Love Defined

"If you love me, obey my commandments."

— John 14:15

What is love? The Beatles recorded the classic song on the subject, "All You Need Is Love," and then they broke up and sued each other. Various philosophers have expressed opinions on love as well. Plato said that love is a serious mental disease. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was more optimistic on the subject, said, "Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness." Another said, "Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."

We are given probably the greatest definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:

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.

The Bible clearly tells us that God is love. We don't have a greater example of love than what we have in God's showing His love for us. And we find the definitive statement on love in John 3:16: "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." So how should we respond? We ought to love Him back.

We can talk all day about love and how much we love God. We can sing about our love for God. We can speak about our love for God. But probably the best way to show our love for Him is by what we do. Jesus said, "If you love me, obey my commandments" (John 14:15).

 

Disciple Maker

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples,
If you love one another."
JOHN 13:35

FROM THE FATHER'S HEART
My child, do you really desire to be My disciple? Are you willing to pay the price? Are you afraid of where I might lead you? Of what might be taken away? No one who has followed Me has ever left behind more than I will give him in exchange. Spend time with Me daily. Listen well. I will make you My disciple. In the past you have lived for yourself. But when you let My love flow through you, others will know you are truly My disciple.

A GRATEFUL RESPONSE
From an unlikely band of misfits, Lord, You chose Your disciples. You poured Your life into theirs, teaching them, guiding them, and walking with them daily. As a disciple maker, You taught them how to love. Because of Your eternal investment, I, too, can become Your disciple.

SIMPLE TRUTH

God doesn't expect your best. He wants your all.

Shared from Rebecca Barlow Jordan

Reflections

May 2

"Take up your cross and follow Me,"
The Savior said to man,
"Trust always in the greatness
Of My Father's holy plan."
Helen Steiner Rice

God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if
There are any that are wise, that seek after God.
Psalms 53:2

Today, reflect upon your personal relationship with God.

The Sweetest Name Of All

Jesus, You're the sweetest name of all.
Jesus, You always hear me when I call.
Oh Jesus, You pick me up each time I fall;
You're the sweetest, the sweetest name of all.
Tommy Coomes

When he was born, his mama named him Walter. But when Walter Payton grew up and started playing for the Chicago Bears, his fans called him "Sweetness." This Chicago Bear legend had the heart of a fierce competitor as well as the gentle heart of a compassionate person. On a team of tough football players, many of whom lacked some of the relational skills or social graces of other profession, Sweetness was a refreshing balance. When he died a few years ago in his early forties, Walter Payton had left the world a sweeter place.
No one in the Bible ever referred to Jesus as "Sweetness." Somehow that would have minimized the reverence of which He was worthy as the Messiah. But in a bitter world, where hate mocks love and justice is often pinned to the mat by power, Jesus came as the sweet foretaste of a glorious new world. Jesus was the sweet fragrance of life in a decaying world where death has taken a premature bow. His words of life were like honey.
No, Jesus was never called Sweetness, but His gentle, compassionate manner with the children and society's outcasts was definitely more like sugar than vinegar. He desires to be the sweetener in your life as well. And He will be if you simply spend time in His presence each day.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Psalm 119:103

Prayer
Ask God to help you evaluate attitudes or pattens in your life that leave a sour taste in people's mouths. Seek His help to do the opposite.

From Songs 4 Worship

Loving Kindness

I will mention
The lovingkindness of the LORD,
And the praises of the LORD.
ISAIAH 63:7 KJV
FROM THE FATHER'S HEART
My child, love is who I am and what I do. I love to pour out My loving kindness on you. A hundred times a day I am thinking of you and of new ways that I can bless you, just because you are My child. All My children are special to me. Those who love Me will see My loving-kindness daily - in little and big ways. Celebrate that love today with Me!

A GRATEFUL RESPONSE
Each new day brings a fresh awareness of Your kindness, Lord. The ways You care for me and Your daily faithfulness motivate and encourage me through the difficult times. For Your loving-kindness, Lord, my heart gives thanks for all things, both great and small.

SIMPLE TRUTH

Sowing seeds of kindness always reaps a crop of heavenly blessings.

IN TIME OF NEED

Consider one of the most powerful promises in all of God?s Word:

?God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea?. Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof?. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge?. He maketh wars to cease? (Psalm 46:1-7, 9).



What a marvelous word. I?ve read this passage over and over, dozens of times, and I?m still overwhelmed by it. God?s Word to us here is so powerful, so immovable, he tells us, ?Never again do you need to fear. It doesn?t matter if the whole world is in turmoil. The earth may quake, the oceans may swell, the mountains may crumble into the sea. Things may be in complete chaos, a total uproar all around you.



?But because of my Word, you?ll have peace like a river. While all the nations rage, powerful steams of joy will flow to my people. It will fill their hearts with gladness.?



Right now, the whole world is in a fearful time. Nations are trembling over terrorism, knowing no region is immune to the threats. Personal troubles and sufferings are mounting. Yet, in the midst of it all, Psalm 46 echoes to God?s people the world over: ?I am in your midst. I am with you through it all. My people will not be destroyed or moved. I?m going to be an ever-present help to my church.?



God knows we all face deep needs; we all encounter turmoil, temptations, times of confusion that cause our souls to quake. His message for us in Psalm 46 is meant for just such times. He is saying that if we give in to fear, becoming downcast and full of despair, we?re living absolutely contrary to his reality in our lives.



It?s vital that you grasp what the Lord is telling us in this Psalm. Our God is available to us at any time, day or night. He?s continually at our right hand, willing to speak to us and to guide us. And he?s made this possible by giving us his Holy Spirit to abide in us. The Bible tells us that Christ himself is in us, and we are in him.



Daily Devotions by David Wilkerson

A Faithful Witness

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. --Proverbs 11:30
Years ago, an article was published that cited a number of men whose faithful witness through books and pamphlets had brought many people to the Lord. The influence of each author led to the changed life of another.
Richard Gibbs, an elderly Puritan doctor, wrote The Bruised Reed. A copy came into the hands of Richard Baxter and resulted in his conversion. Baxter later authored a volume titled Saints' Rest and Call to the Unconverted. By it many sinners were led to Jesus, including Philip Doddridge.
Doddridge became a famous preacher, hymn writer, and the president of a theological seminary. Doddridge wrote the well-circulated book, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, which proved a rich blessing for countless people.
William Wilberforce read it, was convicted of sin, and became a Christian statesman. After being instrumental in freeing slaves, he penned Practical View of Christianity. This changed the life of Leigh Richmond.
Richmond became a world-famous writer of tracts that influenced thousands to seek the Lord. Yes, the "fruit of the righteous" is a "family tree" of converts who keep branching out to others. You also have probably greatly influenced the life of someone at one time or another. But don't stop now!
There are young men and women who still need the mentoring and wisdom of someone who has lived a great life of faith. Through your witness, you could be helping to nurture the next Annie Armstrong, Charles Spurgeon, or Billy Graham. If you are a follower of Jesus and have an intimate relationship with Him, then you have wisdom to share that could change someone's life.
PRAYER CHALLENGE: Ask God to make you an incredible influence in the life of someone else for His glory!

Jesus Touched the Untouchables

When Jesus came down from the hill, great crowds followed him. Then a man with a skin disease came to Jesus. The man bowed down before him and said, “Lord, you can heal me if you will.”Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “I will. Be healed!” And immediately the man was healed from his disease. Matthew 8:1-3

I wonder… about the man who felt Jesus’ compassionate touch. He makes one appearance, has one request, and receives one touch. But that one touch changed his life forever….
I wonder about this man because in New Testament times leprosy was the most dreaded disease. The condition rendered the body a mass of ulcers and decay. Fingers would curl and gnarl. Blotches of skin would discolor and stink. Certain types of leprosy would numb nerve endings, leading to a loss of fingers, toes, even a whole foot or hand. Leprosy was death by inches.
The social consequences were as severe as the physical. Considered contagious, the leper was quarantined, banished to a leper colony.
In Scripture the leper is symbolic of the ultimate outcast: infected by a condition he did not seek, rejected by those he knew, avoided by people he did not know, condemned to a future he could not bear…
The touch did not heal the disease, you know. Matthew is careful to mention that it was the pronouncement and not the touch of Christ that cured the condition. “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, ‘I will. Be healed!’ And immediately the man was healed from his disease” (Matt. 8:3).The infection was banished by a word from Jesus.
The loneliness, however, was treated by a touch from Jesus.
Jesus touched the untouchables of the world.
By Max Lucado

Delight in Him

Delight in Him

Today’s Verse:

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, AMP).

Today’s Word:
Do you know what it means to delight yourself in the Lord? One of the definitions of this word in the original Hebrew means: to be soft or pliable. In other words, when we allow God to shape and mold our character, we are delighting ourselves in Him.
The scripture tells us that God is the potter and we are His clay. The potter can’t work with hard, dry clay; He has to use soft, moldable clay. We are the ones who decide if we will allow God to work with us or not. We decide if we are going to be soft and pliable or if we are going to allow the world to make us hard and dry. How do we stay soft and moldable? By simply immersing ourselves in the water of God’s Word. Friend, when you and I make God’s Word a priority in our lives, we are setting ourselves up to be used by God. We are delighting in Him. We are yielding to Him, and we are opening the door for Him to give us the desires and secret petitions of our hearts!
Prayer for Today:
Father in heaven, today I come to You giving You all that I am. I am committed to Your Word and I invite You to work in my life. Make me more like You and may everything I do be pleasing to You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Unexpected Treasure

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)
Devotion:
"Where is that goat?" the young Bedouin shepherd muttered under his breath in frustration. He clambered over the rocks as he moved up the cliff on his search. It was hot, and he was impatient. Rather than going into the darkness of the cave near him to look, the shepherd tossed a rock into the opening and listened for a protesting "Bahhhh!" Instead, he heard the breaking of a pot. Suddenly the goat was forgotten, and the shepherd's curiosity prevailed. He entered the cave to find one of the greatest archeological and religious treasures ever discovered--the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Visiting an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls recently captured my imagination, and my mind pictured the story above. The tale continues that this nomadic shepherd took the scraps of paper rolled in a cloth and stored in the pot to a merchant in Bethlehem. From there, the treasure passed from hand to hand until they came to rest in a special museum at Hebrew University named the Shrine of the Book. The fact that these ancient documents of God's own Word lay moldering, unfound in a cave for over a thousand years before being found in the search for a wandering goat seized my heart and mind.
Paul tells us that each believer is a jar of clay that contains treasure. When we look through scripture, we can see that we contain peace (Philippians 4:7), the forgiveness of sins, redemption, the riches of God's grace (Ephesians 1:7), joy (John 15:11) and the resurrection power of Christ (Philippians 3:10).
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provides a powerful and biblical picture of how a broken vessel can release the power of God into our lives and those around us. Brokenness, although painful, is one of God's means of showing His all-surpassing power in our lives. Even when the cause of our brokenness is the result of living in a fallen and sin-filled world, God is able to show Himself as the Redeemer by pouring out His treasures through us.
Are you a broken or crushed pot today? Are you suffering because of the loss of a job or the current financial crisis? Are your emotions broken and bruised because of the rejection of a friend or husband? Are you experiencing crushing loneliness because of the loss of someone dearly loved? Is your heart torn and bleeding for a wayward child? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, He says even in catastrophic times He is not only with you but longing to pour out through you. God's Word that you have been storing away in the quiet times with Him can be revealed through your brokenness. He sees your pain, and His heart breaks with your every hurt. You are dearly loved. Hold on to His promise that your brokenness is not wasted but releases His Spirit to do works of perseverance, power, character and hope.
At times, I've been a very intact pot, moldering and hidden in a cave while the world around me sinks into the abyss of the absence of His Word. I pray with my broken sisters today that God would use the broken places in each of us for His great glory and our ultimate good. I pray even as He walks with us through the broken places of our lives that His Word would be exposed and powerful in a lost and dying world.
Dear Lord, I come to you in brokenness today. I give myself over to you even in my weakness and frailness. No matter if I've been broken by sin or circumstances, I ask you to fill my broken pot and pour out through me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Application Steps:
Read the power verses below.
Memorize one of them and quote it often as you struggle in a difficult time.
Reflections:
How can I come to know God's Word better so that it can flow out in times of brokenness?
Power Verses:
Phillipians 3:10-11, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (NIV)
James 1:2-3, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (NIV)
Romans 5:3-5, "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." (NIV)
© 2009 by Amy Carroll. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 31 Ministries