Saturday, July 3, 2010

Love God and Love People

          As I reflect on my life and the lives of others, I see a world that is full of the word "love." Yet the world is not filled with love. Naturally, we view love as a reciprocal actions. For instance, when one person buys a meal for the other, the other person buys a meal to make up for it. But God does not say this is love. God says that love is action of giving with sacrifice. "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." This is the proper view of love. 
         God calls us to love, but he doesn't expect us to be able to love apart from Him. In order to truly love, we must receive and understand the love of God found in the person of Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, love cannot be understood. But, for everyone that knows Christ, they know that the love of Christ flows out of them into the rest of the world as God redeems this world. As agents of redemption, we must be agents of love. But it must not be the love of the world, it must be the love of Jesus Christ. God is offering His love today to all that ask! "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." God wants to pour His love into your life. He loves you so much!  
         When we receive the love of God, it enables us to love God and people! The two greatest commandments tell us to do these things.  "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" This is the call of God! When we are seeking God in all things, He fills us with love that enables us to do that which he commands. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that without love, the gifts of God mean nothing! The gifts of God are temporary, love is everlasting!
          I challenge you to seek God's love and pray that you would be filled with love through the Holy Spirit. You will not be disappointed! God's well of love does not run dry no matter what the circumstances of life are. He is more than enough! God is waiting to empower you through the love He grants those who seek it. When we are filled with the love of God, we are able to allow participate in the process of redeeming the world! What a wonderful blessing we have in the love God. 
"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:9-11

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:5-8

"...that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and heightto know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory..." Ephesians 3:17-21

"...that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head -- Christ...." Ephesians 4:14-15 

"And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:32

"I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope. ...
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
Psalm 16:8-9, 11

God Bless!
Tyler







No comments: