…our very identity is as those loved by God…. We are to love as those who have been loved, are loved, and will always be loved.– Stanley D. Gale in A Vine-Ripened Life
The more satisfaction and delight we find in His love, the more we delight in loving others.– Donald Whitney in Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health
To love God is the first and highest duty in life. – Maurice Roberts in What Does It Mean To Love God?
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
God Is an Inexhaustible Fountain of Love – Jonathan Edwards (via Trevin Wax)
And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love.
Fountain of Love, Fill Our Souls – E. B. Pusey (via Trevin Wax)
O God, Fountain of love, pour your love into our souls,
that we may love those whom you love with the love you have given us…
Conflicts: Our Laboratories of Love – Jon Bloom (DG)
Here’s the good news: Conflict is the laboratory in which love (agapē) grows. Conflict is the construction area where humility is built. Conflict is the radiology department where pride is exposed. Conflict is the field where our treasure is unearthed. Conflict is a discipline God uses to make us holy and bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:10–11).
Worship God as Our Father – Stephen Miller (DG)
Worship is responding to God — who he is and what he has done. And the truth that God would give his own Son that he might make us his sons and daughters ought to produce awe and wonder and amazement in us. It ought to make us stop for a second — or for a Sunday morning — and say, How great is the love of the Father! How could we not sing? How could we not shout? How could we not respond, with all that we are, to all that he has done for us?
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our Father and loving his people!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
23 Things That Love Is – Paul Tripp
13 Ways You Waste Your Money – Tim Challies
How to (and how NOT to) Minister to Families Battling Cancer – Todd Benkert
Five Tips for Bible Memory – David Mathis (DG)
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!
Being Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d pass on some helpful links on love and marriage:
Love: Paul David Tripp unpacks what love really looks like. Do we love people like this?
Marriage: Tripp discusses the important place of worship in marriage. Gary and Betsy Ricucci show the difference between pride and humility in marriage, and consider how the gospel changes our marriages.
In my last post I mentioned our president’s rash words comparing his bowling to the Special Olympics. Many, starting with our president, have condemned these words – and rightly so. Yet is there a sense of glee coming from conservative voices? Why did I smile rather than mourn at our president’s mistake? How is that we can respond to a lack of compassion with our own lack of compassion? Truly we are flawed beings in need of a Savior!
I have been thinking about the question I left yesterday – “How does God’s faithfulness spur us on to love God more?” I think it has to do in part with trust. The more I see God’s faithfulness, the more I trust him, and the stronger our loving relationship becomes. It is similar to marriage. Unfaithfulness of one spouse (in any number of ways), will make it more difficult for the other spouse to trust and hence hurts the relationship. But faithfulness lived out day by day by one spouse makes it easier for the other to trust and hence stregthens the relationship. There is something attractive and delightful about people who are trustworthy. We want to be around them. Our great need is to recognize God’s daily faithfulness so that we might trust him more, delight in him more, and so love him more. That is my stab at the question. What do you think?
Our church has been reading through the Old Testament this year, and we have come to Joshua this week. Joshua is an incredible testimony of God’s faithfulness. God had promised to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendents over 400 years earlier. In Joshua, God keeps his promise. With great power, God brings Israel into the land. While God’s saving work on the cross is his greatest demonstration of his love for us, his faithfulness is a priceless testimony of his love too. Many of the Psalms tie his love and faithfulness together. For example, the shortest Psalm – Psalm 117 – praises God because “great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” How has God been faithful to you? How does his faithfulness spur you on to love God more?
What does God expect of us? How are we supposed to live? What is our purpose? Where do we find meaning for life? Jesus answers all of these questions in Matthew 22:37-40. He says that if you want to sum up all of the Old Testament teachings about life, then this is it – love. Not amassing possessions, not having a great job or a perfect family, not power or fame or popularity. Our purpose in life is to love.
First of all, love God with all your heart, soul, and mind – with every part of your being. This is not a hobby, a mere extra. This is what life is about. Love God with everything you have. Live with a burning hunger for God. Like the Psalmist, pant and thirst for God (Psalm 42:1-2). Desire him – desire to know him and walk with him and serve him and please him – more than anything else. Live with a passion for God.
But that isn’t all. Jesus says to love our neighbor – the person next to us, the person near enough to show love to. Love other people. Love your family. Love your friends. Love the people you work with and for. Love the people in your school. Love the person in the checkout lane, the driver in the car in front of you. Love the family that lives next to you. Love your church family. Love that person who really irritates you. Love people whether you like them or not. Love people. Treat them well – like you want to be treated (Matthew 7:12). Live with compassion for people.
Love God and people. Live with a passion for God and compassion for people. What would motivate us to live with this kind of love? The answer found in Scripture is simple – God’s love for us. “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19). “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). The more we grasp his love for us, especially his love expressed through the cross, the more we will be motivated to love in response.
So, to put it all together – because of Christ’s passion for us, we will live with a passion for God and compassion for people. This is the purpose and meaning of life. This is what life is all about. And this is what the Eph5v2 blog is all about – to explore together how to live with passion.
Brian J. Mikul 