When we understand what God loves and face what God finds disgusting; when we learn to love what is good and hate what is evil, then we will begin to love like God does. To know Him is to love Him. * * * Love and knowledge are often linked in Scripture! For example, after […]
Rekindle my disgust. Not exactly the thing most people would want to rekindle. But a key to loving what is good is also doing the converse: hating what is evil. Jude 1:20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God’s […]
1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. A rekindled love is […]
Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: […]
In John 13:34, Jesus gives us the Love Standard: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Nothing irks a perfectionist quite the way that a high standard with a great probability of failure does. If a gold standard is like the best […]
John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. Most of us could probably use some help in the sacrificial love category. […]
The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays which are designed as a Sabbath to give us rest, time to reflect, and the opportunity to be refreshed as we worship our loving God. Job 38:18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. 19 “What is […]
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day in the US. Retailers hope to sell jewelry, flowers, chocolates, and enormous teddy bears destined for tomorrow’s closet. And they will sell because on Valentine’s Day all of these are supposed to show love in a big way. But frankly, that’s not the kind of love God talks about. Nor the kind that brings […]
Is there a difference between living a life that is joy-full versus one that is a life accessorized by joy? Which one do you want: joyful or joy-full? Q: What makes joy complete, joy-full as it were? A: Fellowship. Philippians 2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from […]
Isolation can steal our joy. Many Americans know what it’s like to be lonely, to feel isolated, unwanted, unappreciated, and unloved. The ember to be rekindled—even if not smothered by sin or wrong priorities—can still go out if it is isolated. Take a burning ember and push it to a far corner of a fireplace […]
