Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Sunday’s Blessing – 2/15/2026 – Take Another Look

Sunday’s Blessing – 2/15/2026 – Take Another Look

One of the most frequently viewed articles on my blog is True vs. Truth About God. It contains an image which illustrates how perspective can play a huge role in how we see things. In the image you see an object (cylinder) whose shadow is being projected on a surface with light from two different directions. In one image (blue) the object appears to be square. The other image (yellow) the object appears to be round. Both are “true” based on perspective, but neither view fully describes the object in question.
 

The reason for this thought was a conversation I had with a friend this week regarding critics of scripture. Some say the Bible is wrought with “errors” because of the various accounts of certain events recorded by different authors. The gospels contain descriptions of events from the writer’s perspective. However, since they are not identical, they are written off as wrong.

Ask two people to describe “red”. You will get two very different descriptions. We need to realize when we hear someone speak about any topic that there could be information being omitted; not maliciously, but simply not something they observed.

Let me try to clarify with an example of something which happened to me. I was driving north on I-65 between Cullman and Lacon when I saw a truck pulled over on the shoulder. What I didn’t see was the object in the road which caused the truck to pull over. It was a gear used to tighten straps to secure the load. When I finally spotted the object, it was too late to swerve around the object. As I straddled it, thinking I avoided contact, my rear axle hit the object, making a very loud noise. I looked in my rearview mirror and noticed both hubcaps from my rear wheels were rolling down the interstate, eventually rolling into the trees on the east side of the road. I didn’t stop at that time since I was on my way to a meeting but made note of the location so I could come back for the hubcaps.

I returned to the spot later that week and began searching for the lost items. I stood on the top of the embankment looking among the trees and underbrush for the hubcaps. There was no sign of them. I then decided to change my perspective. I walked down among the trees and looked again. Amazingly, both hubcaps were located and were not damaged at all.

When it comes to understanding God, and the scripture, we need to take a second look before forming an opinion on the meaning of what we see. It could make a huge difference in how our lives will be impacted. This very thing is what prompted my study of the Names of God so many years ago. I wanted to understand more about this One we called God. I wanted to know His character, His nature, His motivations, His ways.

What does all of this have to do with Valentine’s Day weekend? Nothing really, except for the fact that some believe love is blind. I can never agree with that. Love, in my opinion, is when you fully realize who someone is, and then love them anyway. God loves us without reserve. The only way we can fully give ourselves to Him, or anyone else, is to gain trust that they will receive us unconditionally. That is true love.

Now for today’s blessing:

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:3b (ESV)

And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Exodus 33:17-19 (ESV)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7 (ESV)

Saturday, December 20, 2025

Sunday’s Blessing – 12/21/2025 – 4th Sunday of Advent – Love

Sunday’s Blessing – 12/21/2025 – 4th Sunday of Advent – Love

The past few weeks I’ve heard several different people comment about their pastors quoting pop lyrics in their sermons. Strangely enough, some of the most accurate words come from a Beatles song called, All You Need is Love. The strongest emotion humans can experience is love. This theme is at the very heart of the celebration of Advent.

The fourth and final Sunday of Advent focuses on Love. Scripture declares that God is Love! An Amy Grant song phrased the meaning of Advent this way: “Love has come For the world to know As the wisemen knew Such a long time ago. And I believe that the angels sang That hope had begun When the God of Glory Who is full of mercy Sent His Son.” Advent begins with the focus of Hope, followed by Peace and Joy. The full experience of embracing Christ, the Messiah, is to know Love. Paul put it this way saying, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8a ESV)

I’m so glad I finally learned the difference between Christmas and Advent. After seeing the blazing rhetoric and vitriolic criticism from those claiming to know Christ, toward anyone who “took Christ out of Christmas” totally missed the powerful truth they have available to them. Instead of going to war over the commercially motivated celebration of Christmas (the holiday was created for commercial purposes) they have the ancient celebration of Advent, purely centered on the truth of the birth of our Messiah, Jesus, born of a virgin, to save the world from sin. 

Christmas (the commercial celebration) is carnal (meaning of the flesh) but is not sinful or evil. It’s like going to Disney World. There is nothing spiritual about it, but it is not sin. But Advent is purely spiritual. Instead of burning so much energy trying to spiritualize a secular event (Christmas) let’s spend our time exposing others to the celebration of Advent. It is quite possible that by introducing others to the source of true Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, we can bring others back to the Father by allowing them to get to know His Son!

Today’s Blessing:

May you come face to face with the Love of God, embodied the Baby of Bethlehem
So you can immerse your hurts and pains in the healing balm of Christ
Restoring you in every way back to the way the Creator intended
And be the Salt and Light to your world and beyond

May the reality of Advent fill you with Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love
So you may keep your eyes and heart heavenward
Following the lighted path provided by the Comforter
To lead you into all that the Creator has planned for you

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Sunday’s Blessing – 02/09/2025 – Valentine’s Week

Sunday’s Blessing – 02/09/2025 – Valentine’s Week

More is said about “love” during the next few days than just about the rest of the year combined. Mostly, it is for marketing all the gifts of chocolate, roses, jewelry, and lingerie, candlelight dinners, romantic getaways, and heart-shaped everythings. In the proper context, there is no problem with any of these things, but none of it represents what love should be about.

The issue is with our language. We use “love” for everything. We love our car. We love our house. We love our sports team. We love to take walks in the park. We love our children. We love our spouse. We love our friends. English makes us very lazy in expressing emotion. “Love” is an easy out. After expressing our feelings for just about everything by saying we “love it,” it leaves us at a loss when we truly want to tell someone we deeply care for them.

Other languages make this much easier. Greek, for instance, has eight distinct words which English interprets as love. They are eros (erotic, romantic, passionate), philia (friendship), ludus (carefree, playful), philautia (self-love), pragma (long-term, committed, compassionate), storge (deep, pure, long-term – familial), mania (obsessive), and agape (selfless, unconditional). It's easy to identify how the English word for love has been so widely applied. That’s why there is so much confusion introduced when someone says, “I love you.”

This Valentine’s Day, choose other words besides “I love you” to convey how you feel toward others. It can make all the difference.

Now, for today’s blessing.

May you experience the pure love of the Father (agape – selfless, unconditional)
So you may in turn show it to others
Because you are His workmanship, created for good works
Sent to manifest God’s love in your world

May you find language to express your feelings properly to others
So they may understand how much you care for them
Sparking in them a reciprocity which can grow into something beautiful
Be it a friendship or lifetime relationship

May you draw strength from and increase your capacity for true love
By pressing into your relationship with the Father
Drawing His love-life into yours to overwhelm and wash away any hurts
So that only your healed, made-whole self remains

May you begin to reap a harvest of true love
As you allow relational seeds to be planted in this new heart
Created by the softening of grace and forgiveness
So that you become a flourishing life-giving fragrant bouquet of love

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Sunday’s Blessing – 12/22/2024 – Forth Sunday of Advent – Love

Sunday’s Blessing – 12/22/2024 – Forth Sunday of Advent – Love

May the Love of the Father, embodied in the only begotten Son
Show you how to live, by giving you capacity to love others
Giving you something to give away as you encounter those in your world
In order to bring them back to the Father

May this Love, born of a virgin, sent from the Father, rebirth your spirit
To make you alive by the Spirit of God Who empowers you
Enabling you to love others beyond your ability to do so
By showing them the Father’s love in you

May the culmination of HOPE, PEACE, and JOY be realized in LOVE
Just as the prophets of old gave you HOPE of a coming Messiah
It manifested in PEACE through the Babe in Bethlehem
Bringing JOY to your world, making room to receive LOVE