"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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 13:4-8
Love is a subject that is the most important desire for every one of us. We can pretend to be strong enough to not need love in our life but that only ends with depression. The harsh truth is no matter how strong you think you are you are nothing without love. We have no purpose without it.
Love is the reason God created us, it is the root of creation. He first loved us. In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were created because of love however their greatest sin was also because of love. Love for self.
At the beginning of creation God was love and poured out his love onto the earth. Sadly, it was Satan who perverted that love and turned the innocent love for what God created into pride (love of self) as we saw in the choice that Eve made.
God created love to draw us nearer to Him and we must remember this when we are focusing our attention on things of the world.
Love is our greatest pursuit and our greatest desire. When we have a desire for a spouse, to be accepted, recognition, even to get a pet. Furthermore, what exactly are we chasing when we desire marriage, children, recognition, or even a pet?
I find in my own life I desire love, love, love and more love! Love is still the cause and the cure. You can see love clearly when you look at your desires. Desire to protect, to care for, to nurture, to know right from wrong, to help others, to encourage, to provide, etc. These desires are unexplainable in physical terms so obviously the solution will not be a physical one. Love can make us appear crazy or irrational but love catapults us into what we know to be our purpose.
Another question we must ask ourselves is how do we learn to love? What is our example of love? Are we loved first in order how to learn to love others? If we were not loved first how would we know how to desire or pursue it? How can we explain our NEED for love. Not just a want but a deep seeded need knowing you need it for survival. Without love we have no desire to live. People face depression because they feel unloved.
"We love because he first loved us." -1 John 4:19
We seek love like we seek food to nourish our body. We know we need it to live. Even if its perverted into a love of self. We desire this love because it makes us feel like we are living. Especially if we are lacking it. So where do you look for love?
On the other side we can confuse love with emotions. Love can make us feel alive at such a depth we may compare it to a supernatural experience. It can give us purpose and can keep us alive.
Love is also about trust. Whether that love is with a family member or the Heavenly Father. It is through love we learn to trust.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." -Galatians 5:22-23
We can love God or think we are loving him but we seek a love from another human. This can be dangerous if our focus is on this physical experience. What happens when this physical experience does not nourish your desire?
We think if people love us then we will feel complete. This is just another example of perverted love. Married couples sometimes refer to their spouse of their better half. I know it is more a term of endearment but it just rubs me the wrong way. God is the only one that can make us feel whole. We cannot depend on another human to feel complete.
I was encouraged to write this because I see so many of my brothers and sisters craving love as if they are trying to find a satisfying meal. We are running around from restaurant to restaurant trying to find the richest, most satisfying steak to give us that full feeling when in actuality this meal is only prepared by our Father in Heaven. There is no meal on earth that can satisfy this craving. This meal is only made by our Heavenly Father and in Him you will find true nourishment, true rest, and the love you are so desperately seeking.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Designed to Love & Work Together
The past few weeks God has given me a wonderful opportunity. This opportunity is seeing how unloved most adults feel. That personally breaks my heart. It is no wonder the suicide rate is so high these days. It saddens me because we as Christians are designed to love on our fellow brothers and sisters. The bible even states, "You are your brother's keeper".
If you were at the gym and you saw your brother lifting weights and needed a spotter you wouldn't think twice--you would run to his aid. But is this what we are doing when it comes to matters of life and death?
What are you doing to show others you love them? That can be as small as asking how their day went. So are you doing this??
We all have an inherent desire to be loved and to love others. We first have to look at where do we get our source to fuel this love. Do we even know what we are seeking when we call it love? Do we keep going back to people to try to earn their love in order to fill our own desires? Are we numbing our feelings with alcohol or drugs in order to feel less empty?
God created us with the sole purpose to love us (His creation) and in turn we would love Him as well as our fellow brothers and sisters. That is why we are called a family. The church is always referred to as the body. When one of our brothers or sisters hurt, we all hurt. When they are healed we feel that too.
1 Corthinians 12:12...
If you were at the gym and you saw your brother lifting weights and needed a spotter you wouldn't think twice--you would run to his aid. But is this what we are doing when it comes to matters of life and death?
What are you doing to show others you love them? That can be as small as asking how their day went. So are you doing this??
We all have an inherent desire to be loved and to love others. We first have to look at where do we get our source to fuel this love. Do we even know what we are seeking when we call it love? Do we keep going back to people to try to earn their love in order to fill our own desires? Are we numbing our feelings with alcohol or drugs in order to feel less empty?
God created us with the sole purpose to love us (His creation) and in turn we would love Him as well as our fellow brothers and sisters. That is why we are called a family. The church is always referred to as the body. When one of our brothers or sisters hurt, we all hurt. When they are healed we feel that too.
1 Corthinians 12:12...
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body,(U) so it is with Christ.(V) 13 For we were all baptized(W) by[c] one Spirit(X) so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free(Y)—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.(Z) 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.(AA)
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed(AB) the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.(AC) 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.(AD)
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ,(AE) and each one of you is a part of it.(AF) 28 And God has placed in the church(AG) first of all apostles,(AH) second prophets,(AI) third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing,(AJ) of helping, of guidance,(AK) and of different kinds of tongues.(AL) 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]?(AM) Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire(AN) the greater gifts.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Home
As I have written before we have only lived in Colorado for a few months now. So I was recently asked if it feels like home now. Home is such a dedicated feeling. It describes where you consider your roots to be planted. Where you find comfort.
I don't view comfort like most people view it. Comfort to me is in the challenges in life because in the challenges lies my Savior, my Redeemer.
What is home? According to the dictionary it is your permanent residence. If I base my answer on if it feels like home here in Colorado I would have to say no as I would any place you could name in the world. That being said Colorado is my favorite state in the United States and one of my favorite places in the world. There are many beautiful places to live here on earth but our surroundings can be deceiving. Take a tropical island for instance. You may be surrounded by what society calls perfection (beaches, warm weather, mountains). What happens if you strip away your physical environment? What is left?
Now you may think I am over analyzing the subject of home and perhaps I am but I believe everyone longs to have a place to call home. I have never found a place on earth (including my hometown) where I feel yes this is my home.
Heaven is my true home and that is the place my soul longs for. I am glad I feel the way I do. I have certain roots planted here on earth but I never want to get so comfortable that I feel that this is my permanent residence. Nothing on earth is permanent. My life experiences have proved that. My heart is focused on my heavenly Father and where He resides in Heaven is the place I consider my home.
I don't view comfort like most people view it. Comfort to me is in the challenges in life because in the challenges lies my Savior, my Redeemer.
What is home? According to the dictionary it is your permanent residence. If I base my answer on if it feels like home here in Colorado I would have to say no as I would any place you could name in the world. That being said Colorado is my favorite state in the United States and one of my favorite places in the world. There are many beautiful places to live here on earth but our surroundings can be deceiving. Take a tropical island for instance. You may be surrounded by what society calls perfection (beaches, warm weather, mountains). What happens if you strip away your physical environment? What is left?
Now you may think I am over analyzing the subject of home and perhaps I am but I believe everyone longs to have a place to call home. I have never found a place on earth (including my hometown) where I feel yes this is my home.
Heaven is my true home and that is the place my soul longs for. I am glad I feel the way I do. I have certain roots planted here on earth but I never want to get so comfortable that I feel that this is my permanent residence. Nothing on earth is permanent. My life experiences have proved that. My heart is focused on my heavenly Father and where He resides in Heaven is the place I consider my home.
"When they want to convince you that earth is your home, notice how they set about it. They begin by trying to persuade you that earth can be made into heaven, thus giving a sop to your sense of exile in earth as it is. Next, they tell you that this fortunate event is
still a good way off in the future, thus giving a sop to your knowledge that the
fatherland is not here and now. Finally, lest your longing for the transtemporal should awake and spoil the whole affair, they use any rhetoric that comes to hand to keep out of your mind the recollection that even if all the happiness they promised
could come to man on earth, yet still each generation would lose it by death, including the last generation of all, and the whole story would be nothing, not even a story, for ever and ever."
-The Weight of Glory (C.S. Lewis)
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