Is It Real Love?

I started this as a note to my wife. It's something I often did when we were dating, but the responsibilities of life always get in the way. I feel sometimes, as I'm sure many of you do, that I don't always show my love like I once did. But what is love? Is it only in the value of the things we buy or in the activities we do? Is it only in the words we say? Those three little words are meant to say much more than just a daily reminder. Or is it in the daily, sometimes meaningless sacrifices we make to just help? Many times I sit down with the aspects of writing on something specific, only to find my path directed somewhere else. And quite often where it's directed, helps me as much as it may help one of you. So I broke down that one simple word into what real love should be.

 L: Love is Life; because if we have true love for someone, our entire life will revolve around that
One we've been joined to.

O: Love is One: You are One heart, One mind, and One soul.

V: Real love is a vibrant, vulnerable, and virtuous union; where there is not a hint of vanity, viciousness, vulgarity, vile, or a vengeful tone to it.

E: It is an Eternal, Eager, Earnest, Ecstatic, and Elaborate togetherness; that Elevates each other and Eliminates any sin the other has.

This is love, true love. The type of love that was intended from creation. A love given freely to us by God. The same love we are to show to the one that has joined with you to form a new entity. The same love that we will experience one day when we are joined with Christ as one. The love we should have for one another I feel can be expressed best in this verse from Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Even though we were wretched sinners; even though we didn't know him or except him, Christ died for us. His love for all was so great, he laid down His life. Can we truly say we show that kind of love to those we know, or those we don't, or even those that may have hurt us? I, as well as most of you, would probably have to honestly answer no to that.


I'll leave you with one of my favorite verses. 1 Peter 4:8-Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. You see, any other love will not suffice, because if it doesn't show these aspects, as God has shown us, then is it really love?

Forgiveness Is For The Blind

In Genesis 27, Isaac is blessing his sons. He wants to bless Esau, but Jacob comes to him in disguise. Due to his poor eyesight, Isaac blesses Jacob instead, thus fulfilling prophecy. Are you having a hard time blessing, loving, or forgiving someone in your life?

When you look at them, do you see all their faults and all the things they've done wrong, and you can't forgive or bless them? The problem is that your eyesight is too good. It's hard to bless when you have good eyesight. In order to bless them, you have to have faith, not to see their sin, but to see the blood of Messiah.

In Matthew 6:14-15, Christ says, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

C.S.Lewis has a great quote on forgiveness when he said: . . . "you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.

As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought.

But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says."

God has blessed you and chosen to not see your sins through the blood of Messiah. That's God's grace. Learn to have His grace towards others. Look through the blood of Messiah in order to not see all of their faults. The eyes of your heart need poor vision so that you will see only the face of God and you will be a blessing. For you are not only blessed by what you see but by what you don't. Today, have faith to not see the sins of others, but to see the blood of Messiah. Then speak a blessing over them.

You Won't Know Unless You Try

In Communist Romania, every prison had a doctor who would often be present during the interrogation sessions and direct the torturer in the best methods of inducing pain without causing death. But some doctors took their oath seriously and despised what the Communists were doing.

One such doctor was a Christian woman named Margareta Pescaru. All medical personnel were frisked when entering the prison, but Dr. Pescaru, at great risk to herself, was able to smuggle medicine in repeatedly. Her selfless efforts saved many lives.

Once she was assigned to a prison hospital that was especially designed for tuberculosis patients. During this time, the Communists assigned men as “reeducators” to use whatever means necessary to convince a person to denounce everything they believed and pledge complete allegiance to Communism.

These reeducators were ruthless, and many Christians died under their tortures. When Dr. Pescaru heard the news that they had arrived at the prison hospital to begin their destructive work on the tuberculosis patients, she did the unthinkable. She went to the top officials of all the prisons and pled the case of the helpless prisoners. No one knows how, but Dr. Pescaru gained favour with the officials.

For a time in Romanian Communism, the torture of innocents by the “reeducators” was stopped, thanks to her bold efforts.

Try. It’s the difference between advancing forward and remaining still. Trying. It’s what Christians are committed to doing when they are focused on the gospel of Christ. Tried. Saying at least one tried is the only way believers agree to meet failure. It’s true, we just never know what will happen unless we try it. Perhaps we too quickly dismiss the creative ideas that come to us concerning advancing the gospel message at work, at home, or in our community. We think they’ll never work. We convince ourselves that the opposition would be too strong. But we won’t know for sure unless we try it. Are you willing to try obeying Christ at any cost, starting today?