Photo via Visual Hunt
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:12 NLT
The Pain
Does it cause you pain when you see a tragedy in the daily news?
It does me.
The pain we feel in our hearts, the tears that sit just below the surface, all belong to the Lord. We are sharing His grief over His broken creation. It is not the hopeless grief of utter loss. It is the grief of knowing God has provided a better way, and that other don’t see it.
The Why
This is why the Lord has called His people to walk in love. Love reflects His true nature like nothing else will. Think about it.
- Love is the foundation of the patience necessary to hold meaningful dialogue where there is disagreement.
- Love is the motivation for extending kindness to someone in need.
- Love tears down walls of division and creates space for harmony to prevail.
Sounds like the nature of God to me.
Only Love
Only love will enable us to accomplish this, and so much more. Only the love that dies toward self and lives toward God and others will make these things possible. It’s a love that lives beyond its comfort zone. It’s a love that looks like the Man from Galilee. And the only way to this love is living in the Reign.
M
Living in the Reign 
Face it Mac: We are a society of ONLY ME! With this recognition, the true character of LOVE takes a poor Olympic last place. The nit and grit of Love’s exclusiveness, is the in our face obedience to God. We want Him to love us unconditionally but if crossed in the most simplistic way by another, the true face of the individual is revealed.
Keep up the great writing Sir, you are on IT!
Thanks for your words of admonition and encouragement, Miss Edith. You are pretty right on yourself. Blessings!