John 15:12-14 (The Message)
11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.
1 John 4:7; 1 John 4:8 (The Message)7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
Today if you are seeking a relationship with a man or a woman let me be clear to inform you that it is impossible if you are not an imitator of God’s love. We have to get over this idea of loving “because of.” Do you recall folks in your life who loved you when all was well but God forbid if you ever made a mistake? What about when you just had a difference of opinion, or frankly just piss them off? It’s funny how all that love is suddenly changed into a Cliché huh? It reminds me of an old song that had a hook that says, “You abandoned me, love don’t live here anymore.”
As I mature in Christ I am learning how to love like He loves. Today I strive to love with that “in spite of love.” In spite of kind of love means I will cover you when you are wrong rather than judge you. In spite of love in the Greek translation would be “Agape,” which is to say unconditional love. Yeah it’s easy to love someone who gets it correct by your standard all the time, but can you love your enemy, your unbelieving spouse, the one that hurts you on a regular without hope of change in sight?
I can hear the naysayers saying Darrin Carter it sounds good, but you don’t know what they did to me. I would say you are correct, but let me ask. Did they nail you to a tree; accuse you of a wrong that you were not guilty of and sentence you to die as a criminal? Did they embarrass you beyond measure after beating you all night long? Did they snatch your hair from your head and face just to prove you are worthless? Did they then reject your gift of forgiveness for their own sins and faults? Lastly, did they spit upon you and laughed as they watch you take your last breath? Probably not because you are reading this blog! You may feel like you are dead but I assure you it’s the shadow of death but not death.
My description above is a summary of how we handle Christ. Today I thank Love for loving me! We did not have any better character than those who mocked Christ on that day He gave His all. I promise you, Love came once and love can come again. When you get your love life together with the Father, I promise that your love life will get alright with man or woman; first God, then man/woman.
If you listen to the Spirit touching and moving on your heart, you can forgive and live. You can cause you dessert to be wet like an oasis! I found Love or Love found me, but it was only because I had a heart ready to speak and ears prepared to listen. Today is a good day, not because I am not in difficult times, but because I have been captured in love. I am not afraid of this feeling and frankly I am quite satisfied with it. I encourage you to only trust Him and know-- you had a debt you could not pay, and He paid a debt He did not owe…
Love Him and watch He love you back with an award consisting of that man or that woman. He did it for me and I know he can do it again.
Darrin Carter
