Tag: love

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LOVE: My Top Ten Bible Passages on Love

1) 1 John 4:7-8 – God is Love
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God–for God is love.

2) Matthew 22:37-40 – Jesus says Love God & Love Others
Jesus replies to a question about “What is the greatest commandment?” with this profound statement.

3) 1 Corinthians 13 – Love:What it does and what it doesn’t do
The “wedding” passage is beautiful because it is applied to all of life…not just matrimony.

4) Romans 8:35-39 – Nothing Can Separate Us From Jesus’ Love
The bottom line of Jesus’ love for us…nothing can get between us!

5) Psalm 136 – God’s Love Endures Forever
This Psalm repeats how “His love endures forever” after every phrase of the history it records. A powerful and repetitive lyric of how God’s love connects with our history.

6) Exodus 20:6 – God’s Love Lavished on a Thousand Generations
Packaged in the Ten Commandments (sometimes thought to be not very loving) this verse shows how much God blesses those who love and obey Him.

7) Psalm 23:6 – God’s Chasing Love
At the end of one of the most famous passages in the Bible, David finishes his poem with God’s “unfailing love pursuing him all the days of his life.”

8) John 15:12-13 – Jesus’ Love Leads to Laying Down Life
Jesus in this passage defines the greatest love as laying down your life for a friend. Then a couple of hours later, He dies on the cross.

9) John 13:34-35 – Love Proves Following Jesus
After the footwashing at the last Supper (where Jesus “shows the full extent of his love—see 13:1), Jesus says show the world you are my disciples through love.

10) Matthew 5:44-46 – Love Your Enemies
Jesus urges His followers to go beyond natural love to “supernatural” love…to choose to love our enemies.

*11) Luke 7:41-47 – Forgiven Much, Love Much
The immoral woman was forgiven much and she loved Jesus much. Jesus tells a story which links “much forgiveness” to “much love.”

*So many good LOVE passages in the Bible I had to add this one! 😉

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Jump In: Amazing Things Happen by Joe Caruso

In short, when Joshua was leading the Israelite people into the land God had promised them, they had come to a point where they needed to cross the Jordan River in its flood stage.  The Ark of the Covenant, the key item that symbolized the presence of God, was carried by the priests into the river and the water stopped flowing so that all of the people could cross on dry land.  Incredible.

The lesson of this story?  Amazing things happen in the river.  Not on the ledge, not with toes in the water, but when you’ve jumped in.  We often think, “God, hey, you do something awesome to prove you’re in this, and then I’ll get involved.”  That is not faith, and God very rarely operates this way.  God would say, “Have faith in me – jump in – and I will show up in powerful ways.  You have to jump in to see what’s amazing.”

jump-in

We see it over and over again.  “Noah, build an ark.”  “Moses, approach the most powerful leader on the planet and give him the what for.”  “Joshua, walk around this city for 7 days.”  “Gideon, take less guys and grab some jars.”  “David, yeah you – the teenager – go grab 5 stones.”  “Daniel, pray even when it’s illegal.”  “Peter, leave your nets and livelihood behind and follow me.”  And EVERYTIME, God did what He promised.  He shows up.  He delivers.  He takes care of business.  He transforms the lives of those involved and of those impacted.

We need to get our toes out of the water.  Did God intend for us to just be slightly better versions of humankind?  Did He intend for us to just be more civilized?  To do the same thing year after year, after year, after year…

Or did God intend for us to be a part of something supernatural?  Of something impossible, awesome, and dream-worthy?  If this is it, then He calls us to jump in the river.  Otherwise, we’ll “miss it” and faith will be boring.  It will be same old vanilla day-to-day, and we’ll call it “walking with Jesus.”  Of course, in reading the scriptures, it doesn’t seem like walking with Jesus was very boring.  It seemed, well, impossible, awesome, dream-worthy, and supernatural.  Why should we expect much different?

How do we jump in?  Get involved in the inner-city.  I don’t mean look for a semi-annual project, I mean jump in and get involved.  Watch a kid’s life change because you and Jesus connect with them consistently over the next months and years really loving them.  Invest in the lives of those around you that are exploring Jesus or those that are completely lost.  Check out the roundtable discussions coming soon on how we can work together in ministering to the homeless and those locked into human trafficking nightmares.  Start believing Jesus’ words that “where your treasure is, your heart is also” and give to his kingdom work – the church, local partnerships, or missions.

Break the staleness of normalcy, and jump in.  Your best years are NOT behind you.

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Thanks to the always insightful Joe Caruso.
Article reposted from the GiveItAway Blog of Grace Church

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Walk In Love

“As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.” – 2 John v.6

Jesus lived His life walking in love. He actually had to learn to walk—as all toddlers do.  He loved his parents and his mentors in the temple.  He walked into religious places and loved them. He loved the outcasts by enjoying dinners and drinks with them. He loved the children and brought them into the middle of His circle. He even walked on water.

He healed the chronically ill, the blind and loved Lazarus enough to raise him back to life. He loved those “Gentile dogs”—the non-Jews who He welcomed into His Kingdom. He stooped onto the ground with a basin of water, towel wrapped around his waist, and washed His disciples’ feet showing them the full extent of His love. He walked up a hill after a beating, with a crown of thorns and a cross. He escorted the man hanging next to Him on the cross—a mocker and thief—into paradise. He died, was buried and walked out of the tomb indicating His loving victory over sin and death. He walked through the walls into a locked room to be with His beloved disciples after His resurrection.

Jesus walked on this planet in love and as He departed, he lovingly shared with his disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation.”

Jesus’ love moved Him on mission to our world–from a baby through the ascension.  As we walk in His love, it will move us to mission as well. Won’t you consider how you can “Walk in Love”?!?!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” – John 3:16

 

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Peoples on the Move: A God-Ordained Opportunity for Reaching the Unreached by J.D. Payne

Frank Obien, in his book Building Bridges of Love: A Handbook for Sharing God’s Love with International Students, wrote that in the 1960s he noticed that while missionaries were traveling the world, international students were coming to the United States—only to return without anyone sharing the gospel with them. Don Bjork, in a 1985 Christianity Today article, attempted to raise awareness of the migration of the nations to the United States. Commenting on the realities in the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote:

Millions of strange new faces began appearing on the streets of American cities, collectively changing the face of the nation itself. But who in the church really noticed? Unseen or unheeded, the fields at home were long since ‘white unto harvest.’ Yet right down to the end of the 1970s, few missions leaders really knew what was going on. The ‘invisible migrants’ took no pains to hide, yet it seemed few missions took pains to seek.

Progress has been made since Bjork‘s article, but unfortunately it is too little and too slow. While such discussions have taken place in the past, most evangelicals have been slow to respond. The good news is that more and more people, churches, networks, denominations, societies, and mission agencies are talking about this topic once again and starting to act on the need.

…read the rest of this article in Mission Frontiers – Peoples on the Move: A God-Ordained Opportunity for Reaching the Unreached.