I Corinthians 13:13
........But the greatest of these is love...
It's Valentines day....
People all over this country will go about declaring their love for another.
They will scour businesses looking for the perfect gift to shower on their significant other.
They will make plans for tonight, whether it's a night out on the town, or a stay-at-home meal they prepare themselves.
Why?
Because it's Valentines day!
A day to celebrate love.
I looked up several definitions of the word "love":
(1) : strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties
for a child> (2) : attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3) : affection based on admiration,benevolence, or common interests <love for his old schoolmates
(2) warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion <love of the sea>
(3) unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as (1) : the fatherly concern of God for humankind
Unselfish loyal and benevolent concern.....
That is how God feels about you and me...
I know we say that we know God loves us...
We have sang "Jesus Love's Me" since the cradle....
But do we fully understand the driving heart and emotion that fuels God intentions to us?
Our sin causes us to see God as some spiteful, vindictive deity who has it out for us.
Scripture says that He is love.
Our sin causes us to run from Him. God pursues us no matter what we've done..no matter what we've said...no matter how we feel about Him...His love is the motivating factor that causes Him to reach out to us.
You see, today men will buy chocolates to declare their love....
God gave up His own Son to die in a place that rightfully should have been mine.
Today, men will give flowers to their sweethearts to declare their love....
Jesus gave His live...spilled every last drop of blood to declare His love for the Father and for humanity.
Today, men will give gifts of jewelry to the one that they love.
Through Jesus' death, God offered the free gift of eternal life so that none might perish and be forever separated from Him.
Today, men will take pen to paper (I know..it's an antiquated statement) and in prose and print declare their love to their wife or girlfriend.
God breathed His love out through the pens of others. It spilled out onto parchment and paper. Sixty-six books of God declared love. We call it the Bible.
Such a love that burns in the heart of God is beyond my comprehension.
But that is the kind of love I desire to know.
My heart is to learn how to love God....and others as I love myself.
Not with the syrupy, ooey-gooey kind of love the world has created..
but with the pure, undefiled, divine love that God possesses.
Think on these things...
God on you....
mb
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