“To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”
Jude 1:1b-2
Category: Love
A Faith Strong Enough to Love
“The only thing that counts is
faith expressing itself through love.”
Galatians 5:6b
The proof of our growing faith in God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit is our love, our love for God first, and through Him our love for one another, our love for our neighbor, and even our love for our enemies.
As we cultivate a deeper relationship with God we’ll know Him more, growing in faith and changing into the image of Christ, having His heart and mind, seeing with His eyes of grace and mercy, and loving others the way He does.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34
Our love for one another in the family of God is a given, or at least it should be. Jesus said the outward display of love we have for one another would be proof to the world that we are followers of Christ.
But that can get a little tricky sometimes, right? We’re still human and sometimes we can grate on each other’s nerves, say things that are hurtful, treat one another thoughtlessly. But obeying the command to love one another shows our faith in the Lord. It shows a faith that trusts Him and entrusts others to Him, a faith that forgives and loves at all times.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply (intently, fervently, enthusiastically, without ceasing), from a pure heart.
1 Peter 1:22
Over time, as we grow in faith, our love for one another will grow, too. We’ll genuinely love others with a deeply affectionate and compassionate heart.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:39
Our love for our neighbor might be a little more difficult. Of course our closest neighbor is our family. Sometimes that’s easy, and sometimes family can be, well, challenging. It can take great faith to love them.
But a neighbor is anyone God puts in our path. Maybe we don’t know them. Maybe they’re not believers. Still, God calls us to love them, to show them the love of Jesus, and that may sometimes take even more faith. We have to be able to trust God to take care of us while we take care of someone else. But as we grow in Him, our faith is stronger and we know the Lord will always be with us and will always provide for us.
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you,
do not demand it back.”
Luke 6:27-30
Now that’s a tough one. Loving our enemies takes a great amount of faith.
But a maturing faith will change who we are. We’ll walk less in our own prideful, self-serving flesh and more in the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. Our behavior won’t be dictated by how others treat us, but by our understanding of God’s endless love for us, and the great faith and love we have in Him.
A faith that is perfected – matured – is a faith that expresses itself through love no matter what because we know God’s love is not dependent on us. He loves at all times because that’s His nature. We remember that God loved us while we were yet sinners by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins. It’s a love that desires others, no matter who they are, to see and come to know the love of God through His Son.
“Because of the increase of wickedness,
the love of most will grow cold,
but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Matthew 24:12-13
It’s too easy to get caught up in the world’s hatred. We must refuse to, and fix our eyes and hearts on the One who is able, day by day, to save us from a hardened heart, and allow Him to continually fill us with His love, and then go out into the world and share it with others, trusting Him to change hearts as He changed ours.
Dear Heavenly Father, help us grow and walk in faith that expresses itself in love. May we bring you honor and glory by living as witnesses of your great grace and mercy so that others will see you in us, and put their faith in Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior, turning one more heart to a life of your love. Please give us wisdom for those who are hard to love. Show us how best to love them, and may we always start with prayer. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
“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.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
The Light of the World
Darkness filled the earth. It had been 400 years since God had spoken, the last time through the prophet Malachi.
“‘Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,’
Says the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 3:1
Generations had come and gone since then and the silence persisted; the darkness remained. People came and went, having no idea when, or perhaps even if, God would speak again.
Then one night, as some lonely shepherds in a field kept watch over their sheep, the light of the glory of God pierced the darkness. An angel stood before them with this announcement:
“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:10-11
And before they could catch their breath, a host of angels appeared before them, too, praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke 2:14
God had broken the silence. His Word, the Messenger of the covenant (spoken of in Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27) was born among them, and with Him an everlasting hope.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
God’s love shone into the world that unsuspecting night. He’d come! The long-awaited Savior, born as a humble babe in a manger, sent that all who believed in Him would be born anew, filling each heart with a never-ending peace and joy, and the promised light of His presence shining in and through us, forever piercing the darkness.
Choices
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”
1 John 2:15
In some ways this command seems to be getting easier to follow all the time. Still, there can be a lot to love in this world. Why wouldn’t God want us to love it?
You might have heard that while in English we use the one word – love – to talk about all kinds of love, there are many Greek words for love –
phileō – a friendship love
philostorgos – a familial love
‛âgab – a sensual love
eros – a romantic love
philarguria – a love of money
And that’s not even an exhaustive list.
The word used for love in the command above is agapaō – to love much, or dearly, to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing, to have a preference for, to prize it above other things, to be unwilling to abandon it or do without it.
It’s the same word Jesus used when asked “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love (agapaō) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love (agapaō) your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 22:36-39
Jesus then goes on to say “‘All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”
Matthew 22:40
The commandments in the Old Testament were given to show people how they were to love. The first four commandments pertained to their love of God, starting with the command to “have no other gods before me,” and then moved on to how they were to love others – “honor your father and mother, you shall not murder…” and others.
Christ reiterates, and makes possible in and through us as the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, what the commandments said – that if we love God first, love for others will flow from that.
It’s even the same word Jesus used when He said “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
Matthew 5:44
But when we agapaō the world, when our mind is focused on and busy with all the world has to offer (name your worldly passion), if we prefer those things, cling to those things, put those things first in our lives over and above God and above showing love to others, then we’ve gotten it all out of order.
It will cause us to put off spending time with our Father, growing our relationship with Him by abiding in Him through prayer and the reading of His precious Word.
And if we don’t remain in His love through abiding, we won’t have the love we need to fulfill the second commandment Jesus gives to love others and all that would entail.
I have very nearly perfected procrastination. I can find a million things to do before I sit down to read or pray, or do whatever God is calling me to do. And I look back and regret that countless times.
But I don’t want to just “phileō” God, to love Him as a friend on par with the rest of the world, as Peter confessed in John 21 when Jesus asked him twice if he “agapaō” Him, and both times Peter confessed that he only “phileō” Him.
Then Jesus asked him a third time if he even “phileō” Him, if he even loved Him as a friend. Peter was grieved because he could not yet say that he “agapaō” Him, that he loved Him unconditionally, that he was ready to put Christ above all things, or that he was unwilling to abandon Him for the sake of the world.
But once Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he “agapaō” Christ, even being willing to endure persecution in order to tell others the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the way to being crucified upside down.
I don’t think God doesn’t want us to enjoy the things He’s given us in this world He created, He just wants to remind us to keep it in its place, to remember that He needs to be who we love above all things, that when we have a choice, and we will have choices, our only real choice is Him because without Him we have nothing.
I pray that whatever God is calling you and me to do, we will not put it off because we’re busy doing other things. A whole lifetime can pass while we do other things, but in the end only one thing will matter – how we loved the Lord and lived our lives in Him.
In His agape,
Heavenly Father, we confess that we’ve chosen other things before you and we humbly and sincerely ask for your forgiveness. Help us to agapaō you, to walk in your Spirit every minute of the day and night, always putting you first, doing what you call us to do, glorifying you with our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From Darkness to Light
There are times the enemy comes out from the shadows and we can scarcely take in its evil. It shows itself for what it is, and the darkness is so appalling, so depraved, so hideous, we can hardly believe the depths it will go.
Yet this is only a glimpse of the evil that’s all around us. So much is hidden, but he’s there, vile and lurking in the corners, whispering in the ears of the suffering, lying to those in pain, until the anger within begins to boil, tempting its victims to poisonous “solutions,” until the bitterness cements their hearts and acts as a cancer on their souls.
The enemy then seeks out an agreeable, moldable partner, one who has given over to that bitterness, and waits for an opportune moment.
But God…
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8 MEV
“But God raised {Jesus} from the dead…” Acts 2:24a NIV
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ…” Eph 2:4-5 MEV
God loves His creation more than we can ever know. His light and life are available to anyone who will believe in His Son who willingly gave His life as payment for the sins of that one.
His Spirit will come and reside with that one, and will be a healing balm who can and will soften the heart and give peace to the soul of the one willing to receive Him. The dead will be made alive, hatred will turn to love, anger to forgiveness, sorrow to joy.
As his end gets nearer and more and more people unknowingly believe the enemy’s lies and push God out of their minds and society, he gets more brazen, coming out from the shadows and is received.
The blinders on the eyes of the world may not see his surreptitious nature, but those of us whose eyes have been opened and hearts have been filled with the Truth know who he is, and our Lord Jesus has charged us with a mission:
“…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matt 5:16
AND
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matt 28:19-20
If there’s anything events in this world should teach us, it’s that the enemy is moving, and time is short. he will take as many victims as possible, but God…
God desires to shine His light through us to act and speak as His ambassadors who will first keep ourselves in God’s love, then extend that love, grace, and mercy to the lost, and through prayer and the power of Christ, lead them from darkness to light, turning victims into overcomers.
The enemy can be defeated, one soul at a time, and whether we plant, water, or harvest, who knows what souls, and futures, might be saved.
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Acts 20:24
***
Heavenly Father, we ask you to make us willing vessels to shine brightly, and that your power and favor rest on us and the gifts you’ve given us to save the lost and bring glory to your name. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
Saturday Song – Remind Me Who I Am
And that is what we are!”
1 John 3:1a
Remind Me Who I Am
by Jason Gray
by Jason Gray
When I lose my way
And I forget my name
Remind me who I am
In the mirror, all I see
Is who I don’t wanna be
Remind me who I am
And I forget my name
Remind me who I am
In the mirror, all I see
Is who I don’t wanna be
Remind me who I am
In the loneliest places
When I can’t remember what grace is
When I can’t remember what grace is
Tell me, once again
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You
When my heart is like a stone
And I’m running far from home
Remind me who I am
When I can’t receive Your love
Afraid I’ll never be enough
Remind me who I am
And I’m running far from home
Remind me who I am
When I can’t receive Your love
Afraid I’ll never be enough
Remind me who I am
If I’m Your beloved
Can You help me believe it
Can You help me believe it
Tell me, once again
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You
I’m the one You love
I’m the one You love
That will be enough
I’m the one You love
I’m the one You love
That will be enough
I’m the one You love
Tell me, once again
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You, woah
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You, woah
Tell me, once again
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You
To You
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You
To You
Walking Through Holy Week – 2
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:33a, 34-35
“Come!”
“And because lawlessness will abound,
the love of many will grow cold.”
~Jesus
Matthew 24:12
I’ve been thinking about these words a lot lately. It’s easy to read them and assume that it’s the people who practice lawlessness whose love will grow cold, and that’s certainly true.
But in my own heart I’ve seen how easy it is to simply sit and watch or read about the wickedness going on around us and become angry. Yes, we should have a degree of righteous anger, but if we’re not careful, that righteous anger can turn into self-righteousness, judgment, bitterness, and with them the loss of grace, mercy, faith, and love.
We can get our eyes onto other’s sins and off our own, and forget how much we need forgiveness ourselves. Over time, a lack of repentance and the guilt that sets in can keep us from sitting in the presence of the Lord, the Source of the love we so desperately need.
And slowly, replacing a tender heart of love, anger begins to fester, and the enemy slowly leads us away, not from salvation, but from fellowship with our gracious Heavenly Father.
“You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”
1 Thessalonians 5:5-8
Let’s be alert, filled with the Holy Spirit, resisting the enemy, abiding in the love of Christ, the One who is able to rescue us from ourselves, and remember the hope Jesus gives in the next breath after His words we started with at the beginning:
“But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Matthew 24:13
That word “endures” means “to stay under or behind, remain, to undergo, bear trials, have fortitude, persevere, abide, patiently suffer…”
Yes, we’re living in hard times, but remember, the things of this life are not the goal, this life is not the end, it is the beginning. It is the training ground for the life to come; it is where we cling to Christ, and even more through those very hardships, receiving His character for ourselves, growing into spiritual maturity, prepared for what He has for us in the next.
So let us “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2
If followers of Christ should be characterized by anything, it should be by His love. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So what should our response be to the violence, the hatred, the blatant disregard for life we see around us? Yes, be angry at the sin, yes, be angry at the enemy and the war he’s declared on Almighty God, and then let’s emulate our Lord and Savior who was filled with love and prayed from the cross that His Father would forgive those who put Him there.
We, too, can let the love God’s given us through the filling of the Holy Spirit lead us to pray for those who are caught in the sin. We can ask our gracious and merciful Heavenly Father to grant them repentance and salvation, pulling them back from the pit of hell, just like He did for us.
So, if you’ve drifted away from the Lord or you deliberately walked away for whatever reason, and your love has grown cold, or maybe your faith is there but it’s lukewarm, which Christ said was even worse than being cold (because it’s so deceiving), or maybe you’ve never given your life to Christ and you know there is something missing, something you desperately need and have been looking for but haven’t yet found, today is the day.
Christ is ready, willing, and able to forgive you and receive you and fill you with His love, a love that is able to go far above and beyond all other loves, a love that will quench our thirsty souls, renew hearts and minds, and heal us more than we can imagine, and this is what He says to you:
“The Spirit and the bride (followers of Christ) say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” Revelation 22:17
“Come!”
The Saturday Song – Reason
Alrighty. I’m just coming back from being flat on my face with a shoulder surgery first, and while still recovering from that, helping my husband through covid, and before he was well, being pulled under by it myself. Let’s just say it’s been a long eight weeks.
Going into surgery I knew I’d have lots of extra time and wanted to spend much of it in prayer asking the Lord what to do next. I expected to hear from Him, to be encouraged by Him, to get excited about what His plan was.
Instead, the Lord showed me I’d been stifled with a discouragement I didn’t even know was there. Step 1.
There are many reasons for it, but the reasons don’t really matter. The fact is that most of us will probably be there at some point, for one reason or another. Might be for a short season, or a long one. And obviously the last couple of years may well have ushered that in for many of us.
We’re tired, we’re grieving, we’re lost. Maybe we don’t have the same love for God we once did; maybe we don’t serve Him with the same passion we once had. If that’s you, remember step 1.
Once we know it, we can pray and ask the Lord to deliver us from discouragement, hopelessness, fear, a sin that’s taken hold perhaps, or maybe from just being in a rut, and fill us again.
I pray the Lord will fill us and renew us with His love, the love that gave all to redeem us, the love that refuses to allow anything to separate us from it, that love that’s promised to be with us through anything, no matter what, the love that has gone ahead and prepared a forever home just for us.
So as you watch this (and please don’t try this at home!), may the Holy Spirit put that love and hunger back in our hearts to worship and serve Him to the fullest. I pray we’ll pull our helmets out of that trash, spiritually speaking, and wholeheartedly give our lives again to Him, because His love compels us.
May the Lord bless you.
Reason
by Unspoken
by Unspoken
This year’s felt like four seasons of winter
And you’d give anything to feel the sun
Always reaching, always climbing
Always second guessing the timing
But God has a plan, a purpose in this
You are His child and don’t you forget
He put that hunger in your heart
He put that fire in your soul
His love is the reason
To keep on believing
When you feel like giving up
When you feel like giving in
His love is the reason
To keep on believing
If we could pull back the curtain of Heaven
We would see His hand on everything
Every hour, every minute, every second, He’s always been in it
Don’t let a shadow of a doubt take hold (take hold)
Hold on to what you already know
He put that hunger in your heart (hunger in your heart)
He put that fire in your soul (fire in your soul)
His love is the reason
To keep on believing
When you feel like giving up (feel like giving up)
When you feel like giving in (giving in)
His love is the reason
To keep on believing (yeah)
(His love is) it’s the reason
(His love is) it’s the reason
His love is the reason (ooh)
He’s the peace in the madness
That you can’t explain
He’s the hope in the heartbreak
The rest in the suffering
He’s closer than the air you breathe
From the start to the end to the in between
Don’t you dare doubt even for a minute
What He started in you
Yeah, He’s gonna finish
He put that hunger in your heart (hunger in your heart)
He put that fire in your soul (fire in your soul)
His love is the reason (Your love, Your love)
To keep on believing (just keep on believing)
When you feel like giving up (feel like giving up)
When you feel like giving in (oh) (giving in)
His love is the reason (Your love, Your love)
To keep on believing (yeah)
(His love is)
It’s the reason (His love is)
(His love is)
It’s the reason (His love is)
His love is the reason (His love is)
It’s the reason (His love is)
It’s the reason
His love is the reason, hey, hey
The Saturday Song – A Special “O Holy Night”
“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.”
John 3:16
Amidst the twinkling lights, baking, and shopping, I pray we follow our Father’s example and give the most important gift: love. I hope this blesses you as much as it did me. Merry Christmas.