LOVE!!!
A four letter word that has so much packed into it, it is indeed
the biggest and fattest word of any word invented my humans in
any language.
Back in the 1960s I had a book called "Love, Hate, Fear and other
Emotions." They had even in the 60s discovered that our emotions
play a mighty important part of our health. I well remember in
the book the facts they gave on orphaned babies and love. They
discovered that the babies that were picked up and cuddled, held,
loved ... THRIVED; but babies not picked up and loved did not
move on in health, some even died.
LOVE - the subject is so large - I will only start it here and
will go into full detail with the subject on my website under
"Christian Living."
FROM THE BOOK "1001 QUOTES, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND HUMOROUS STORIES"
God loves us the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us
that way.
(Atonement, Salvation)
When [Jesus] wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into
a basin, and began to wash his disciples' feet (see John 13:4-5),
Simon Peter objected that this was beneath the dignity of the
Master. We the disciples are to be the servants, I want to insist
along with Peter. But Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you,
you have no part in me." This is a stunning and stupendous
thought. Unless I can believe in this much love for me, unless I
can and will accept him with faith as my servant as well as my
God, unless I truly know that it's my good he seeks, not his
glory ... then I cannot have his companionship. What an amazing
revelation!
Catherine Marshall
(Service, Devotion)
How do I want to be remembered? Not primarily as a Christian
scholar but rather as a loving person. This can be the goal of
every individual.
Elton Trueblood
(Legacy, Goals)
More people have been brought into the church by the kindness of
real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the
world, and more people have been driven from the church by the
hardness and ugliness of so-called Christianity than by all the
doubts in the world.
William Barclay
(Christianity, Church)
The height of our love for God will never exceed the depth of our
love for one another.
Patrick Morley
(Fellowship, Community)
Love should cast out terror, but not awe. True love must include
awe. This is one of the great truths about sex and marriage that
our age has tragically forgotten: awe at the great mystery that
is sex.... God is love. But love is not luv. Love is not nice.
Love is a fire, storm, earthquake, volcano, lightning, and
hurricane. Love endured the hell of the cross.
Peter Kreeft
(Sex, Awe)
A man is only as good as what he loves.
Saul Bellow
(Character, Devotion)
I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then
there is no more hurt, but only more love.
Mother Teresa
(Sacrifice, Suffering)
Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and
soften and purify the heart.
Washington Irving
(Character, Sanctification)
If you're going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can't
pick and choose who's going to be the sparrow.
Madeleine L'Engle
(Servanthood, Compassion)
Love is ... a free gift.... And it is most itself, most free when
it is offered in spite of suffering, of injustice, and of death.
Archibald MacLeish
(Sacrifice, Servanthood)
People need love, especially when they don't deserve it.
Unknown
(Devotion, Compassion)
Christians state glibly that they love the whole world, while
they permit themselves animosities within their immediate
world.... But loving the world at large can only be done by
loving face-to-face the world that is not so distant.
Calvin Miller
(Compassion, World)
......
Lee Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi
what it took to make a winning team. The book "Iacocca" records
Lombardi's answer:
There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the
fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don't win
the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: If you're going
to play together as a team, you've got to care for one another.
You've got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking
about the next guy and saying to himself: If I don't block that
man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job
well in order that he can do his.
The difference between mediocrity and greatness," Lombardi said
that night, "is the feeling these guys have for each other."
In the healthy church, each Christian learns to care for others.
As we take seriously Jesus' command to love one another, we
contribute to a winning team.
Christopher Stinnett
(Caregiving, Teamwork)
This story comes from a Sunday school ministry in the part of New
York City that has been rated the "most likely place to get
killed." Pastor Bill Wilson has been stabbed twice, shot at, and
had a member of his team killed:
One Puerto Rican lady, after getting saved in church, came to me
with an urgent request. She didn't speak a word of English, so
she told me through an interpreter, "I want to do something for
God, please."
"I don't know what you can do," I answered. "Please, let me do
something," she said in Spanish.
"Okay. I'll put you on a bus. Ride a different bus every week and
just love the kids."
So every week she rode a different bus-we have fifty of them-and
loved the children. She would find the worstlooking kid on the
bus, put him on her lap, and whisper over and over the only words
she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."
After several months, she became attached to one little boy in
particular. "I don't want to change buses anymore. I want to stay
on this one bus," she said.
The boy didn't speak. He came to Sunday school every week with
his sister and sat on the woman's lap, but he never made a sound.
Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday school and all
the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."
One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and
stammered, "I-I love you, too." Then he put his arms around her
and gave her a big hug.
That was 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon. At 6:30 that night, the
boy was found dead in a garbage bag under a fire escape. His
mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash.
"I love you and Jesus loves you." Those were some of the last
words he heard in his short life-from the lips of a Puerto Rican
woman who could barely speak English.
God's Love!
My Sunday school class of youngsters had some problems repeating
the Lord's Prayer. One child prayed, "Our Father, who art in
heaven, how'd you know my name."
Clara Null
(Children, Prayer)
Love for Pigs!
In the 1980s, people shelled out thousands of dollars to own a
potbellied pig, an exotic house pet imported from Vietnam. Their
breeders claimed these minipigs were quite smart and would grow
to only 40 pounds. Well, they were half right. The pigs were
smart. But they had a tendency to grow to about 150 pounds and
become quite aggressive.
What do people do with an unwanted potbellied pig? Fortunately,
Dale Riffle came to the rescue. Someone had given Riffle one of
these pigs, and he fell in love with it. The pig, Rufus, never
learned to use its litter box and developed this craving for
carpets and wallpaper and drywall. Yet Riffle sold his suburban
home and moved with Rufus to a five-acre farm in West Virginia.
He started taking in other unwanted pigs, and before long, the
guy was living in hog heaven.
There are currently 180 residents on his farm. According to an
article in U.S. News & World Report, they snooze on beds of pine
shavings. They wallow in mud puddles. They soak in plastic
swimming pools and listen to piped-in classical music. And they
never need fear that one day they'll become bacon or pork chops.
There's actually a waiting list of unwanted pigs trying to get a
hoof in the door at Riffle's farm.
Dale Riffle told the reporter, "We're all put on earth for some
reason, and I guess pigs are my lot in life." How could anybody
in his right mind fall in love with pigs?
......
LOVE does not often come easy for many. It is much easier to
hate, be jealous of, be antagonistic against, hold a grudge
against, dislike others, be cold towards others, be un-
sympathetic, and be in plain words an un-loving person. It takes
effort to love, especially when others do not show you love. It's
easier to just go along with the side of human nature that is not
the nature of love.
We shall in this study learn about LOVE, about love in many ways,
and what the Word of the Lord has to say about LOVE. When you
feel love is far from you; when you feel love is not in you; when
you feel love is hard to find; then you need to sit and read this
study again and again as you find the need to build up love in
your heart and mind towards others and towards God.
To help you find love you could take a walk out in the peace of
nature, see the beauty all around you, meditate on the good
things you have, or sit and watch a nature movie, read a book on
the glories of flowers. Just fill your mind with thoughts of how
people have loved others, what they did or said towards others
that showed wonderful love.
LOVE is a deep subject, a small word, but HUGE in scope and
meaning. So here we go to find out all the truth about LOVE!
..........
To be continued
All about LOVE #2One small word - one HUGE meaningLOVE #2
FROM THE BOOK "SWINDOLL'S ULTIMATE BOOK OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND
QUOTES" ---
To "Let Go" Takes Love
To "let go" does not mean to stop caring, it means that I can't
do it for someone else.
To "let go" is not to cut myself off, it is the realization that
I can't control another.
To "let go" is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural
consequences.
To "let go" is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is
not in my hands.
To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another, it is to
make the most of myself.
To "let go" is not to care for, but to care about.
To "let go" is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To "let go" is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human
being.
To "let go" is not to be in the middle arranging all the
outcomes, but allow others to effect their own destinies.
To "let go" is not to be protective, it is to permit another to
face reality.
To "let go" is not to deny, but to accept.
To "let go" is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead to search
out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to
take each day as it comes, and cherish myself in it.
To "let go" is not to criticize what I dream I can be.
To "let go" is not to regret the past, but to grow and to live
for the future.
To "let go" is to fear less and to love more.
-Margaret J. Rinck, "Can Christians Love Too Much?"
......
IF I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak
points in contrast perhaps with what I think of as my strong
points; if I adopt a superior attitude, forgetting "Who made thee
to differ? and what hast thou that thou has not received?" then I
know nothing of Calvary love.
IF I take offense easily, if I am content to continue in a cool
unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know
nothing of Calvary love.
IF I feel bitterly towards those who condemn me, as it seems to
me, unjustly, forgetting that if they knew me as I know myself
they would condemn me much more, then I know nothing of Calvary
love.
-Amy Carmichael, "If"
......
WE MUST KEEP REACHING OUT to people ... After all, that is what
love is all about.
Love has a hem to her garment That trails in the very dust;
It can reach the stains of the streets and the lanes ... And
because it can, it must.
-G. Frederick Owen, "Abraham to the Middle East Crisis"
......
'TIS BETTER TO HAVE LOVED AND LOST, than never to have loved at
all.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
......
Constancy
You gave me the key to your heart, my love;
Then why do you make me knock?
Oh, that was yesterday, Saints above!
And last night-I changed the lock!
-John Boyle O'Reilly, quoted in Kathleen Hoagland, "1,000 Years
of Irish Poetry"
......
ONE EVENING just before the great Broadway musical star, Mary
Martin, was to go on stage in "South Pacific," a note was handed
to her. It was from Oscar Hammerstein, who at that moment was on
his deathbed. The short note simply said:
"Dear Mary, A bell's not a bell till you ring it. A song's not a
song till you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to
stay. Love isn't love till you give it away.
-James Hewett, "Illustrations Unlimited"
......
Love
I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
---Roy Croft, quoted in Hazel Felleman, "The Best Loved Poems of
the American People"
......
LITTLE CHAD was a shy, quiet young fella. One day he came home
and told his mother, he'd like to make a valentine for everyone
in his class. Her heart sank. She thought, "I wish he wouldn't do
that!" because she had watched the children when they walked home
from school. Her Chad was always behind them. They laughed and
hung on to each other and talked to each other. But Chad was
never included. Nevertheless, she decided she would go along with
her son. So she purchased the paper and glue and crayons. For
three whole weeks, night after night, Chad painstakingly made
thirty-five valentines.
Valentines Day dawned and Chad was beside himself with
excitement! He carefully stacked them up, put them in a bag, and
bolted out the door. His mom decided to bake him his favorite
cookies and serve them up warm and nice with a cool glass of milk
when he came home from school. She just knew he'd be
disappointed; maybe that would ease the pain a little. It hurt
her to think that he wouldn't get many valentines--maybe none at
all.
That afternoon she had the cookies and milk out on the table.
When she heard the children outside she looked out the window.
Sure enough here they came, laughing and having the best time.
And, as always, there was Chad in the rear. He walked a little
faster than usual. She fully expected him to burst into tears as
soon as he got inside. His arms were empty, she noticed, and when
the door opened she choked back the tears.
"Mommy has some warm cookies and milk for you."
But he hardly heard her words. He just marched right on by, his
face aglow, and all he could say was:
"Not a one ... not a one." Her heart sank.
And then he added, "I didn't forget a one, not a single one!"
-Dale Galloway, "Rebuild Your Life"
......
TRUE LOVE is a splendid host.
There is love whose measure is that of an umbrella. There is love
whose inclusiveness is that of a great marquee. And there is love
whose comprehension is that of the immeasurable sky. The aim of
the New Testament is the conversion of the umbrella into a tent
and the merging of the tent into the glorious canopy of the
all-enfolding heavens ... Push back the walls of family love
until they include the neighbor; again push back the walls until
they include the stranger; again push back the walls until they
comprehend the foe.
-John Henry Jowett, "The Epistles of St. Peter"
......
L--listening when another is speaking,
0--overlooking petty faults and forgiving all failures;
V--valuing other people for who they are;
E--expressing love in a practical way.
Denis Waitley, "Seeds of Greatness"
......
STAY FERVENT IN LOVE. Fervent is a word that speaks of intensity
and determination. It is an athletic term for stretching to reach
the tape. Have you watched the fellows and gals who run the dash?
When they come around that last turn and they're pressing for the
tape, they'll get right to the end and then they'll lunge
forward. I've even seen them fall right there on the track,
because they're pushing to reach the tape ahead of the one
they're competing against. It's the idea of intensity at the
tape, stretching yourself. Those who do the long jump leap into
the air and throw their feet forward and they, with intensity,
stretch every muscle of their body to reach as far as they can.
The same with the high jumpers, or with the pole vaulters. They
stretch to the uttermost to reach the limit. That's the word
fervent.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? It has hands to help others, feet to
hasten to the poor and needy, eyes to see misery and want, ears
to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks
like.
-Augustine
......
HEAT MAKES ALL THINGS EXPAND. And the warmth of love will always
expand a person's heart.
-Chrysostom
......
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
-William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 116"
......
To be continued
All about LOVE #3A little about God's LOVE!LOVE #3
A SHORT LOOK AT GOD'S LOVE
FROM THE BOOK "SWINDOLL'S ULTIMATE BOOK OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND
QUOTES"
GOD'S LOVE
What God Hath Promised
God hath not promised Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through;
God hath not promised
Sun without rain, joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labor,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.
-Annie Johnson Flint, quoted in Donald Kauffman, "Baker's Pocket
Treasury of Religious Verse"
......
KARL BARTH, famed theologian, was once asked, "What is the
greatest thought you ever had?" His answer: "Jesus loves me this
I know, for the Bible tells me so."
-Dale Galloway, "Rebuild Your Life"
......
WHAT MATTERS SUPREMELY, therefore, is not, in the last analysis,
the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it
- that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am
never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His
sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first
knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one
who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or
His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when
His care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is
unspeakable comfort ... in knowing that God is constantly taking
knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There
is tremendous relief in knowing that His love is utterly
realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst
about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me,
in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench
His determination to bless me.
-J. 1. Packer, "Knowing God"
......
ONE NIGHT I HAD A DREAM. I Was walking along the beach with the
Lord, and across the skies flashed scenes from my life. In each
scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One was
mine, and one was the Lord's. When the last scene of my life
appeared before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand,
and to my surprise, I noticed that many times along the path of
my life there was only one set of footprints. And I noticed that
it was at the lowest and saddest times in my life. I asked the
Lord about it, "Lord, You said that once I decided to follow You,
You would walk with me all the way. But I notice that during the
most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of
footprints. I do not understand why You left my side when I
needed You the most." The Lord said, "My precious child, I never
left you during your time of trial. Where you see only one set of
footprints, I was carrying you."
-Margaret Rose Powers, "Guideposts magazine," July 1992
......
WHEN I WAS IN THE MARINE CORPS in the Orient I became serious
about the ministry. It was amazing to me that God was changing my
heart at that time. My sister, Luci, who knew of my interest
through a letter I had written her, sent me a book I still have
in my library. I treasure it. I opened the book the afternoon I
received it and saw she had written in the front part of the book
this inscription, "Whom have we, Lord, but Thee, soul thirst to
satisfy. Exhaustless spring, the water is free, all other streams
are dry." (This is from the hymn "Whom Have We, Lord, but Thee"
by Mary Bowley Peters.) God's love is an exhaustless spring.
......
THERE IS NO OTHER BLESSING I can give you, no gift so precious no
treasure so refreshing, nothing that can provision you for the
journey we are all making, than to tell you that Someone is
searching diligently for you. He is not a stationary God. He is
crazy about you. The expense to which He has gone isn't
reasonable, is it? The Cross was not a very dignified ransom. To
say the least, it was a splurge of love and glory lavishly spent
on you and me: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the
ungodly." "A shepherd having a hundred sheep, if he loses one,
leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one and searches
diligently until he finds it."
God is like that shepherd. That is enough to make me laugh and
cry.
-David A. Redding, "Jesus Makes Me Laugh with Him"
......
To be continue
All about LOVE #4LOVE amplified in Daily Living #2
LOVE AMPLIFIED IN DAILY LIVING #2
FROM THE BOOK "750 ENGAGING ILLUSTRATIONS"
Love
Rubel Shelly tells this story:
Jason Tuskes was a 17-year-old high school honor student. He was
close to his mother, his wheelchair-bound father, and his younger
brother. Jason was an expert swimmer who loved to scuba dive.
He left home on a Tuesday morning to explore a spring and
underwater cave near his home in west central Florida. His plan
was to be home in time to celebrate his mother's birthday by
going out to dinner with his family that night.
Jason became lost in the cave. Then, in his panic, he apparently
got wedged into a narrow passageway. When he realized he was
trapped, he shed his yellow metal air tank and unsheathed his
diver's knife. With the tank as a tablet and the knife as a pen,
he wrote one last message to his family: I LOVE YOU MOM, DAD, AND
CHRISTIAN. Then he ran out of air and drowned.
A dying message - something communicated in the last few seconds
of life - is something we cant ignore. God's final words to us
are etched on a Roman cross. They are blood red. They scream to
be heard. They, too, say, "I love you."
God's Love, Christ's Blood
Love
In 1996 Disney came out with the movie 101 Dalmatians, and it was
a box-office success. Many viewers fell in love with the cute
spotted puppies on the big screen and decided to get one for
themselves. When they brought those adorable little puppies home,
however, they found that living with a dalmatian is an entirely
different experience from watching one on the movie screen. Soon,
according to the Associated Press, all over the United States dog
shelters saw a dramatic increase in the number of dalmatians
being abandoned by their owners. A Florida organization called
Dalmatian Rescue took in 130 dalmatians in the first nine months
of 1997; usually they get that many dogs in two and a half years.
Dalmatians can be a challenge to own for several reasons.
Dalmatians grow to be big dogs, weighing as much as seventy
pounds. They are rambunctious and require a lot of exercise. They
can be moody, becoming restless and even destructive if they
don't get enough activity. They shed year-round, and 10 percent
of dalmatians are born deaf.
Tracey Carson, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Humane Society,
says, "Although Dalmatians are beautiful puppies, and can be
wonderful dogs, you have to know what you're getting into."
Whether with pets or with people, infatuation with someone's
appearance is a poor foundation for a relationship.
Appearance, Commitment, Expectations, Faithfulness, Illusions,
Infatuation, Marriage, Relationships, Romance Rom. 12:10; 1 Cor.
13:7-8
Love
Rita Price writes in a 1995 issue of the Columbus Dispatch:
Katie Fisher, 17, pulled her unruly lamb into the arena of the
Madison County Junior Livestock Sale last July. With luck the
lamb would fetch some spending money - and she wouldn't collapse
as she had during another livestock show the day before.
Fisher had been battling Burkitt's lymphoma, a fast-growing
malignancy, since February. She had endured many hospitalizations
and months of chemotherapy. "Sometimes, in the beginning, it hurt
so bad all she could do was pace," said her 12-year-old sister,
Jessica.
Selling the lamb did raise pin money for Fisher.
"We sort of let folks know that Katie had a situation that wasn't
too pleasant," said auctioneer Roger Wilson, who hoped his
introduction would push the price-per-pound above the average of
$2. It did-and then some.
The lamb sold for $11.50 per pound. Then the buyer gave it back.
That started a chain reaction. Families bought it and gave it
back; businesses bought it and gave it back.
"The first sale is the only one I remember. After that, I was
crying too hard," said Katie's mother, Jayne Fisher. "Everyone
kept saying, 'Re-sell! Re-sell!'"
"We sold that lamb 36 times," said Wilson. And the last buyer
gave back the lamb for good. The effort raised more than $16,000,
which went into a fund to help pay Katie's medical expenses.
It is blessed both to give and to receive.
Giving, Mercy, Sacrifice Acts 20:35; Gal. 6:2;1 John 3:16-18
Love
Researcher Beppino Giovanella knows what it means to give himself
on behalf of others. In Johns Hopkins Magazine Melissa Hendricks
writes:
Nobody put a gun to Beppino Giovanella's head and said, "Take
this or else." It was the desire to find a safe but effective
dosage that made the biologist swallow a gelatin capsule
containing 100 milligrams of an experimental cancer drug. Like a
modern-day Dr. Jekyll, Giovanella, director of laboratories for
the Stehlin Foundation in Houston, chose himself as a guinea pig.
Partly as a result of his self-experiment, the drug is now in
clinical trials.
Science is rich with stories of self-experiments, but today an
investigator like Giovanella, who has tested several drugs on
himself without seeking formal approval of his institution, is a
rare bird. As a result of his latest experiment, he temporarily
lost his hair. But he did find that cancer drug doses effective
in animals are too much for humans.
"As a biologist, you become acutely aware that drugs at times act
very differently from one species to another," Giovanella says.
"That is why I always test new drugs on myself first. It wouldn't
be very nice to risk another person before I risk myself."
Love is considerate.
Golden Rule, Self-Sacrifice 1 Cor. 13:7; James 3:17-18
Love
How do we love someone who stumbles?
In a Leadership profile of pastor and author Stu Weber, Dave
Goetz writes:
Growing up, Weber developed a temper, which blossomed in high
school and college. "And then I went in the military," Weber
said, "which doesn't do a lot to curb your temper and develop
relational skills."
Early in his ministry, he stopped playing church-league
basketball altogether; his temper kept flaring, embarrassing
himself and the church. A decade passed. "I hadn't had a flash of
temper for years," Weber said. "I thought, the Lord has been
good. I'm actually growing."
Then his oldest son made the high school varsity basketball
squad. "I began living my life again through my son." Weber
terrorized the referees. On one occasion, seated in the second
row, Weber wound up on the floor level, with no recollection of
how he got there. He received nasty letters from church members,
who, he says now, "were absolutely right on."
But then he got another note: "Stu, I know your heart. I know
that's not you. I know that you want to live for Christ and his
reputation. And I know that's not happened at these ballgames. If
it would be helpful to you, I'd come to the games with you and
sit beside you."
It was from one of his accountability partners.
"Steve saved my life," Weber said. "It was an invitation, a
gracious extension of truth. He assumed the best and believed in
me."
When we love others, we believe in and hope the best for them
even when they fail.
Accountability, Anger, Belief, Community, Devotion, Discipleship,
Failure, Forbearance, Loyalty, Men, Stumbling, Support, Temper
Rom.12:10; 1 Cor.13:7; Col. 3:8,12-14
..........
To be continued
All about LOVE #5LOVING your enemies - LOVE of God
LOVE: FROM THE BOOK "750 ENGAGING ILLUSTRATIONS"
LOVE FOR ENEMIES
In Context, Martin Marty retells a parable from the Eye of the
Needle newsletter:
A holy man was engaged in his morning meditation under a tree
whose roots stretched out over the riverbank. During his
meditation he noticed that the river was rising, and a scorpion
caught in the roots was about to drown. He crawled out on the
roots and reached down to free the scorpion, but every time he
did so, the scorpion struck back at him.
An observer came along and said to the holy man, "Don't you know
that's a scorpion, and it's in the nature of a scorpion to want
to sting?"
To which the holy man replied, "That may well be, but it is my
nature to save, and must I change my nature because the scorpion
does not change its nature?"
Evangelism, Perseverance
......
In "The Grace of Giving," Stephen Olford tells of a Baptist
pastor during the American Revolution, Peter Miller, who lived in
Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the friendship of George
Washington.
In Ephrata also lived Michael Wittman, an evil-minded sort who
did all he could to oppose and humiliate the pastor.
One day Michael Wittman was arrested for treason and sentenced to
die. Peter Miller traveled seventy miles on foot to Philadelphia
to plead for the life of the traitor.
"No, Peter," General Washington said, "I cannot grant you the
life of your friend."
"My friend!" exclaimed the old preacher. "He's the bitterest
enemy I have."
"What?" cried Washington. "You've walked seventy miles to save
the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in a different light.
I'll grant your pardon." And he did. Peter Miller took Michael
Wittman back home to Ephrata - no longer an enemy, but a friend.
Grace, Enemies
......
In "The Northwestern Lutheran," Joel C. Gerlach writes:
Eight times the Ministry of Education in East Germany said no to
Uwe Holmer's children when they tried to enroll at the university
in East Berlin. The Ministry of Education doesn't usually give
reasons for its rejection of applications for enrollment. But in
this case the reason wasn't hard to guess.
Uwe Holmer, the father of the eight applicants, is a Lutheran
pastor at Lobetal, a suburb of East Berlin. For 26 years the
Ministry of Education was headed by Margot Honecker, wife of East
Germany's premier, Erich Honecker. . . . [Then] when the Berlin
wall cracked . . . Honecker and his wife were unceremoniously
dismissed from office. He is now under indictment for criminal
activities during his tenure as premier.
At the end of January the Honeckers were evicted from their
luxurious palace in Vandlitz, an exclusive suburb of palatial
homes reserved for the vets in the party. The Honeckers suddenly
found themselves friendless, without resources, and with no place
to go. None of their former cronies showed them any of the
humanitarianism communists boast about. No one wanted to identify
with the Honeckers.. . .
Enter Uwe Holmer. Remembering the words of Jesus, "If someone
strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also,"
Holmer extended an invitation to the Honeckers to stay with his
family in the parsonage of the parish church in Lobetal. . . .
Pastor Holmer has not reported that the Honeckers have renounced
their atheism and professed faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
But at least they fold their hands and bow their heads when the
family prays together. Who knows what the Holmers' faith-
inaction plan will lead to before this extraordinary episode
ends?
Enemies, Evangelism
......
LOVE OF GOD
In his book "Enjoying God," Lloyd Ogilvie writes:
A factory employee named Kenneth worked for the largest
manufacturer in Illinois for twenty-four years. The wages and
benefits paid at his factory were double what the average factory
job paid in America. He had steady work. He was forty-four years
old, yet he had never attended a union meeting. He was a
contented, middle-class worker-until 1992.
From 1992 until 1994 you could find Kenneth at the end of the day
shift parading through the factory, holding an American flag
along with two other workers, chanting, "No contract. No peace.
No contract. No peace." Kenneth called out the cadences for about
one hundred middle-age marchers.
What turned a contented worker into a thorn in this
manufacturer's side? The turning point came in 1992, after the
union had been on strike for nearly six months, when the company
threatened to replace its striking workers.
That did something to Kenneth. It turned him bitterly against his
company. Kenneth angrily explains, "I finally realized two years
ago, when they threatened to replace us, that as far as they are
concerned, I am nothing to them."
I am nothing to them - Kenneth's whole attitude changed when he
concluded, whether rightly or wrongly, that he had no worth to
the company, that he was replaceable, that they didn't care about
him as a person. Even the toughest, manliest laborer in America
craves loyalty, craves to have others care.
There is only one place where we are assured of that. God values
us and cares for us so much that even when we "went on strike" -
rejecting his will for our lives - instead of rejecting us in
return, he sent his Son to die for our sins.
Bitterness, Faithfulness, Men, Significance John 3:16; Rom.
12:10;1 Peter 5:7
......
In his book Enjoying God, Lloyd Ogilvie writes:
My formative years ingrained the quid pro quo into my attitude
toward myself: do and you'll receive; perform and you'll be
loved. When I got good grades, achieved, and was a success, I
felt acceptance from my parents. My dad taught me to fish and
hunt and worked hard to provide for us, but I rarely heard him
say, "Lloyd, I love you." He tried to show it in actions, and
sometimes I caught a twinkle of affirmation in his eyes. But I
still felt empty.
When I became a Christian, I immediately became so involved in
discipleship activities that I did not experience the profound
healing of the grace I talked about theoretically. . . .
I'll never forget as long as I live the first time I really
experienced healing grace. I was a postgraduate student at the
University of Edinburgh. Because of financial pressures I had to
accordion my studies into a shorter than usual period. Carrying a
double load of classes was very demanding, and I was exhausted by
the constant feeling of never quite measuring up. No matter how
good my grades were, I thought they could be better. Sadly, I was
not living the very truths I was studying. Although I could have
told you that the Greek words for grace and joy are "charis" and
"chara," I was not experiencing them.
My beloved professor, Dr. James Stewart, that slightly built
dynamo of a saint, saw into my soul with x-ray vision. One day in
the corridor of New College he stopped me. He looked me in the
eye intensely. Then he smiled warmly, took my coat lapels in his
hands, drew me down to a few inches from his face, and said,
"Dear boy, you are loved now!"
God loves us now, not when we get better. God loves us now, as we
are.
Acceptance, Fathers, Grace, Joy John 3:16; Rom. 5:8;1 Peter 1:8;1
John 4:7-10
THAT IS TRUE AS GOD IS LOVE, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE NOT TO
CHANGE - BE CONVERTED - TO HIS WILL AND WAY OF LIFE - Keith Hunt
......
Jackie Robinson was the first black person to play major league
baseball. While breaking baseball's color barrier, he faced
jeering crowds in every stadium.
While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he
committed an error. His own fans began to ridicule him. He stood
at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered.
Then shortstop "Pee Wee" Reese came over and stood next to him.
He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The
fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder
saved his career.
Encouragement, Failure
GOD LOVES US EVEN WHEN OTHERS DO NOT - Keith Hunt
......
To be continued
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