Skip to main content

Godly Love



The word “love” is mentioned in the Bible over 500 times; God surely considers love essential to our lives. God is love. Without love we are lost. One of the first Scriptures in the Bible to stress “love” is (Deuteronomy 6:5) where Moses instructs us to; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Love begins with God. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Do you remember your first “love?” I do! Her name was “Jeri” and she was my very first little “girlfriend” back in fifth grade. I would do anything to attract her attention, like try to kick the volleyball over the school fence, hang upside down from the monkey bars, and make strange faces for her. Back then I believed I loved her…I did, as a 9 or 10 year old boy could. I made her several valentines that year, even beyond Valentine’s Day! She liked them, so I kept on making ‘em for her probably until summer when school was let out for summer vacation.

Now, nearly sixty-two years later, I have a much more memorable “girlfriend” and she is my lovely wife Sally. I am proud to say, she is my all-time, most-favorite valentine! I wish I could proclaim we first met back in elementary school, but we didn’t. It was not until much later in our lives that we finally met. I was fifty-two and she was only forty-six. The year was 1991in Houston, Texas at a backyard barbecue my brother was having. It was so romantic! I will never forget meeting her and wooing her for months. I fell for her like a ton of bricks!

We are all to love each other just as Jesus said in (John 15:12) “Love each other as I have loved you.” Do we have to know each other to love each other? No. In fact, I seem to remember a saying that declares “love knows no stranger.” We should never look upon a stranger with dislike or disregard for we are all of the family of God; brothers and sisters in Christ. The world (Satan) has tried to teach us to hate and despise each other, to be suspicious of each other. I think it a terrible shame, but true (sigh.) Better we love each other for Christ’ sake.

What is love? God instructed the apostle Paul to speak of love in (1 Corinthians 13:1) saying, “And now I will show you the most excellent way.” In verses 4-7 of the same chapter we learn; “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 in truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.”

Who do you love? Go and tell them…it pleases God, and I promise it will bless them and you.

Popular posts from this blog

A Dead Battery

Last year, around the end of summer, our power-mower gave up the ghost. It was getting harder and harder to start every time I wanted to use it. So, I finally gave in to buying a new one. Bless her heart, my wife Sally told me if she didn’t have to pull that difficult, old starter-cord every time she wouldn’t mind helping me mow every once in a while. She even said it might be good exercise for her. This extra help with the yard work would be welcomed I thought. I went online checking out the outrageous prices of new lawnmowers; it had been four or five years since I bought our last one. Most of the retailers; Lowes, Home Depot,  WalMart and Sears were priced about the same, still way too much for me, but if I was going to get something Sally could start easily it would have to be one of the new key-start models where she didn’t have to pull a cord, she could just turn the key, like her car, and it would start right up. I bought one of these new models.They are great! Last week, an
Post a Comment
Read more

We Rob God

Were God a greedy God He would expect ninety percent of our earnings leaving us the remaining ten to support our needs, He doesn’t though. Instead, He asks exactly the opposite of our potential, one tenth, a tithe. Have we excluded God out of our plans? Sure we have! Do we continue to exclude Him from what we want to believe is rightfully our world, our government, our lives? We not only exclude Him, we deny Him of what is rightfully His from the very beginning. Even worse, as a nation, a world, a people we deny He exist! We have declared He has no place in our government, our public buildings, and our schools. Pity us, it is no wonder we are under a curse as a nation with so much turmoil in our lives – we are robbing God. This is not a sermon, but wait, yes, it is! We are truly guilty of “me-ism.” We have become a world of “what about me?” Our insatiable greed has consumed us, so we have no choice but to continue feeding our monster, because it’s demanding more and more. Nothing is
Post a Comment
Read more

Sanctity Given

A person can’t accomplish sanctification by themselves no matter how much he or she studies the Word or desires this quality. It is not even something God would produce in you as something you would contemplate yourself. Instead it is the Holy Spirit, His Spirit of holiness alone, who can or will communicate His holiness and continue to renew the same in you. By our complete faith we become partakers of His holiness. It is Jesus who sanctifies us for God.  (1 Corinthians 1:30) says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.'” We seek to surrender ourselves to God by faith, so He may enable us to live life moment by moment. By His Spirit, we are to believe the Lord will, lead us into, and keep us in, this life of holiness and consecration to God’s service. We choose to live in obedience of faith, listening to God’s voice – the
Post a Comment
Read more