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Posts Tagged ‘love’

Love By Your Actions

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on March 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Love By Your Actions

Did you know that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had more than six hundred man-made laws they were required to obey? People couldn’t keep all those laws; it was impossible. Yet the rulers believed that those laws had to be obeyed in order to win God’s favor.

But Jesus summed up God’s law, scripture and prophesy with only two commands: “Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbor.” And he used a special all-encompassing word for love, a word that includes everyone. We are to love our neighbors, he said, even though they may have a different color skin, ethnic background, or language; even though they look different, walk differently, or act differently.

The Greek word for love that Jesus used implies action. It is not a passive word; it is an action word. We are to love by our actions. We are also to help our neighbors who are poor. The gospel of Christ has no meaning unless it is applied to those who are in need.

What will you do today to show God’s love by your actions?

Luke 10:27 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
I will sing to my Lord as long as I live, I will sing
praise to my God while I have my being.

If we say we love God and our neighbor, yet do not act on that love, we are but a “clanging gong, a noisome cymbal”. And who is our neighbor? They are the weak, downtrodden, despised and alienated. In short, it is everyone, but especially those in need, pain or those suffering discrimination, bias or separation. Yes, the wealthy, wise and beloved are also our neighbor and deserve our love. Yet Jesus said that we have helped or rejected Him by how we treat the “least among us” not the great among us.

So today, let us put our love into action toward those less fortunate than ourselves. Then the sound of our love will not be a clanging gong but a beautiful song. And, it will sound like a heavenly harp to the ears of those less fortunate ones who experience our love as it flows from us in our actions.

Acting on love,

Stan

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LISTEN TO THE LOVE SONG

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on March 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

LISTEN TO THE LOVE SONG that I am continually singing to you. I take great delight in you. I rejoice over you with singing. The voices of the world are a cacophony of chaos, pulling you this way and that. Don’t listen to those voices; challenge them with My Word. Learn to take many breaks from the world, finding a place to be still in My Presence and listen to My voice.
 
There is immense hidden treasure to be found through listening to me. Though I pour out blessings upon you always, some of My richest blessings have to be actively sought. I love to reveal myself to you, and your seeking heart opens you up to receive more of My disclosure. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
 
Zephaniah 3:17      “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
I will sing to my Lord as long as I live, I will sing
praise to my God while I have my being.
 
 
When we truly hear God’s voice, it is as if the most beautiful and compelling music ever has reached our ears. It is so wonderful that we must follow it wherever it leads. We turn from our chosen path and seek the source of this essential sound. Whatever turns and paths we face, we must continue to seek the source of this mesmerizing tune.
 
It is as if all the love, joy, hope and peace we seek are embedded in this music, and as long as we can hear it, all those things flow freely through us. Yet, it can easily be drowned out by life’s other noise and distractions. Like the songbird’s joy, it can be lost unless we listen carefully and intentionally. 
 
So, let us fix that song in our hearts, turn our focus to it and live each day in the symphony of love that is Eden.
 
Can you hear it,
 
Z gardener

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On Being In Love

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on October 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If the old fairy-tale ending ‘They lived happily ever after’ is taken to mean ‘They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married’, then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love.

Love in this second sense—love as distinct from ‘being in love’—is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else.

‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

From Mere Christianity
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

When the passion of the moment fades, the abiding love that remains is the that which will carry us through. This abiding love is directed at the other person, unlike momentary passion which is directed at one’s self.

While there is room for both fiery passion and abiding love, the one that abides and sustains is the true love that conquers all. It provides the fuel for the flames of passion.

Love in,

Z gardener

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On Being In Love

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on September 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If the old fairy-tale ending ‘They lived happily ever after’ is taken to mean ‘They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married’, then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love.

Love in this second sense—love as distinct from ‘being in love’—is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else.

‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

From Mere Christianity
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

When the passion of the moment fades, the abiding love that remains is the that which will carry us through. This abiding love is directed at the other person, unlike momentary passion which is directed at one’s self.

While there is room for both fiery passion and abiding love, the one that abides and sustains is the true love that conquers all. It provides the fuel for the flames of passion.

Love in,

Z gardener

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On Love

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on September 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e., at the expense of our love for Him), but in another way we love every- thing too little.
No person, animal, flower, or even pebble has ever been loved too much—i.e., more than every one of God’s works deserves.
 
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
That deserves repeating. Nothing has ever been loved more than every one of God’s works deserve. However, it is the status of being created by God that makes of worthy of love, not our actions or lack of them.
 
It is easy to hear this, but take a moment to really let it sink in. Yes, you deserve to be loved more than we can imagine. Let us spend our lives here below with that sure knowledge, and our behavior will reflect that reality by shaping us to God’s will. 
 
Being loved,
Z gardener

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