Love, a word that has been tossed around and spread across our paths so many times in life.
A word that can move mountains even, not just a word, but a feeling, a thought, an action, a tear, a pain, a small piece of writing from one to another, a crafted gift made by hand, whether it be a small act or HUGE, love… True love, has the power to change the course of history, lives, hearts, minds, it can impact the spacetime continuum, it can lift up, encourage, strengthen, it is there when all else has failed and it never seems to fail.
When true…
But love false can harm, love false can break down, love false can tear up families, love false can hurt relationships, it can destroy, crush, it can cause more heartache than an unkind word, because love false is the worst betrayal of ones trust that can ever be done to a person in this life.
Love false can sometimes even bring the most violence, love false can be bad, it can be deceiving, scary even, love without truth can be even more deceiving just as the truth without love can be brutality, one may say “How can love ever be false? How do you differentiate between the two, what do you look for in true and false love?”
A lot of people like to use “LOVE” when preaching the Gospel, which in fact is the entire basis of the Gospel, it’s the very core of the Gospel, but when preaching that love, let us review the things in past time, when Christ shed his blood out of love, when he was tortured and ridiculed for us.
I happened to receive a comment the other day about the blog post “Where Is God?” one I had written a week or so ago, and the comment said this:
That’s right. John 3:16. It ALL began with love.
Without love, we have nothing – not God, not a Savior, no Calvary, no resurrection, nothing.
Love. It started with love and will end with love – or the lack thereof as Revelations 2:4 states…
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
It did indeed begin with love, a love so powerful, a love so strong a love so big, so great, so amazing, so extroadinary that it can change, transform, and save even the most wicked vile souls that ever walked the face of this earth, but why?
How you say?
These people preach love, but they do not know, they do not comprehend and truly must not even understand what love it is they speak of.
If people could grasp ahold of Christ’s love more often like they SHOULD, more lives would be transformed, because that’s what his love does, it transforms us, because when we recognize the sacrifice he made for us on the cross out of LOVE, we open our eyes and recognize that love, maybe for the first time in our lives whenever and wherever that may be.
And when we truly recognize that love he gave to us on the cross and gives to us today, that is when we look up and say:
“Ok Lord, you died for me, I will live for you, I love you, I will obey you, and I love you because you first loved me, which gives me even more cause to strive to be more like you, to strive to be better.”
That’s the beauty of his love, that’s the beauty of John 3:16, that’s the true power of his love.
When we come to Christ we come to him empty, broken, shallow, completely destroyed and surrounded by sheer darkness, we come to him restless, without hope, without peace, without ‘love‘ but then we turn our eyes to him, we read his word, we see that we are dirty, we are filthy, we are nothing without him, worthless, yet he seen us worth it all.
We see that we are in dire need of a Savior, and we see that God is reaching out to us, out of ‘love‘ offering us another chance, to make ourselves right with him, we are given a chance that we don’t deserve, yet; so many seem to take those chances of his ‘love‘ – for granted.
Scripture says:
Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Matthew 27:26 K.J.V.
Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.
They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head.
They put a staff in his right hand.
Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said.
They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.
After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him.
Then they led him away to crucify him. – Matthew 27:27-31 K.J.V.
Nails were hammered into his hands and into his feet…
We read the story over and over again, but do we REALLY understand? Christ, our Lord, our Savior was one to talk of love, to preach love, to command love, and he was one who LIVED love.
He showed us he could not only “talk” and “preach” love, but that he could LIVE love…
Thank you Jesus…
So my friends, THAT’S “how” THAT’S “why”
THAT’S:
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:13 K.J.V.
So many of us are quick to proclaim Christ, we are quick to say we ‘love‘ him, but do we, do we really?
If ye love me, keep my commandments. – John 14:15 K.J.V.
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. – 1 John 2:6 K.J.V.
True love, that is the love our Lord and Savior displayed, and that is the love he seeks from us, the ONLY love he will acknowledge is a genuine love.
I am so thankful that he didn’t let us go, he could of said no but he didn’t, though we weren’t worthy, he chose to endure.
And because he lives (LOVES), we can face tomorrow.
We will strive to be more like him, we will strive to live better each day, we will turn away from all things dark and begin to be more of a reflection of him, (the TRUE light.)
Because we love him, we keep his commandments, we obey him.
Because we love him, we love others, and because we love others, we share truth with them in love with BOLDNESS… WITHOUT compromise, it CAN be done, I’ve seen it and experienced it myself.
True love, there is nothing like it, and once we grasp ahold of HIS TRUE LOVE…
THAT is when we will truly be shaken at the very core and turn our life over to him completely…
Love speaks.
The photo above speaks a lot for me personally, especially around this holiday season…
Those of you that have read my blog, followed me on youtube and other social media sites all know that my grandparents have pretty much raised me my whole life given the circumstances with my mom.
With her not being around (yet again) I am most certainly blessed to have my grandparents in my life who truly knows what the definition of TRUE love is, they have been there for all of us, even my mom no matter what she had done, my grandparents would always reach out to her again and again in love forgiving her of her trespasses against them..
Only to be hurt over and over, this last time has surely done one over on us all, but nevertheless we press on, comforted by the TRUE love of Christ…
I thank God that he loved me enough to give me such caring grandparents that have always fought for me, that have always done their best to take care of me and that have never left me, or their own children.
They have instilled in me (as they always strive to) what TRUE love means…
It means exactly what I just wrote above:
ACTION
(And SO much more…)
Thank you all for reading,
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and remember!
John 3:16
SHALOM –
