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I love this... I love that...
What is the big deal about love? Why did the Lord
make love a priority
over all other Christian virtue's?

When we say to each other "I love you" what does
it mean?
Well it is not a warm feeling.. It is a set of character
traits that causes us
to respond to life in a certain way. They are
discribed in 1 Cor 13
Patience, Kindness, Long suffering, enduring all
things, hoping all
things, believing the best and so on.

In the scripture Love is the first and greatest .

John said that "This is the message we heard from
the beginning:
we should love one another". 1 Jn 3:11

We can spend all kinds of time on other things. Time
with family
and friends, work, prayer, ministry, evangelism,
serving the poor,
fighting for rights, protesting wrongs. But scripture
reminds us in
corth "no matter what I say, what I believe, and
what I do, I am
bankrupt without this character called love".

Even though we have the freedom to set our own
priorities, Jesus
made a point of defining certain priorities for us.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul
and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment,
and the second is like it,"Love your neighbor as
yourself."
Love is the Peg on which everything else hangs.

When Jesus spoke to His disciples about this he
explained to them
that "these two commands are the pegs for a
Christian life;
Everything in God's law and prophets hangs from
them.
They are foundational to living the Christian life as
the Lord ask us
to live it.

It is the basis of obedience, because we love the
Lord. "If you love
me you will obey what I command." Paul says
that Love fulfills the
law.

This may sound insignificant to a Rambo, Marlboro
world,
BUT IT TAKES MORE STRENGTH TO LIVE OUT
THIS
SIMPLE COMMAND THAN ANY OF US
NATURALLY
POSSESS ..... MORE POWER THAN ANY MAN
MADE
WEAPON.

The logic of Paul is also very simple..
If you love God and your neighbor you will not
commit adultery or
lie to them, or resent them. or any of the 1000's of
things that
violate the Royal law of love.

The practice of loving God and our neighbor presents
a lifetime of
challenge and we need to practice.

The more we love the Lord , .. the more we begin
to understand
what Jesus is like.

One area I learned that Jesus is not like me is that
He is not results
oriented.

When I love someone that is not very lovable I
expect them to
respond, or change. I want my loving spirit to pierce
right
through them. and when it doesn't I say well it not
working
because I expect results.

But Jesus' love is unconditional He doesn't expect
anything in
return.
He kept loving on earth until it killed Him. and He
loves today
because He loves, ... not because He wants us to
respond.
Love is the heart of the body.
Forgiveness is based in love.
Service is based in love.
Ministry of any kind if it is of God is based in love.
Evangelism is based on love for another.

All we do as Christians if it is of God is based on and
in love. and it
is in the body of a Christian community that we
have the
opportunity to practice our ability to love others as
we love
ourselves.
Love is the outward sign of our inner faith in Jesus
Christ.
It is love that awaken the unbeliever to see God.
It is the drawing power of the Lord.
It is His answer to all things,
It is the foundation of creation,
It is the one thing that we are told "Never Fails.

Let's try again today to learn to love a little more.

Take from ; kristenonline.com