Faith Words: Loves does
We just returned from Dallas where we attended Glenn Beck's Restoring Love Event. On Saturday, my daughter-in-law and I attended a women's conference that focused on faith and purpose. Saturday evening, we were joined by my husband, my son and our granddaughter at Cowboys Stadium for Restoring Love.
Restoring Love wasn't a political event. It was a call to action, a call to find and fulfill acts of love and charity that God has placed around us, a call to minister to people by showing love for them in service. It was so encouraging to see so many families gathered together to urge each other to love and serve their fellow man.
To me, love is the essence of Christianity. John 3:16 - "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Matthew 22:37 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Matthew 22:39 - "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 5:44 - "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." John 13:34-35 - "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 15:9 - "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." John 15:12 - "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." I John 3:1 - "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" I John 4:19 - "We love because He first loved us."
In these few verses, love is held up as the standard for our lives. But it's not just any love. It's love the way God loves - it's love the way Christ Jesus loves. I John 3:18 - "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." And believe it or not, that's what Glenn Beck challenged us to do: don't let restoring love merely be an event one weekend in Dallas, but let it be the way we live our lives.
What can we do today to let God's love be shown to the world through us? I spend most of my days kind of isolated from others because I babysit my granddaughter during the day and work for my husband in the evening. Does that mean the world won't see God's love through me? What about you? Is the God's love in your life seen by anyone else? I believe if we love the way God intends for us to love, it will make a difference.
The love of God burns like a flame. No matter how small or how large that flame is, it gives light in the darkness. Matthew 5:14, 16 - "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden....let you light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." There it is: "that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
Love doesn't hide itself. Love doesn't only talk about doing good. Love does - sometimes quietly while rocking a granddaughter, sometimes loudly in a crowd of thousands in Dallas, TX. Love gets up and does whatever God has purposed, wherever love is found because God is love.
Patrice
I Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV)
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.
Restoring Love wasn't a political event. It was a call to action, a call to find and fulfill acts of love and charity that God has placed around us, a call to minister to people by showing love for them in service. It was so encouraging to see so many families gathered together to urge each other to love and serve their fellow man.
To me, love is the essence of Christianity. John 3:16 - "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Matthew 22:37 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Matthew 22:39 - "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 5:44 - "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." John 13:34-35 - "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 15:9 - "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." John 15:12 - "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." I John 3:1 - "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" I John 4:19 - "We love because He first loved us."
In these few verses, love is held up as the standard for our lives. But it's not just any love. It's love the way God loves - it's love the way Christ Jesus loves. I John 3:18 - "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." And believe it or not, that's what Glenn Beck challenged us to do: don't let restoring love merely be an event one weekend in Dallas, but let it be the way we live our lives.
What can we do today to let God's love be shown to the world through us? I spend most of my days kind of isolated from others because I babysit my granddaughter during the day and work for my husband in the evening. Does that mean the world won't see God's love through me? What about you? Is the God's love in your life seen by anyone else? I believe if we love the way God intends for us to love, it will make a difference.
The love of God burns like a flame. No matter how small or how large that flame is, it gives light in the darkness. Matthew 5:14, 16 - "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden....let you light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." There it is: "that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
Love doesn't hide itself. Love doesn't only talk about doing good. Love does - sometimes quietly while rocking a granddaughter, sometimes loudly in a crowd of thousands in Dallas, TX. Love gets up and does whatever God has purposed, wherever love is found because God is love.
Patrice
I Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV)
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.
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See, I have engraved your name on the palms of my hands, your wells are ever before me.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God - even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
God....is the blessed controller of all things, the king over all kings and the master of all masters.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to him, for God
is our refuge.