Greetings from icy, snowy St. Louis! Of course we are aware that many of you have already experienced this same “Blizzargeddon,” but we hope by the time you receive this letter that most of this will be over and you “weathered the storm” well (literally & figuratively speaking!).
It was interesting watching the meteorologists do their best to predict this ever-changing system. By Monday evening the store shelves were almost stripped bare as the masses shopped ahead of time to stock pile food, snow shovels, generators and melting salt, preparing for what was predicted to be an “historical, destructive” storm. But as I look outside two days later while sitting in my study writing this, I see that at least our area really dodged a bullet, receiving only a thin coating of ice and a few inches of sleet and snow.
Interesting as well that the storms of life also come in various ways – some predictable and some unpredictable. Some are very harsh, some may look bad but turn out better than expected, while others end up much worse than expected. Regardless of the storms that may hit our lives, we always have one stable factor that doesn’t change: The Love of God.
Would it be too trite to talk about LOVE just before Valentine’s Day? I really hadn’t planned it that way but I was reading some passages this morning and these thoughts overtook me:
Ephesians 1:4-5 Even before He made the world, God Loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. (NLT)
Once again I was struck with the reality that God Loves us SO MUCH and the entire Bible is a story of God creating us because of His great Love, and continuing to reach out to His creation in Love. Wow! What an amazing picture of an astonishing truth!
We all know “the Love chapter” in 1 Corinthians 13 where at the end Paul says, And now these three remain: faith, hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love.
Like a diamond, there are so many facets of God’s Love. Let’s revel in a couple of these divine facets for just a moment:
God’s Love is unconditional, and if we live every day like we believe that, we will be all the better for it! His Love is constant and is unmoved by our actions. Even when Adam and Eve sinned & hid from Him, because of His great Love, God looked & called for them, a Loving Father missing His kids. God IS Love, so He can do nothing EXCEPT Love, and everything He does is THROUGH Love because THAT’S WHO HE IS: Love.
Because of God’s Love Nature, He couldn’t just sit and do nothing – He took action! He Loved the world so much that He gave. When we truly Love, then we DO something.
It’s that simple. I remember a song that said, “Love is a Verb.” It is ACTION, not a FEELING, and God made the first move towards us through Jesus, because THAT’S WHO HE IS: Love.
Jude 1:21 tells us to KEEP OURSELVES in the Love of God. It’s SO EASY to get busy and just do life without remembering and living in the reality of the Love of God. The God-honest truth of the matter is that there is just no way to REALLY live or have peace inside without knowing and basking in God’s Love – letting it radiate into us and out of us. Only by His Love can we successfully get through anything that life may bring.
Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship* or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who Loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life,* neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,* nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39.
We highlighted (*) a few of these particular elements because for the majority who are reading this, these are the most common reasons we become calloused or insensitive to God’s Love. Life can be messy, hard and unfair at times, but God’s Love exceeds all of it, enabling us to move forward and not get stuck in the mess.
Can we take the responsibility to do our part by allowing God’s Love to affect every area of our lives? Walking in Love by Loving God and Loving our neighbor are the two GREATEST commandments. All over the Bible we’re encouraged to Love in speech, actions, in judgments, responses, everywhere we go, and ESPECIALLY towards our fellow Christians. Like a well-oiled machine, Love is the key ingredient that makes everything else work in life.
So let’s take a moment today to compare ourselves with God’s checklist for our Love walk: Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (The Message & NKJV).
Loving you,
P.S. Last week we attended the memorial service for Charlie’s dear mother who escaped her broken body and ran to meet Jesus, her husband, her grandson Beau and all of her family & friends who had gone before her. She was a sterling example of someone who lived and walked in the Love of God. We dedicate these thoughts about Love in her honor. She will be greatly missed.
