“Love never fails.” 1Corinthians 11
February is the month for hearts and flowers and I love you clichés. In thinking back when I worked at the local flower shop, February was one of the busiest times of the year, especially on the fourteenth of the month. I made more red and white bows and put together dozens of rose bouquets than I care to count; they called me “the bow lady.” The shop was filled with flowers, pretty vases, heart gifts and every kind of I love you cards that you wanted to send. I still can smell the aroma of all the beautiful candles and flowers even to this day. When February the 14th came it was a chaotic day, to say the least! However, the expressions of love infused the atmosphere. The word love is expressed in many different methodologies. The word is voiced very superficiality in my opinion. However, God’s love is real and genuine because it surpasses all human ideologies. The total of all human culture does not know what true love is all about. It does not come out of a culture but out of the very heart of our creator, God. The Bible is full of great verses and passages on the topic of Love. In the Greek there are at least four words that express love; there is the expression of love for a friend, family, or between a man and a woman. However, there is only one word for love that is unconditionally superior to all the others and that is Agape love. Agape love is the expression of God’s love and it can only be expressed if we have surrendered to Jesus Christ and not our own. If you are like me you can probably think of only a few people in a life time that have loved you unconditionally, with the Agape love. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband for fifty-one years that has love me unconditionally. There is a secular song that was written years ago called, True Love.” If we were to transfer that title into God’s kingdom the lyrics would be written like this: True love is giving forever of oneself through the power Of God and all that is said or done is completely impelled by God’s love to the lovely and the unlovely. What does Agape love really look like; I will direct you to one of the most beautiful passages in scripture; It reads like this: love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy and 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 preservers. Love Never Fails! (NIV 1 Corinthians 1). It is by God’s grace that enables us to live out this passage through the empowerment of His Spirit. It will do us good to keep this chapter close at hand and in our hearts throughout the year 2012. God Loves Us 1 John 4:19: "We love because he first loved us." At the age of twelve I was asked to quote the song, “The Love of God." It took me days to memorize those few verses and yet every time I quoted it there was a deeper love in my heart for that song, which talked about God's wonderful sacrificial love. Even today, I find myself not only quoting this song but singing it. It was called, "The Love of God, by Federick M. Lehman. One of the verses goes like this, "Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.” Some of us visualize that in God’s eyes we are just like a drop in the ocean, or a small speck in this universe and it would be impossible for Him to notice “little me, as insignificant as I am.” I remember having those thought on several occasions but as I grew stronger in my faith it became impossible for me to think that way We must be careful; we can talk ourselves into just about anything. Satan would like for us to think we are out here in this world with no one who really cares about us, then before you know it self-pity and depression will over-come our thought life. One of the worst things that can happen to us is when we allow the mind to take us prisoner to our own imaginations. We then convince ourselves that most people don’t think we are important nor do they love us, so we assume God thinks of us in a similar way; but then, again, God is not like ‘most people. If a Christian says they are not loved or no one cares for them, to me that is like calling God a liar after all He has done to demonstrate His love to all of us. I love the passage in Jeremiah 139:1-4; “O Lord you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.” That is truly a heavenly Father who longs for a loving response. Yet, for some that is just too difficult for them to comprehend. So many people were never loved and affirmed as a young child and it manifest in many different forms as they grew into adulthood. I cannot even count the people who have confided in me that their parents never showed signs of love to them. However, when we surrender to God He shows us a new life and has expressed in every way possible how much He loves us. “For God so loved He gave.” It is our choice weather we receive it or not. The prophet Hosea spoke of God’s love to His chosen people and said, “I Ied them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them”… in love He binds all our hearts and hurts to Him. What a thought to ponder. Hosea 11:4 |
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