9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. James 3:9 – 10 CSB
Love
A Game of Pretend
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 1 John 3:18 NRSV
Unhelpful
Each heart knows its own bitterness,
and no one else can fully share its joy. Proverbs 14:10 NLT
An Important Commodity
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I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NLT
Only Love
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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
It All Comes Down to Love
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Every once in a while you come across a blog post that is just too good to keep to yourself. Brian Zahnd’s recent post titled Love Never Ends: A Meditation is one of those.
Brian is the Lead Pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. He is one of those guys who is all about the Kingdom of God. I have enjoyed many of the insights he has shared.
Excerpts
In his post, Brian shares on the foundational and enduring quality of God’s love. You need to read and pray through it in it’s entirety, but let me provide you with a couple of excerpts that will inspire you.
Why is there something instead of nothing?
The only answer I can imagine is Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God…
But why would God say, “Let there be light” and initiate Creation?
The only answer I can imagine is God is love.What is light? God’s love in the form of photons.
What is water? A liquid expression of God’s love.
What is a mountain? God’s love in granite, so much older than human sorrow.
What is a tree? God’s love growing up from the ground.
What is a bull moose? God’s love sporting spectacular antlers.
What is a whale? Fifty tons of God’s love swimming in the ocean.Love never ends.
At the end of all things there is love. Love abides. Love endures.
When the last star burns out, God’s love will be there for whatever comes after.
In the end it all adds up to love. So when you are calculating the meaning of life—
If it doesn’t add up to love, recalculate, because you’ve made a serious mistake!Existence only makes sense when seen through the lens of love.
At the beginning of time there is love.
At the bottom of the universe there is love.
It’s in God’s ocean of endless love that we live and move and have our being.
So Much More
There is so much more here that you need to take in and mull over. Please, stop whatever you are doing and carefully read over Brian’s post. It is inspiring and uplifting, while at the same time being challenging and convicting. After all, it all comes down to love, and love is the only sure sign that we are truly, genuinely, living in the Reign.
M
How Do We Do It? 3
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Lately we have been seeking to answer the question of how we walk in love. We have discussed what agape love looks like. We talked about loving in deed and in truth. In this post we are going to look at a very familiar story to see what love looks like in practice.
