Monthly Archives: December 2020

What is Love? Part 2

07 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by in Bible, Christian, Christianity, Church, Faith, God, Inspiration, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Life, Love, Religion, Religious, Spiritual

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When a person declares that they have fallen in love with another, usually the description invokes words that are emotionally charged. Some say that being in love gives one the feeling of butterflies dancing around in their stomach. Others, describe it as a constant state of having the person of affection on one’s mind. There are a myriad of emotions that one may feel concerning being in love from the romantic standpoint. However, what are the key characteristics of love itself?

Before getting into those characteristics, it should be known that love is not based on a feeling. While falling in love, being in love, or loving someone brings with it the emotional side, the primary focus of love is not emotional, rather it is a choice. To prove this, there may be moments when our loved one’s disappoint us or they cause momentary periods of discomfort. That is due to the human condition of being sinful and imperfect. Circumstances in life change, people change, which means if love were based on the emotive state, then many would forgo love altogether. Love is a choice, rather than it being based on one’s emotions.

With love, there are also key characteristics that the Bible shows us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

(NLT) “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

  • Patience – When a person is operating in love, there is a prominent display of patience for others. Despite the many flaws and challenges that may arise, a loving disposition portrays a steady dose of patience. This means, time will be taken with others, even when they may not be deserving of said patience. However, love suggests that even when others are not patient with me, I will be patient with others.
  • Kindness – Love is also shown through acts of kindness. The world around us has distorted the concept of love. In extreme cases some attribute those who exhibit verbal abuse or even physical violence as being loving. However, neither of those two acts have any correlation to love or kindness. When a person loves another, kindness is revealed.
  • Love is not jealous – When a person achieves something of significance, love does not encompass jealousy or feelings of disdain due to someone else’s accomplishments. Instead, love seeks to celebrate what others have rather than attempting to downplay or minimize their success.
  • Love is not prideful – Arrogance is not a characteristic of love, because one of the primary components to love is that it is selfless. Pride is a position of focusing on oneself rather than desiring to serve others or to put others before self.
  • Love is not rude – This is similarly in tandem with kindness. Insulting others or being rude is not a characteristic of love, because with love, there is a level of care with one’s actions and words. That is because it seeks to truly honor others and promote a sense of respect and admiration unto those who are the target of affection.
  • Selflessness – Demanding one’s own way falls in the category of being selfish or self-centered. Love however, it does not seek to focus on self, but to build others up and seek to fulfill the needs of others.
  • Forgiving and merciful – To keep a record of wrongs can easily be used as ammunition to destroy relationships. Love does not look into the past in an attempt to discredit or use past history against others. Instead, to love is to forgive and to be merciful, despite past sins or imperfections.
  • Focuses on truth rather than evil doing – Another key aspect of love is to discover the truth and to promote it. Love does not center itself on celebrating evil or injustice, but it rejoices in truth being revealed which is often a carrier to justice and fairness.
  • Always faithful – To keep the faith is to be in a state of conviction about a matter. Love always has faith rather than being faithless. It means never losing one’s conviction or belief and always remaining steadfast in said position of faith.
  • Always hopeful – To hope is to have an earnest desire of believing and staying focused on a viewpoint despite physical evidence. In other words, if something has yet to occur, love says that despite not seeing, there is still a solid belief that will be adhered to.
  • Endurance – Despite the circumstances of life, love remains entrenched in the same position, and it endures. It means to withstand and be steady throughout a fiery trial or a periods of challenge. Love remains committed, regardless of external or internal influences that would suggest otherwise.

The list of characteristics that the Bible shows us above is evident when love has taken root in someone’s life. Love cannot encompass the opposite of those characteristics, because then by definition it would not be what love is. However, the primary definer of love is the Lord God almighty. The characteristics as noted above are an extension of who God is, because He is love. Without knowing God through Christ, we cannot adequately love based on His original intention.

Do you know Jesus in the pardon of your sins? God sent Jesus Christ as His only begotten son to be the sacrifice for humanity’s sins. Only through Christ can you and I know what true love is, and begin to portray it earnestly. Give your life to Jesus today by repenting of your sins and turning your life over to the Lord. For God is love.

What Is Love? Part 1

03 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by in Bible, Christian, Christianity, Church, Faith, God, Inspiration, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Life, Love, Religion, Religious, Spiritual

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The word “love” is a common word that is used in a variety of contexts. For example, love is often used to denote the romance and intense feeling of passion between two individuals. It is also used in ways that are not romantic (e.g. I love football). Love is a word that means different things to different people. That is because for one, experiences often shape how we define words.

In addition, the world as a collective has its own definition of what love is. However, what is love truly defined as? 1 John 4:7-11 gives us what the definition of love is.

(NKJV) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

First, take note of what the first verse says, which is “love is of God.” Love as a concept and as it is meant to be defined comes from God Himself. This is qualified when the writer the Apostle John says, “God is love.” Before we can truly understand what love is, we must acknowledge that love has already been defined by God, because love is who He is. It is God’s character to love, which is why Jesus was sent as a sacrifice to reconcile humanity back to God.

It was God’s love for His creation, that prompted the sacrifice of Jesus so that we as humans could have an unbroken relationship with God the Father. If we do not know who God is, then we do not have a clear definition of love. We are also unable to love properly, if we do not have a connection to God through Christ, because it is required in order to know what love is, and to love others.

To be clear, the world has its varying definitions of what love is. As mentioned, it is often based on what a person experiences or their own world view of the concept of love. What makes the world’s definitions of love inaccurate, is that in most cases, it is not based on knowing God. Rather, it is based on self, or the views of others. Looking to the world as a means to define, will often leave incomplete pictures because the world around us does not take its cues from God. Instead, the Bible makes it clear that the world system is dominated by Satan Himself.

Ephesians 2:2 says (NLV) “
You followed the sinful ways of the world and obeyed the leader of the power of darkness. He is the devil who is now working in the people who do not obey God.”

Since Satan is the one who has influence over the world, he perverts all that is good. Therefore, it becomes altered automatically, which means anything that comes from the world view is taken from Satan first. Since that is the case, that also includes the view of what love is. It should be known that because God is love, then He is the one who shows us what love is and how to love. Without Him, we are left to make up what we believe love to be, and sometimes, there are toxic examples that some have justified to state what love is.

The other part of 1 John 4:7-11 that is important to take note of, is that God loved His creation (us) first. We did not love God, rather, it was His love for us that caused Him to send Jesus as a substitute for the penalty of sin that we all owe. Knowing this, it means that from the very beginning, God loved us, even in the midst of our sinful condition.

Do you know Jesus in the pardon of your sins? If you don’t know Jesus, today is the day to give your life to Christ through repentance, the acknowledgment of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross and Him rising again from the dead. Once you come to the knowledge of Christ, you will be able to truly love and understand what it means to love and be loved. Knowing God through Christ, gives us the correct and only way to understand love as it was meant to be.

What is Your Purpose in Life?

01 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by in Bible, Christian, Christianity, Church, Faith, God, Inspiration, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Life, Love, Religion, Religious, Spiritual

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Have you ever wondered why you were born? Is there in a time in your life when you wanted to know why you exist? Each of us, we all have a specific purpose and a destiny that we are meant to fulfill. The fact that you and I are living in the timeline of history suggests that there is a purpose to our being.

If we look at the world around us, we can see the results of every day people, who yearn and even search for their specific purpose in life. The fact that there is a sense of restlessness that we feel when we are not being productive, it speaks to the desire that we all have to fulfill a purpose. It is not by happenstance, rather, it is a gift that God has given to each of us.

Psalm 57:2 (ESV) “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.”

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

The two scriptures above points to at least two areas concerning the topic of purpose:

  • God has a purpose for your existence – The Psalmist David wrote in Psalm 57:2 that it is God who fulfilled His purpose for him. The Lord has designed you to take part in not merely existing but to use the gifts and talents that He has given to you for His glory and His purposes. One can think of this in the same way that an automaker designs and produces vehicles.

    Each manufacturer has a specific design and purpose for each vehicle that is produced. The manufacturer already knows the plans and actual functionality of each model vehicle. It is already built in by the manufacturer, which means that the vehicle already has the purpose and capability to operate as intended.

    It is the same with with you and I. God has already given us a purpose to fulfill, but we must tap into who God is, through having a relationship with Jesus Christ.

    When we know who God is, our reason for being is activated because we are then connected to the one who made us and who already knew us even before we were born. Without that connection, we are left trying to figure out why we exist, and we end up never coming to the realization of why we were made, and we are then unable to give God the glory through our functions.

  • God already knew you before you were born – In the scripture of Jeremiah 1:5, the Bible is clear when it points to the fact that even before we were born, God already knew us. This goes back to the example of a vehicle manufacturer. The plans are already in the mind of the manufacturer, even before the vehicle is made. It is the same with all of us. God knows who we are because He created us. Therefore, He has already endowed you with certain gifts, skills, and abilities even before you discover them. This also includes your purpose. 

So, how do you discover your purpose? The only way is to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If we as God’s creation do not take the opportunity to come to the knowledge of Christ and thereby becoming reconciled back to God, then we run the risk of forfeiting our actual destiny and purpose. Or, we end up claiming an identity that was never intended, which means we begin to operate outside of the scope of our original design. 

The way to have a relationship with God, is to first repent of one’s sins and acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried and resurrected again. John 14:6 says (NIV) “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the only way to have a connection with God the Father. Do you know Jesus in the pardon of your sins? If not, this is a perfect opportunity to accept the sacrifice of Jesus. Once you do, you will begin the journey to discovering what your purpose in life is.