Living life to the fullest has nothing to do with self indulgence but everything to do with enjoying the fruits of "proper decisions".
Probably the first "proper decision" we have to make is to Love Unconditionally which includes the mature practice of "forgiveness". True Love is made manifest by the act of forgiving, real forgiving, the type that forgives and forgets.
If love never fails then forgiveness never fails either. If love fails then forgiveness is only words spoken while hearts remain broken.
The most damage in life one can give or receive is carnal love that bases itself on lust or emotions.
Attraction has a part in starting a relationship that could ascend to the higher plane of True Love but attraction is of the flesh which can never be satisfied. A love based on attraction will never go the distance because the one using attraction as a motivation will always be attracted to the "next attractive one".
This is more so in marriage.
Love is the decision to "Love the entire person" exclusively with singularity and no matter what. The decision to "find every part of them" Lovable. Personality, expression, conversation, body, individualism, every thing about them. Love never compares it rests in what is loved.
True Love gives the confidence to the people involved that they are completely acceptable to each other "while" differences are worked out. Not an "agreement to disagree" but a practice of Unconditional Love until they become one.
TRUE LOVE TAKES TIME to manifest it's maturity that keeps on maturing until "death do us part." How long this takes depends on how deep the decision/commitment to Love Unconditionally.
Dying to oneself is part of Maturing in True Love. Not the complete giving over of oneself but the "not demanding" everything your way type of "dying to ones self".
A person who has Unconditional Love must be a praying person in order to trust that things will "come together" in Love on both sides. We have God (who first Loved us when we were yet in our sin), as an example of Unconditional Love to a rebellious recipient. His Love was timeless and not effected by our rebellion to His Word even when He knew before we were born all our sin against Him.
If we want to see the fruits of Love in our lives and marriages we must "decide to" and "continue in" Love. Unconditional Love, Christ's Love. Without God, (for God is Love), Love will only be a practice of "tolerance" and will not incorporate longevity or maturity. Maturing Love is like Excellence: "a journey not a destination."
As a couple traveling the road of Love and Life
Love
J&E in Tn
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Angels among us.
Hebrews 13:2
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
The proof of angels through out scripture is without argument.
Some were sent for guidance. Some were sent for deliverance. Some to "foretell" coming events but all were sent to make some provision of God sure and unmistakable about who it came from.
Here is our "Angel story" that comes to mind.
We were saved in 1981 during the "recession" that started in 1979 and went on through till 1983 in our area. During that time I was blessed to have work as an industrial bricklayer working at Zug Island in Mi. Mostly coke battery repair work, not steady but a provision of God to meet our needs for which we were very grateful. Times were tough but faith and excitement in the new found Faith kept our eyes open for any manifestation of God's provision with many exciting manifestations happening.
Each need was bathed in prayer daily and God was always faithful to meet those needs. One of the needs at the time was to sell our 1978 Ford Bronco because gas had just went up to $.57/gallon and we could not afford to drive the car back and forth to work (my job, Elise was a stay at home Mom), 3 hours round trip (135 miles) each day. I needed to sell the car and use the money to buy a car with much better gas millage so I listed it in the local papers. After several days we received a phone call from a man in Ann Arbor, Mi, (about 30 mins away), that he was interested in the car and wanted to see it. We set up a time to meet and he said he would take it. The price was $5,800 and he didn't offer any lower price. This was a custom car with detailing that made it singular. He announced that he would be out of town for 2 wks and that he would pick it up when he returned. I offered that he should give me his phone number and a down payment for me to hold it because the sale was very important to our finances. He agreed and gave me $200 to hold it till he returned at which time I told him about the goodness of God and how he was being used by God to meet our needs. He looked at me and said: "You don't know how much you are being taken care of right now" and then he left. When he was a day or two late in getting back to pick up the car I called the number he had given me and no one recognized his name or who he was. That made me nervous because we were "waiting" on the money for another car and to pay some bills.
He showed up a couple of days later with cash for the vehicle and an apology for being late. Off he drove with the car again stating "how blessed we were" and "how great Gods provisions were".
Elise and I had looked at cars and were ready to pick one up within the next couple of days which we did. On the way home we drove past a Ford dealer near our house and seen the car we just sold sitting on the lot. I had to pull in and get the details. The salesman said that it came in minutes after he left our house on the very day I sold it to him and he dropped it off. I asked what they bought it for and he said around $2500. So I asked if it was traded in for another car and the salesman said "no he just dropped it off, took the check and walked out. The purchaser told me he was from Ann Arbor 40 miles away.
That's when Elise and I realized that he was an "angel unawares". We followed up with calls to the number and again "never heard of" was the answer.
The man who bought the car was no one either Elise or I recognized but he ha a very pleasant countenance and was very humble in presentation. All his actions and words acknowledged God when he spoke and a very unusual peace surrounded his visits.
To this day we believe that this was an angel and cherish the "manifestation" of Gods provisions however He may bring them.
Hoping this has inspired to keep in the faith, expecting God to manifest Himself in meeting your needs even if it means using an angel.
Love
J&E
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
The proof of angels through out scripture is without argument.
Some were sent for guidance. Some were sent for deliverance. Some to "foretell" coming events but all were sent to make some provision of God sure and unmistakable about who it came from.
Here is our "Angel story" that comes to mind.
We were saved in 1981 during the "recession" that started in 1979 and went on through till 1983 in our area. During that time I was blessed to have work as an industrial bricklayer working at Zug Island in Mi. Mostly coke battery repair work, not steady but a provision of God to meet our needs for which we were very grateful. Times were tough but faith and excitement in the new found Faith kept our eyes open for any manifestation of God's provision with many exciting manifestations happening.
Each need was bathed in prayer daily and God was always faithful to meet those needs. One of the needs at the time was to sell our 1978 Ford Bronco because gas had just went up to $.57/gallon and we could not afford to drive the car back and forth to work (my job, Elise was a stay at home Mom), 3 hours round trip (135 miles) each day. I needed to sell the car and use the money to buy a car with much better gas millage so I listed it in the local papers. After several days we received a phone call from a man in Ann Arbor, Mi, (about 30 mins away), that he was interested in the car and wanted to see it. We set up a time to meet and he said he would take it. The price was $5,800 and he didn't offer any lower price. This was a custom car with detailing that made it singular. He announced that he would be out of town for 2 wks and that he would pick it up when he returned. I offered that he should give me his phone number and a down payment for me to hold it because the sale was very important to our finances. He agreed and gave me $200 to hold it till he returned at which time I told him about the goodness of God and how he was being used by God to meet our needs. He looked at me and said: "You don't know how much you are being taken care of right now" and then he left. When he was a day or two late in getting back to pick up the car I called the number he had given me and no one recognized his name or who he was. That made me nervous because we were "waiting" on the money for another car and to pay some bills.
He showed up a couple of days later with cash for the vehicle and an apology for being late. Off he drove with the car again stating "how blessed we were" and "how great Gods provisions were".
Elise and I had looked at cars and were ready to pick one up within the next couple of days which we did. On the way home we drove past a Ford dealer near our house and seen the car we just sold sitting on the lot. I had to pull in and get the details. The salesman said that it came in minutes after he left our house on the very day I sold it to him and he dropped it off. I asked what they bought it for and he said around $2500. So I asked if it was traded in for another car and the salesman said "no he just dropped it off, took the check and walked out. The purchaser told me he was from Ann Arbor 40 miles away.
That's when Elise and I realized that he was an "angel unawares". We followed up with calls to the number and again "never heard of" was the answer.
The man who bought the car was no one either Elise or I recognized but he ha a very pleasant countenance and was very humble in presentation. All his actions and words acknowledged God when he spoke and a very unusual peace surrounded his visits.
To this day we believe that this was an angel and cherish the "manifestation" of Gods provisions however He may bring them.
Hoping this has inspired to keep in the faith, expecting God to manifest Himself in meeting your needs even if it means using an angel.
Love
J&E
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Love forgives and Loves again.
would like to lead with this statement:
"All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God".
But He still loves us "Unconditionally".
This is a great lesson to learn:
I will disappoint,
You will disappoint,
They will disappoint,
At some time we all will disappoint one another!
But True Love always "covers" sin/ disappointment.
So if we Truly Love and forgive, offense's will not lay hold of our emotions and bind us to sin ourselves with a condemning response.
"Let he who is without sin throw the first stone". Jesus could of thrown that stone but instead He forgave as an example to us who are to follow in His footsteps.
And?
My Wife and I have a large family. In the executing of parenthood we made mistakes along the way. Some small and many big which lead to the children developing the character that they have today. They Love us Unconditionally and we receive the blessing of fellowship from them because our failures are forgiven and Love covers.
Love never fails. None of us are perfect but you can see God/Love (for God is Love) in our children and family by their countenances.
I am humbled by: "No eye has seen nor ear heard nor mind comprehended the good things that God has prepared for those that Love Him".
He has prepared for us immeasurable blessing if we trust in Him.
Love
J&E in Tn
"All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God".
But He still loves us "Unconditionally".
This is a great lesson to learn:
I will disappoint,
You will disappoint,
They will disappoint,
At some time we all will disappoint one another!
But True Love always "covers" sin/ disappointment.
So if we Truly Love and forgive, offense's will not lay hold of our emotions and bind us to sin ourselves with a condemning response.
"Let he who is without sin throw the first stone". Jesus could of thrown that stone but instead He forgave as an example to us who are to follow in His footsteps.
And?
My Wife and I have a large family. In the executing of parenthood we made mistakes along the way. Some small and many big which lead to the children developing the character that they have today. They Love us Unconditionally and we receive the blessing of fellowship from them because our failures are forgiven and Love covers.
Love never fails. None of us are perfect but you can see God/Love (for God is Love) in our children and family by their countenances.
I am humbled by: "No eye has seen nor ear heard nor mind comprehended the good things that God has prepared for those that Love Him".
He has prepared for us immeasurable blessing if we trust in Him.
Love
J&E in Tn
Friday, September 13, 2013
To show Love in thought, word and deed, is to show the true expression of Love. It is all summed up in "God is Love". Our loss of the worship of God has set the word Love to a demeaning physical/emotional attribute because it eliminates the True example of how Love replicates, it is a gift from God. "For the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit". This means both the Loving of God and the giving of His Love toward others. In an ever growing Godless society True Love becomes a physical attraction driven by emotion, simply stated "lust". But the "Love of God" given Love is a passion of faith in the spirit devoid of lust in the flesh, but full of every "good and perfect work". Love is a verb in expression but God in the reception. To know True Love you must have an intimate relationship with God who is Love.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Are you a "Lover"?
If "Love is a many splendored thing" (1955 sung by The Four Aces)
Then how do we describe the "Lovers"?
Committed, consistent, congenial, or compassionate?
True Lovers are not limited to one Love,
They Love:
Every day,
All others,
And life.
Love comes naturally for a "Lover" because that's what he or she has set in her heart to do, not just once or now and then, but "always" and "all ways". Every day like breathing, eating or seeing.
Love, for them, has become the sixth sense. Not as the other senses that give the body information, but "a sense" that goes outward, giving "others" information about their value or worth.
A Lover can't help but walk in Love because that is what they do, who they are, how they intimate with others.
Lover's are "living actions", a mastery of thought, word and deed, that has no ending horizon or observable limitations. Unending by time or space. Forever.
True Lovers are a vessel and mirror both holding and reflecting Unconditional Love, the Love of our Father in Heaven.
True Lovers have both heard and obey the command: "Love one another as I have loved you".
Obedience to True Love (now God is Love) is not a problem to those who would "radiate" their intimate relationship with Christ.
Our obedience to Love is proved in forgiveness, acceptance, and performance.
Then others will see "God in us the hope of Glory."
So the question remains:
Are you able to make the decision to Love Unconditionally?
Do you have a relationship with the One Who is Love to learn from? To emulate?
Then "walk in Love".
If not then call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and start learning of real Love.
Love
J&E in Tn
Then how do we describe the "Lovers"?
Committed, consistent, congenial, or compassionate?
True Lovers are not limited to one Love,
They Love:
Every day,
All others,
And life.
Love comes naturally for a "Lover" because that's what he or she has set in her heart to do, not just once or now and then, but "always" and "all ways". Every day like breathing, eating or seeing.
Love, for them, has become the sixth sense. Not as the other senses that give the body information, but "a sense" that goes outward, giving "others" information about their value or worth.
A Lover can't help but walk in Love because that is what they do, who they are, how they intimate with others.
Lover's are "living actions", a mastery of thought, word and deed, that has no ending horizon or observable limitations. Unending by time or space. Forever.
True Lovers are a vessel and mirror both holding and reflecting Unconditional Love, the Love of our Father in Heaven.
True Lovers have both heard and obey the command: "Love one another as I have loved you".
Obedience to True Love (now God is Love) is not a problem to those who would "radiate" their intimate relationship with Christ.
Our obedience to Love is proved in forgiveness, acceptance, and performance.
Then others will see "God in us the hope of Glory."
So the question remains:
Are you able to make the decision to Love Unconditionally?
Do you have a relationship with the One Who is Love to learn from? To emulate?
Then "walk in Love".
If not then call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and start learning of real Love.
Love
J&E in Tn
Monday, September 2, 2013
We are commanded to Love
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Jesus commanded us, not suggested us to "love one another." Then He goes on to set the level of "how much" by saying: "As I have loved you." Agape Love. Complete and Unconditional Love. The Love that is shown in John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This is how we are to Love one another. Love made simple by our eternal example Jesus. This kind of Love existed before the creation in that He knew us before that we existed and still He Loved us. God knowing our lives as a story already told, all our sins, iniquities, and transgressions, of thought, word and deed, still Loved us Unconditionally, created us anyways, and commands us to do the same.
"Such Love, such wondrous Love. Such Love, such wondrous Love"!
If the "love of money is the root of all evil" for mankind, then the lack of Agape Love in Christians is the single most powerful force to render us "useless" in "a wicked and dying world." Lacking Agape Love defeats the "great faith", (us being men under authority, like the centurion) , needing to be "in the world not of the world" while working the harvest, and manifesting the Truth of God through the Gospel. God manifesting His Glory with sign and wonders, confirming that what is preached is true.
Looking at the life of Christ in the Gospels and understanding the "Spirit" in which He walked is our greatest example of Agape Love. Jesus never condemned the sinner with ridicule or consternation, He Loved them, forgave them, then gave them hope of a better life by saying "go your way and stop sinning." Sometimes there was a warning "or worse shall befall you", but once in the presence of Christ and being forgiven was enough to "change their lives." Why? Because Unconditional Love restores the spirit and life of a fallen individual. Jesus being Unconditional Love knew this and He also having Unconditional Forgiveness through that Love gave it freely to the repentant/afflicted. He never turned away from any need once the needy one showed hope in Him by word or passionate expression. Fathers and mothers whose children were hopelessly plagued with demons, infirmities, and death all received healing from the Master once he "tested" their faith in His Love and ability to help. When those seized by the "religious" groups of the day for breaking the law were cast before Him the response was always the same: forgiveness for the sinner and rebuke to the unforgiving. (The fact that Jesus forgave them without "punishment" was a rebuke to the religious leaders at the time who needed violence to counter sin.) Jesus was tested on many occasions with traps and deceptions but Love never failed to free the oppressed and deliver from evil the one tormented.
Lets look at the response that Jesus had with the religious leaders at the time. Strangely enough He didn't respond in the normal way he did to those bound by sin or oppressed, no He responded to them with righteous anger ("be ye angry and sin not"). When He made the whip of cords and drove the money changers out of the temple, He was acting out of Love for the Father and zeal for His Fathers house. You cannot have righteous anger without passionate Love fueling the expression of it. Every time in scripture that Jesus had righteous anger it was because the law was wrested to be vengeful and not to do what it was meant to do, deliver. The law was there to "show the way of righteousness" not subvert for violence.
In all the life of Christ we see one obvious practice, Love which set the captive free, for "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" John 8:36. Unconditional Love means unconditional freedom but only in Christ, not using Christ as a cloak of maliciousness for sin but the spirit of Love to deliver.
Many Christians today have filled the roll of Pharisees being judgmental and critical. Jesus said to "abide in My Love", His Love was expressed without fail throughout His life. Some churches have gone so far to teach that some men were specifically born to "go to hell" and make that thought a part of their witness to the unsaved. How abrasive to Christ that must seem. Telling a sinner that they have to be saved, but if there is no immediate response, telling them that the Holy Spirit might leave them and salvation would then be impossible and they would not be able to be saved. Even worse telling someone who is obstinate that he may have been born to go to hell. If Jesus who gave His life that "none" should perish was here I think this would be one of those "righteous anger moments". Pharisee Christians who have no Love of God or deliverance in them. Binding up not setting free. Blind guides.
The lack of Agape Love, God's Love, Christ's Love, in the church has subdued our passion and made useless our zeal therefor binding the hand of God from manifesting His Glory. Oh don't be led astray in that all Christian churches say they worship God but sometimes "you worship me with your lips but your hearts are far from me". What shows where the heart is? OUR LIVES! If we walk in Truth and Love we walk in Christ and thereby fulfill the will of the Father. Love covers, Love lifts, Love delivers, Love forgives, Love hopes, Love encourages, Love never fails........ever! This is the "Love of God that's shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit". Any other practice of Love is no Love at all, in fact it is just "manufactured love" for face value only. Looking good love. Happy love. Self seeking love. Man's (replacement) brand of love. Worldly love. Useless love, that is wrested of Truth. Man taking something perfect (Christs Love) and making it common, unsanctified, without power, lip work only, not of the heart.
John 13:35,
"By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have Love one to another". This "love one to another" is not just limited to those who are like minded, but covers all men, believers or non believers. All mankind. To phrase an old expression "loved to death" I would rather it be "Loved to life" for "He whom the Son sets free is free indeed", free always and all ways.
Romans 5:5
"And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us".
Here we see two directions of Love: The Love of God to God by the Holy Spirit, and then the Love of God (God's Love) to others by the Holy Spirit. Every thing about giving Love in all directions that it can be rendered to leaving out no one, God or man. In fact if the Love of God isn't there then the Love of man cannot exist either. Jesus is Love, Truth, and the Way (to live it) that we must follow and be conformed into, as the Scriptures say: "we are being conformed into His image and likeness". We are being perfected to be like Him by the Holy Spirit and that work is shown in our lives by having Christ's Love for God and others. This kind of Love cannot fail nor hold reaction to those who deem themselves unlovable. Again Agape Love never fails. We can be saved by grace because God bound Himself to us by Unconditional Love. If the Love God has for us can fail then the salvation we claim in Christ is void, because it is founded in Love it is secure, God binding Himself to man by it.
Jesus commands us to Love and this proves to each other and the world that we are His disciples. God's/Christ's Love is the power to overcome the darkness in the world and be a light of hope and redemption with "power" to all that see our light.
Let you light so shine that men might see it and live in the Light.
Love
J&E
Jesus commanded us, not suggested us to "love one another." Then He goes on to set the level of "how much" by saying: "As I have loved you." Agape Love. Complete and Unconditional Love. The Love that is shown in John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This is how we are to Love one another. Love made simple by our eternal example Jesus. This kind of Love existed before the creation in that He knew us before that we existed and still He Loved us. God knowing our lives as a story already told, all our sins, iniquities, and transgressions, of thought, word and deed, still Loved us Unconditionally, created us anyways, and commands us to do the same.
"Such Love, such wondrous Love. Such Love, such wondrous Love"!
If the "love of money is the root of all evil" for mankind, then the lack of Agape Love in Christians is the single most powerful force to render us "useless" in "a wicked and dying world." Lacking Agape Love defeats the "great faith", (us being men under authority, like the centurion) , needing to be "in the world not of the world" while working the harvest, and manifesting the Truth of God through the Gospel. God manifesting His Glory with sign and wonders, confirming that what is preached is true.
Looking at the life of Christ in the Gospels and understanding the "Spirit" in which He walked is our greatest example of Agape Love. Jesus never condemned the sinner with ridicule or consternation, He Loved them, forgave them, then gave them hope of a better life by saying "go your way and stop sinning." Sometimes there was a warning "or worse shall befall you", but once in the presence of Christ and being forgiven was enough to "change their lives." Why? Because Unconditional Love restores the spirit and life of a fallen individual. Jesus being Unconditional Love knew this and He also having Unconditional Forgiveness through that Love gave it freely to the repentant/afflicted. He never turned away from any need once the needy one showed hope in Him by word or passionate expression. Fathers and mothers whose children were hopelessly plagued with demons, infirmities, and death all received healing from the Master once he "tested" their faith in His Love and ability to help. When those seized by the "religious" groups of the day for breaking the law were cast before Him the response was always the same: forgiveness for the sinner and rebuke to the unforgiving. (The fact that Jesus forgave them without "punishment" was a rebuke to the religious leaders at the time who needed violence to counter sin.) Jesus was tested on many occasions with traps and deceptions but Love never failed to free the oppressed and deliver from evil the one tormented.
Lets look at the response that Jesus had with the religious leaders at the time. Strangely enough He didn't respond in the normal way he did to those bound by sin or oppressed, no He responded to them with righteous anger ("be ye angry and sin not"). When He made the whip of cords and drove the money changers out of the temple, He was acting out of Love for the Father and zeal for His Fathers house. You cannot have righteous anger without passionate Love fueling the expression of it. Every time in scripture that Jesus had righteous anger it was because the law was wrested to be vengeful and not to do what it was meant to do, deliver. The law was there to "show the way of righteousness" not subvert for violence.
In all the life of Christ we see one obvious practice, Love which set the captive free, for "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" John 8:36. Unconditional Love means unconditional freedom but only in Christ, not using Christ as a cloak of maliciousness for sin but the spirit of Love to deliver.
Many Christians today have filled the roll of Pharisees being judgmental and critical. Jesus said to "abide in My Love", His Love was expressed without fail throughout His life. Some churches have gone so far to teach that some men were specifically born to "go to hell" and make that thought a part of their witness to the unsaved. How abrasive to Christ that must seem. Telling a sinner that they have to be saved, but if there is no immediate response, telling them that the Holy Spirit might leave them and salvation would then be impossible and they would not be able to be saved. Even worse telling someone who is obstinate that he may have been born to go to hell. If Jesus who gave His life that "none" should perish was here I think this would be one of those "righteous anger moments". Pharisee Christians who have no Love of God or deliverance in them. Binding up not setting free. Blind guides.
The lack of Agape Love, God's Love, Christ's Love, in the church has subdued our passion and made useless our zeal therefor binding the hand of God from manifesting His Glory. Oh don't be led astray in that all Christian churches say they worship God but sometimes "you worship me with your lips but your hearts are far from me". What shows where the heart is? OUR LIVES! If we walk in Truth and Love we walk in Christ and thereby fulfill the will of the Father. Love covers, Love lifts, Love delivers, Love forgives, Love hopes, Love encourages, Love never fails........ever! This is the "Love of God that's shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit". Any other practice of Love is no Love at all, in fact it is just "manufactured love" for face value only. Looking good love. Happy love. Self seeking love. Man's (replacement) brand of love. Worldly love. Useless love, that is wrested of Truth. Man taking something perfect (Christs Love) and making it common, unsanctified, without power, lip work only, not of the heart.
John 13:35,
"By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have Love one to another". This "love one to another" is not just limited to those who are like minded, but covers all men, believers or non believers. All mankind. To phrase an old expression "loved to death" I would rather it be "Loved to life" for "He whom the Son sets free is free indeed", free always and all ways.
Romans 5:5
"And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us".
Here we see two directions of Love: The Love of God to God by the Holy Spirit, and then the Love of God (God's Love) to others by the Holy Spirit. Every thing about giving Love in all directions that it can be rendered to leaving out no one, God or man. In fact if the Love of God isn't there then the Love of man cannot exist either. Jesus is Love, Truth, and the Way (to live it) that we must follow and be conformed into, as the Scriptures say: "we are being conformed into His image and likeness". We are being perfected to be like Him by the Holy Spirit and that work is shown in our lives by having Christ's Love for God and others. This kind of Love cannot fail nor hold reaction to those who deem themselves unlovable. Again Agape Love never fails. We can be saved by grace because God bound Himself to us by Unconditional Love. If the Love God has for us can fail then the salvation we claim in Christ is void, because it is founded in Love it is secure, God binding Himself to man by it.
Jesus commands us to Love and this proves to each other and the world that we are His disciples. God's/Christ's Love is the power to overcome the darkness in the world and be a light of hope and redemption with "power" to all that see our light.
Let you light so shine that men might see it and live in the Light.
Love
J&E
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