The last days are upon us. You didn’t ask to be born when you were. God chose you to be alive now. With that choosing comes all the grace you need to stand and be a hero of faith in these awesome days. Embrace His grace, embrace the tremendous privilege that is yours. Like the three young men in the fiery furnace, say boldly and courageously, “Our God is able to deliver us, but even if He doesn’t, we will not bow.”
Barbara Richmond
“Today, even amongst Christians, there can be found much of that spirit that wants to give as little as possible to the Lord, and yet to get as much as possible from Him. The prevailing thought today is of being used, as though that were the one thing that mattered. That my little rubber band should be stretched to the very limit seems all important. But this is not the Lord’s mind. The Lord wants us to be used, yes; but what He is after is that we pour all we have, ourselves, to Him, and if that be all, that is enough.”
Watchman Nee
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?”
C.S. Lewis
“If you ever get married be about careful about how much of yourself you give away, because when it’s all said and done you will look back and realize that you gave away too much.”
“Lust is definitely more exciting than love.”
The above quotes are two love “lessons” that I personally received this weekend. The first quote was a piece of advice given to me by a married person much older than I and the second quote came from a married couple who honestly admitted that if not for their two young daughters they would probably not still be together. The thing that strikes me the deepest about these two “lessons” is just how far our world’s perspective of love has shifted away from what it truly is. What was intended to be pure, unconditional, and unending has become defiled, conditional, and ever ceasing. The world has bought into a counterfeit love. A love of a lesser kind. A love that is based solely on the feelings and emotions, on what is aesthetically pleasing, and what feels good at the time. A love that is all about selfish gain, but ironically only results in great lack and an empty heart. A love that is not in fact love at all but mere lust. Despite all of this, I am convinced that true love still exists. It is not dead.
In the face of Jesus Christ I learn of a love that is completely yielding and fully sacrificial. A love that bows down in humility and gives what is not deserved. A love that that looks past faults and failures to love unconditionally and without end. As Jesus Christ lavishes this love over me He enables me to love in the same way. Love is alive and it reigns in the person of Jesus Christ. May I love with this love of another kind.
“God’s purpose is that His children are to be delivered wholly from the old creation and are to enter fully into the new creation. No matter how the old creation may appear to man, it is utterly condemned by God.”
The Spiritual Man – Watchman Nee
