the family of believers—being friendly, cordial, and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously], for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body [and subject to physical suffering].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

Love’s Generous Expression

Hebrews 13:1-3 Common English Bible

Our acts of service and sacrifice

13 Keep loving each other like family. 2 Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it. 3 Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place.

Keep Loving each other like family.

Do not neglect to open your homes to guests.

Remember the prisoners as if you were in prison with them.

What an incredibly interesting array of both ancient, contemporary ideas!

Loving each other like family – respecting and honoring one another!

Respecting the home, respecting the life of the family and their belongings.

By showing kindness to strangers, you could be showing kindness to a messenger of God.

Paying it forward, buying an extra burger to share with a homeless person, helping someone change a flat tire on their car, offering a ride to a colleague who needs one—in these ways and countless more, our God often gives us all opportunities to show hospitality and compassion for someone who has a need.

As I encounter people who are not part of a faith community, it saddens me when they describe Christians as less-than-compassionate people.

Words I often hear in these conversations are that Christians are aloof,not friendly or forthcoming; cool and distant. and judgmental and condescending.

Many people see church buildings in their communities as little more than social clubs, entertainment centers or worse, only occupied on any Sunday.

Any other day, the parking lots are 99.99% empty of cars and any activity.

They hear church people speak out mostly about what the members oppose.

Where is that sound of “little children of all ages” glorifying God and Jesus?

The world needs to see the Body of Christians as people of compassion—good-news people who minister and act like Jesus.

That will happen only when we finally nurture a habit of practicing compassion.

It is not by accident that the writer of Hebrews urges readers to love each other and to look out for the needs of strangers.

It’s easy to overlook the unusual or the unfamiliar.

It takes the love of Christ to step out, move out and reach out to the stranger who might just bring a singularly unique blessing that you never saw coming.

Learning, Growing, Living, in the Family of Faith

There’s all the difference in the world between describing what it means to ride a bicycle and actually helping somebody learn to get on the seat and pedal away.

Making a layer cake seems to be fairly straightforward when I look at the recipe books, but I haven’t had much success in making one that actually tastes right!

What I need is hands-on guidance: somebody to actually take the time to teach me to do it in front of me and then patiently allow me to try my hand at it too.

The moral instruction provided for us in Hebrews 13 is to be trained and formed in our lives not by learning to apply abstract principles but as a result of seeing these principles successfully or erroneously worked out in the family of faith.

We can read, for example, about what it means to love one another, but it is far better to observe such love in the lives of loving people.

We can understand that we are supposed to care for strangers, but we can experience it firsthand if we are brought up and raised in a home where such care, consideration and compassion for one another is faithfully practiced.

We can extend ourselves into areas of ministry and mission which are quite challenging – church prison ministry (https://heartprisonministries.org/) or Christian Prison Ministry (Kairos https://www.kairosprisonministry.org/)

We can read the principles and hear sermons, demands for sexual purity, but we will do far better if we are raised in a flourishing home where they are modeled or we are even able to sit in such homes as we visit other families in our church.

Praise God, the list of mission and ministry opportunities goes on and on.

Establishing these ethical norms is demanding.

It takes the first love of God, our time, effort and patience, and involvement.

The miracles wrought through purposeful discipleship, transformation cannot be achieved by searching the internet, watching a video or reading an article.

If information was enough to bring about transformation, then all we would need to do is write it down or say it.

But you can’t learn love, honor, and faithfulness from the content on a screen.

No, if you are to be content, pure, loving, and hospitable, then that is going to have to be proactively discovered and actively worked out in the family of faith.

Look, then, to your brothers and sisters who exemplify Christ-likeness in these ways.

Read Hebrews 13:1-3 again, praise God for those you know who live these verses out, then be sure to learn from them so in these ways you become like them.

Make it your aim to follow their example that you, like Paul, might humbly be able to say to others, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Easter is but a short time away.

Celebrating the ultimate act of agape love and sacrifice and service.

What will your efforts at discipleship and transformation in preparation for this coming Easter look like, sound like, be more Christ like in these coming weeks?

I have heard repeatedly: “it takes an entire community, an entire village.”

According to Wikipedia, the original quote “it takes a village to raise a child” is an African proverb meaning it takes a whole community of people interacting with a child to ensure he or she grows in a healthy and safe environment.

Regardless of which stage of life we are all in: parents raising children, married with no children, single, or late adulthood, even a church, we need community.

In these times of recovery, perhaps we need to go back to the essential basics of the Gospel to learn it all over again – to teach it unto each other all over again?

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

Let us Pray,

Heavenly Father, thank You that while we were yet sinners You loved us and gave Christ to be the propitiation for our sins. Help us in word and deed to increase and abound in brotherly love for one another, just as we also do for You. Give us wisdom as we enter into mission and ministry to our brothers and sisters in Christ and may we speak the truth in love to Your praise and glory. This we ask in Jesus name, AMEN.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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Seeking, Growing Intimacy in Your Relationships. Deuteronomy 4:29-31

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 Amplified Bible

29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. 30 When you are in distress and tribulation and all these things come on you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful and compassionate God; He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

“I can’t stand Sundays!”

The woman holding her newborn son shouted deep into the church angrily.

She rose from her pew and shared that on Sundays she often felt so lonely and empty because many of her friends were busy with families and ball games.

She was a single woman, new to the church saying she was not a member there.

She is unhappy about her situation and asked the congregation for prayer.

The congregation surrounded her, her young child and laid hands upon them.

Together, they prayed for a good fifteen minutes.

Following the service, she sat down, met privately with the Pastor and his wife.

She said she was separated, divorce papers had been filed with the courthouse.

The father of the child was caught being unfaithful.

she confessed that she felt her sense of intimacy had been badly betrayed.

She had tried dating in the past several weeks but didn’t find the “right” man.

She also went to a few ­churches but felt they weren’t “loving” enough either.

In their response to the woman,

the Pastor and his wife suggested perhaps she shouldn’t focus mainly on searching for the right man, or seeking even the right “loving” congregation.

The Bible teaches that everyone’s main concern should be about seeking the first love of the Lord first – cultivating and growing in their intimacy with God.

That’s the first step on our journey to a loving and secure peace and happiness.

In our passage from Deuteronomy for today we hear a call to earnestly seek the Lord with all of your heart and all of your soul.

This prophetic word was originally spoken to God’s people who would come to repeatedly betray the love of the Lord and be scattered in exile many years later.

The call is followed by a promise that those who are earnest in their search will find the Lord.

Please note that the act of earnestly seeking the intimate love of God is more than just taking a few or several first steps or a phase in our spiritual growth.

Rather, it is a lifelong quest.

The continued search for God, leading to the deepening experience of his love, is the foundation of securing our inner peace in the only One who never betrays.

Growing Intimacy in Your Relationships.

Psalm 63:1-3 Amplified Bible

The Thirsting Soul Satisfied in God.

A Psalm of David; when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

63 O God, You are my God; with deepest longing I will seek You;
My [a]soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for You, my flesh longs and sighs for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 
So I have gazed upon You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
3 
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.

Intimacy is something that each of our souls deeply desires.

Intimacy is defined as close familiarity or friendship; closeness.

Intimacy in marriage includes physical acts of intimacy, but we yearn for intimacy in every close relationship we have in our lives.

Our longing for closeness is a part of our created design.

In Psalm 63 it is articulated this way,

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”

We long to be and remain close to God our Creator! [Psalm 139, Romans 8:35-39]

We long to be close to God, our Great Shepherd! [Psalm 23]

We long to be close to our Savior, the Resurrected Jesus! [John 21:15-17]

We were created by God for relationships.

Yet, we all know how difficult it is to create safe spaces for true intimacy in our lives.

Humans are imperfect, and we so easily hurt each other.

Hurt, disappointment, insecurity, and grief lead to walls going up in our hearts.

Only God is made of perfect love that we can trust with our whole hearts.

Nonetheless, we need each other and can’t give up on the work of tearing down the walls and trying again to build safe, long-lasting, and close relationships.  

Intimacy requires a commitment to forgiveness. 

Intimacy requires a radical commitment to forgiveness.

Please note that forgiveness does not mean you are called to remain present in an abusive or unhealthy relationship.

Forgiveness is a daily requirement to remain close to other very flawed humans.

Guess what, you need to be forgiven that much too because you bring just as much selfishness and brokenness to your home each day too!

It is so easy to see the ways one’s spouse lacks empathy, love, and kindness, but while we are worried about pointing out their failures, the question needs to be asked of ourselves: exactly what size plank am I missing that is in my own eye?

I have to lay down my right to be right if I want to feel close to this person who is my spouse, my life-long soulmate and embrace a life of radical forgiveness.

Unity is the foundation to an intimate relationship. 

1 Corinthians 1:4-10 Amplified Bible

4 I thank my God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 so that in everything you were [exceedingly] enriched in Him, in all speech [empowered by the spiritual gifts] and in all knowledge [with insight into the faith]. 6 In this way our testimony about Christ was confirmed  and established in you, 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift [which comes from the Holy Spirit], as you eagerly wait [with confident trust] for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ [when He returns]. 8 And He will also confirm you to the end [keeping you strong and free of any accusation, so that you will be] blameless and beyond reproach in the day [of the return] of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful [He is reliable, trustworthy and ever true to His promise—He can be depended on], and through Him you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 But I urge you, believers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in full agreement in what you say, and that there be no divisions or factions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your way of thinking and in your judgment [about matters of the faith].

1 Corinthians 1:10 instructs, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”

God communicates with us that we are to relate with, interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ with a whole and earnest heart and soul which seeks unity.

He likens us to a body, each of us different in our skills, gifts, and uses but we all work together towards one mission which is to keep the body alive!

We do not have to see eye-to-eye on every issue in our relationships to live in unity, but we do have to be humble enough not to let divisions grow among us.  

Intimacy with God and each other is built when we earnestly seek to spend much quality time together. 

Psalm 24:5-7 Amplified Bible

5 
He shall receive a blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 
This is the generation (description) of those who diligently seek Him and require Him as their greatest need,
Who seek Your face, even [as did] Jacob. Selah.

7 
Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.

Psalm 27 Amplified Bible

A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God.

A Psalm of David.

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the refuge and fortress of my life—
Whom shall I dread?
2 
When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
3 
Though an army encamp against me,
My heart will not fear;
Though war arise against me,
Even in this I am confident.

4 
One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life,
To gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.
5 
For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter;
In the secret place of His tent He will hide me;
He will lift me up on a rock.
6 
And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,
In His tent I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

7 
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
Be gracious and compassionate to me and answer me.
8 
When You said, “Seek My face [in prayer, require My presence as your greatest need],” my heart said to You,
“Your face, O Lord, I will seek [on the authority of Your word].”
9 
Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor [a]leave me,
O God of my salvation!
10 
Although my father and my mother have abandoned me,
Yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child].

11 
Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me on a level path
Because of my enemies [who lie in wait].
12 
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have come against me;
They breathe out violence.
13 
I would have despaired had I not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
14 
Wait for and confidently expect the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord.

Building intimacy requires time spent sharing the same space with open ears and having an open heart ready to connect.

One tip for time together is to commit to making some of this time screen-free time – time for family bible study, family devotions, family prayer sessions.

When we seriously want to really hear our spouse, friends, family members, or children’s hearts, we have to deliberately, intentionally, remove distractions such as our phones, video game boxes, our televisions, so we can fully engage.

We grow closer to God, Jesus, Holy Spirit and in our personal relationships as, when we are intentional about being present with each other when we interact.  

Intersecting Faith and Life.

Habakkuk 3:17-19 Amplified Bible

17 
Though the fig tree does not blossom
And there is no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive fails
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock is cut off from the fold
And there are no cattle in the stalls,
18 
Yet I will [choose to] rejoice in the Lord;
I will [choose to] shout in exultation in the [victorious] God of my salvation!
19 
The Lord God is my strength [my source of courage, my invincible army];
He has made my feet [steady and sure] like hinds’ feet
And makes me walk [forward with spiritual confidence] on my [a]high places [of challenge and responsibility].

For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.

What connections, relationships do you feel covenanted and called upon by God to be a bit more considered and intentional about cultivating more intimacy in?

What is one way you can push yourself to be more present and available in this relationship in the coming weeks, as we move closer to celebrating our Easter?

Are there things that you need to release to the Lord and forgive before moving forward?

Carve out some family time, time with friends, write out a prayer of forgiveness and share them, allow God to start healing the broken relationships in your life.

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

Let us Pray,

139 1-6 God, investigate my life;
    get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
    even from a distant sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
    before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
    then up ahead and you’re there, too—
    your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
    I can’t take it all in!

7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
    to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
    If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
    to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
    you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
    At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
    night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.

17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
    God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
    any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, guide us and lead us, shepherd us to you in faith, obedience, and love. Guide us each day, teach us to be fully committed to you.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum

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

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Distant or Delighted? Not Feeling the Love of God? How About Learning to See Jesus With a Smile? 1 John 3:1-3

1 John 3:1-3 Amplified Bible

Children of God Love One Another

3 See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2  Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory]. 3 And everyone who has this hope [confidently placed] in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (holy, undefiled, guiltless).

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

See How Well We Are Lavished With Love?

1 John 3:1 New International Version

3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

The word lavish presents a picture of extravagant abundance.

It is almost too much, too generous and luxurious.

Being lavish borders on being wasteful.

But the Father has lavished his love on us.

God’s love is even more than what a wonderful mother showers on her infant.

Isaiah 66:12-14 New International Version

12 For this is what the Lord says:

“I will extend peace to her like a river,
    and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
    and dandled on her knees.
13 As a mother comforts her child,
    so will I comfort you;
    and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

14 When you see this, your heart will rejoice
    and you will flourish like grass;
the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants,
    but his fury will be shown to his foes.

God’s love and care are supplied all the time.

God’s love is a constant bombardment of affection and care.

We may be as oblivious as an infant to the presence of his love, but God still continues to pour his love into our lives.

God’s love flows into us deeply, redefines who we are at the very core of our heart, mind and soul.

When we open our hearts to God’s love, we are transformed by it.

We are remade, regenerated into children of God.

It is God who makes us his children, not us.

We cannot earn that status.

It is a gift of God’s great love.

Because we are sinners, we do not understand God’s love for us at first.

We don’t even know we need him until we realize we are stuck in sin and cannot save ourselves.

We become God’s children when we receive Jesus as our Savior (John 1:12).

Not one of us is worthy of God’s love.

We cannot earn it.

God just loves us.

We would not be God’s children if he were not already deeply in love with us.

How amazing is that!

Being said with an exclamation mark, what if we turned that into a question?

“How Amazing Is That?”

“I Really Do Not Feel God’s Love.“

Psalm 13 Authorized (King James) Version

Psalm 13

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

1 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever?
how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
having sorrow in my heart daily?
how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God:
lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him;
and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in thy mercy;
my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6 I will sing unto the Lord,
because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

Have you ever said or thought these words in public or in private?

If so, you’re not alone.

Truth Be Told, Too many times I have really struggled with the disconnect between knowing that God loves me and actually seeing, and feeling His love.

It might be tempting to brush aside the discomfort of this disconnect and get on with the responsibilities of life.

“After all,” some will pat you on the back, say, “love is an action, not a feeling.”

But if you look closely at the love displayed in the Bible, it’s clear that it’s not just automatic rote Christian responsibility—it’s also passionate emotion.

God doesn’t just act lovingly toward us, He feels love for us.

And He doesn’t want us to only understand His love, but to experience it in a deep way, a deeply visual and tactile way – to visualize it and touch it daily.

If, like me, you’ve struggled with a disconnect between knowing about God’s love and actually seeing, feeling it, accept your feelings as being quite real.

Sometimes, like the Psalmist who penned Psalm 13, we will not feel loved.

Sometimes, like the Psalmist who penned Psalm 13, we will not see God’s love.

Psalm 13 is someone’s deepest expression of a heart and soul in angry anguish.

It has remained in the Bible through countless edits because God wants you the reader to know, the maximum extent to which God feels, visualizes our hearts.

Heart Distant or Delighted? Learning to See Jesus With a Smile …

Psalm 13:5-6 Authorized (King James) Version

5 But I have trusted in thy mercy;
my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6 I will sing unto the Lord,
because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

1 John 3:3 Amplified Bible

3 And everyone who has this hope [confidently placed] in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (holy, undefiled, guiltless).

I recall many years ago sitting in a circle with the other members of my Bible study group when our leader invited us to imagine what Jesus’ face looks like.

Dutifully, I closed my eyes and tried to picture Him.

The image that appeared was of a man with long, greyish silver locks and dull, piercing brown eyes.

His unsmiling lips were hard set in a neutral line.

He didn’t look disapproving, but he didn’t look very happy either.

As I studied His face, I felt sad, fearful, and unsure of how He felt about me.

I was deeply troubled by this experience because, intellectually, I knew God always loved me deeply and felt positively—even passionately—about me.

Throughout the Bible, God describes His love in the most tender terms known to humankind.

He compares His love for us to the love a parent has for their child—a warm, welcoming, compassionate love (Isaiah 66:13; 1 John 3:1).

He also describes His love for us as the love a groom has for his bride—a passionate, ardent, sacrificial love (Revelation 19:7; Ephesians 5:25-27).

Yet, my picture of Jesus that evening revealed that, deep down, I also perceived Him as uppermost serious and restrained, maybe even a little depressed at me.

It also highlighted my fear that I was not a source of joy or pleasure to God, and that, though He loved me, it suddenly felt more being with a distant, aloof love.

I knew this isn’t how God wanted me to view Him.

Ephesians 3:18, the apostle Paul prayed, “May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully” (NLT).

More than anything, I wanted to experience the love of God—I wanted to feel it, not just know about it.

So I started asking God to take my understanding beyond intellect and into a more studious, scriptural, deep heart knowing of my value to Him.

1 John 3:1 Amplified Bible

Children of God Love One Another

3 See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Truth be told, sometimes it’s so much easier to notice the love people have for you than the love God has for you.

Why?

Because you can physically see them and the way they express love.

But when it comes to God, it can be challenging to see, understand, the extent to which He loves you.

After all, none of us can physically see Him on this side of Heaven.

That’s why God gave us His Word… to help us to see, feel, and understand who He is and how much He really does love us. 

See, throughout the Bible, God is described as an all-powerful and eternally just God, but also as deeply loving to those He created.

In the entire biblical story, God is presented as a character who strongly cares for us… so much so that He even allowed His Son, Jesus Christ, to enter this world to bring about a redeemed and restored relationship with humanity.

In fact, Jesus is the physical embodiment of God’s eternal love, showing us that His love is a real, tangible being we can cling to and put our hope in rather than just an abstract concept we cannot ever hope to even begin to .01% understand.

Now, before we dive further into how Jesus loves us, first let’s clarify the meaning of biblical love.

BIBLICAL LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Amplified Bible

4 Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5 It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7 Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

There are many different kinds of love.

There is parental love, brotherly love, and romantic love.

When anyone says the word love, we often first associate it with anything from dating to sex.

But, the word is so much more broad than we often think.

According to the above passage, biblical love is simply putting the needs of others before your own. 

All of us fall short of the expectation set by this passage at some point, because selflessness does not come naturally to us (Romans 3:23).

But, the good news of the Gospel is that God perfectly embodies these four verses.

He is the one that created love in the first place!

In turn, this means that God is LOVE itself (1 John 4:8).

And because He is love, He displays this quality not only through His words, but through His actions as well.

GOD’S DEVOTED LOVE

Psalm 103:12-14 Amplified Bible

12 
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 
Just as a father loves his children,
So the Lord loves those who fear and worship Him [with awe-filled respect and deepest reverence].
14 
For He knows our [mortal] frame;
He remembers that we are [merely] dust.

As any good father would, God feels sentiment and shows affection toward His children.

This picture of God as the perfect Father is a deeply intimate one because it illustrates how far [east from west], He would go to keep us safe and secure.

Another illustration of God’s love is seen in Hosea 2:14-23.

Rather than a father this time, this Bible story describes a faithful husband that comforts and treasures his wife – which is also meant to be seen as a metaphor for God’s devoted love to an unfaithful Israel.

Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, God expressed His infinite love for His people all the more through love poetry, painting a beautiful image of God’s extreme devotion and affection towards His Bride, the Church.

LOVE AS AN ACTION

Romans 5:8-10 Amplified Bible

8 But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the [a]wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain, having been reconciled, that we will be saved [from the consequences of sin] by His life [that is, we will be saved because Christ lives today].

But, love is not merely a feeling.

Love is also an action… that God shows from the very beginning of the Bible.

Out of His love, God established a rescue plan for humanity in the wake of Adam and Eve’s sin (Genesis 3:15).

Out of His great love, God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt – not because they earned it, but because they were His people (Exodus 12-14).

Out of His love, God became fully human, yet fully God through the person of Jesus Christ – living a perfect life and dying a death we deserved so that we could all be restored into unto, a right relationship with Him (John 3:16-17).

In each scenario, all of God’s actions toward His people are motivated by pure love. He doesn’t just say He loves us, but He actually does something about it.

THE LOVE OF JESUS

John 15:13-16Amplified Bible

13 No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father. 16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you.

By coming into the world and sacrificing his own life for us, Jesus demonstrated the ultimate love of God.

He died for us because He considered us friends worth dying for (John 15:15).

This is the radical love that Jesus showed during his time on Earth… and still shows us today even if we do not see it in quite the same way we see the love of our friends and family.

So, when asking the question “Does Jesus love me?” the simple answer is “yes.”

Jesus really does love you not because of anything you have done, but because of who He is!

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

Let us Pray,

Almighty God, we praise and thank you for making us children of God, not through our own power and piety but through our baptism into crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. We turn daily to you, and in that turning we find peace, courage and purpose. Make your whole church a witness to the great good news of Christ’s resurrection. Father God, may we have the grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to grasp how immeasurable wide and deep and high and long is your love for us, expressed in all that Savior Jesus has done for us, that we may be your children. In his name, Amen.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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