It’s February – the Love Month and I think I’d like to focus on love all month long.
There are those among us that would say, “Forget love; I’d rather fall in chocolate”. Believe it or not the Bible has a warning for that way of thinking: When you're given a box of candy, don't gulp it all down; eat too much chocolate and you'll make yourself sick ~ Proverbs 25:16/MSG. I know I could hunt down some deep wisdom in that Scripture and I may come back to it but for now I’m looking for the Greatest Love of All.
Henry Ward Beecher said, "I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love”.
So, my question would be, how does anyone know how to love until they begin to know God? Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
The Greek language had three words for love. First there was "Eros," from which we get "erotic." This was, of course a purely selfish love. Then there was "Phileo" (Philadelphia), or "brotherly love" This is the love of one family member for another. But the Bible reveals a deeper love – the depth and breadth of God’s love. "Agape" is a giving love, entirely unselfish. Agape describe the love God has for us. As the song; "The Love of God" says:
Were with ink the oceans filled
And were the skies of parchment made
And every blade of grass 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.
We are of great value both because of our creation and also because of the price paid for our redemption. There is an old story which illustrates this aptly.
A Young boy made a beautiful toy sailboat and took it to a lake to sail, but a gust of wind blew the boat out into the lake. The boat was lost. Several weeks later, the boy saw his sailboat in the window of a toy store. When he asked for his boat, the store owner said, "I own the sailboat now. If you want it you will have to buy it back." The boy sold all he had to buy back his boat. After paying the store owner, the boy took his boat to his heart and said, "Little boat, you are twice mine, I made you, and now I bought you."
A pearl to string: Like that little boat, we are twice the Lord's - He made us, and Christ bought us back by paying the price for our sin with his own blood.
I’m going with Samuel Rutherford’s thoughts on God: “Since He hath looked upon me my heart is not my own. He hath run away to heaven with it”.
Captured by His love,
Lyndi
There are those among us that would say, “Forget love; I’d rather fall in chocolate”. Believe it or not the Bible has a warning for that way of thinking: When you're given a box of candy, don't gulp it all down; eat too much chocolate and you'll make yourself sick ~ Proverbs 25:16/MSG. I know I could hunt down some deep wisdom in that Scripture and I may come back to it but for now I’m looking for the Greatest Love of All.
Henry Ward Beecher said, "I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love”.
So, my question would be, how does anyone know how to love until they begin to know God? Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
The Greek language had three words for love. First there was "Eros," from which we get "erotic." This was, of course a purely selfish love. Then there was "Phileo" (Philadelphia), or "brotherly love" This is the love of one family member for another. But the Bible reveals a deeper love – the depth and breadth of God’s love. "Agape" is a giving love, entirely unselfish. Agape describe the love God has for us. As the song; "The Love of God" says:
Were with ink the oceans filled
And were the skies of parchment made
And every blade of grass 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.
We are of great value both because of our creation and also because of the price paid for our redemption. There is an old story which illustrates this aptly.
A Young boy made a beautiful toy sailboat and took it to a lake to sail, but a gust of wind blew the boat out into the lake. The boat was lost. Several weeks later, the boy saw his sailboat in the window of a toy store. When he asked for his boat, the store owner said, "I own the sailboat now. If you want it you will have to buy it back." The boy sold all he had to buy back his boat. After paying the store owner, the boy took his boat to his heart and said, "Little boat, you are twice mine, I made you, and now I bought you."
A pearl to string: Like that little boat, we are twice the Lord's - He made us, and Christ bought us back by paying the price for our sin with his own blood.
I’m going with Samuel Rutherford’s thoughts on God: “Since He hath looked upon me my heart is not my own. He hath run away to heaven with it”.
Captured by His love,
Lyndi
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