A Love Affair

“All you need is love.” – The Beatles

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” – Jackie Deshannon

“Who, being loved, is poor?” – Oscar Wilde

“Where there is love there is life.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi

“When you are in love you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”- Dr. Seuss

“Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence.”

– Vincent van Gogh 

“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.”- C.S. Lewis

From the greatest to the least significant

From the wealthy to the poor

From the oldest to the youngest

We search for it.

It is what keeps us running when nothing else will.

It is the variable in a somewhat systematic and mathematical life.

It will make smile.

It will make you cry.

It will cause you to do stupid things.

It will cause you to risk anything.

Love.

We are like pirates, on a never-ending treasure hunt to find it.

We are like explorers, always trying to chart it.

We are like scientists, always trying to define it.

 But have we really discovered it? Or are we still trying to wrap our minds around it?

Sometimes, we explain it in words.

Sometimes, in actions.

Sometimes, in silence.

All we know is that we need it to survive. Without it, we drown in this world of meaninglessness. We see no reason to wake up tomorrow.

Where is it? Can I find it? Does it come to me or I to it? Do I selfishly absorb it or offer my own in return?

Along comes a being. From somewhere out beyond the billions of galaxies in our expansive universe.

Contact is made.

And in that transmission, the message was and still is clear.

He loves you.

He created you.

He desperately wants you to spend eternal life with Him.

You ask for clarity. “What kind of love are you talking about?”

He answers with a book.

In it, are His words to you. Revealing Himself and revealing you.

 You flip through the book and ask what does this mean.

He answers. I am.

I will be honored.

I will be worshiped and glorified.

But also

I love you.

Here is my love:

I am faithful. Just look at Abraham and his offspring.

I am forgiving and gracious. Just ask adulterous King David.

I am patient. Just ask the Israelites in the wilderness.

I love you like a father to his son.

I love you like a groom looking after his bride.

I love you like a shepherd protecting his sheep.

I love you as a potter does his pot.

I have given you life, but you have used it for your own purposes.

I have given you reign over the Earth, but you have let it go to waste.

I have given you other people as companions, not as obstacles.

I have given you my Son, but you killed him.

Without me, you would be lost.

Without me, you would be blind.

Because of what My Son did, we can be friends again.

Because of what My Son did, I don’t have to punish you.

Because of what My Son did, we can live together in harmony.

Please. Just believe in what I have said, what my Son did, and accept my invitation.

Believe me. I love you.

Our response: I love you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J lol

So I will meet up with you one day a week and talk.

We will talk in the quiet of my bedroom and keep our love to ourselves.

We will talk 5 seconds before eating and then not again til about 5 five minutes before sleeping where I will fall asleep in the middle of talking.

I have will give you secret mental signals to signal that I love you but won’t disturb others with it.

Thank you for the book you gave me. I really appreciate it. I am just going to keep it in my closet so that it can collect dust. I may never use it again or remember the words that you wrote to me but just the sight of it will give me a smile and that is all I need.

I want to keep you all to myself so I won’t tell any of my other friends how much you love them J lol

I really don’t want to have to do anything or listen to you but I want you to be always at my side. Deal?

……………………..

Is there something wrong with this picture?

If this were a relationship with another person, how would you look at this?

God has given everything. And, fairly and rightfully so, He expects everything in return.

Us: We give the leftovers. And expect to be given everything.

I am going to steal a line from the Black-Eyed Peas.

Where is the love?

This looks more like an affair than a love relationship.

It looks like a marriage gone wrong.

And yet, this is what we would call love:

Lopsided affection

A provider and an absorber.

Self-serving not self-sacrificing.

You say I’m wrong?

Ask Hollywood.

Ask politicians.

Ask your friends.

This is “love” to us?

We need to redefine it.

1 Corinthians 13. 

Insured

Here is a story of a boyfriend.

He was preparing a romantic night for he and his girlfriend.

He wanted to show just how much he loved her. How much he cared.

So he got reservations at a classy restaurant, bought her a diamond necklace, got a haircut, dressed up in his best suit.

He was prepared to drop down on one knee and pop the question.

He arrived perfectly on time to pick her up in his recently cleaned out and newly scented car.

He remembered to open every door for her that she walked through and even pulled out her chair at the table.

He told her “Get whatever you want, baby. This night is about you.”

The food: perfect.

The conversation: joyful

The gift: spot on.

Everything was going just as planned… or so he thought…

Just when he was about to make his final move and insure his spot in her heart forever, something unexpected comes…

She says, “ This night has been absolutely wonderful. I never expected this and am so happy to be sitting here with you. I love you.”

It seems ok at first.

But it doesn’t stop there.

“ I do have one question though. What is my middle name?”

An unexpected blow to the gut for him. A bead of sweat runs down his forehead as he furiously scrambles to cover for himself. (Leave to a girl to ask the most random and most mind blowing question at the worst possible time.)

He tries to play it off as if it is a silly question, but again, she poses it to him.

He tries to change to topic, but now, she can see him shifting in his seat, nervous.

So she poses another question.

“Do you at least know my birthday?”

A blind-sided attack to the chest.

Now, he is getting upset. Here he is, having spent all of this money on her, waited on her hand and foot, been the best he could ever be, even has a ring ready to put on her finger, she would be lucky to be with him and yet she is almost throwing it all away because of some stupid mind game. He asks why all of this “nonsense” is so important.

She says, “ Well babe, all of these other things are worthless to me if you don’t really know me.”

He attacks back with his frustration.

“Well, then I guess all of these things you supposedly did for me were really about you and how it made you look and not really about me at all.”

He is pinned down.

“It’s over.”

The final blow.

She leaves. He sits there, trying to understand the series of events that took place.

What did I do wrong?

I had done everything for her.

And now, it’s over.

(The end.)

"Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Go to any doctor, dentist, auto shop, and you will soon realize how valuable or invaluable your insurance is.

You may think that your insurance will cover your next hospital bill but you could also be deceived and you are actually forking over more money then you ever imagined.

Are you insured eternal life?

Some people believe their eternal destination is insured because they think are good people.

Some people believe their eternal destination is insured because they attend church.

Some people believe their eternal destination is insured because others look at them as a good person.

Some people believe their eternal destination is insured because they are doing good for other people and that they are moral.

Some people believe their eternal destination is insured because God loves everyone, even if they don’t listen to Him.

Some believe their eternal destination is insured based on their faith and love in one man, his teachings and what he did on this earth.

His name is Jesus.

Only one of these is valuable. The others’ are garbage. Worthless.

“Heaven is a place, not for those that are afraid of going to hell, but those that are in love with God.”- Matt Chandler

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

What motivates you to seek God? Religion, habit, love?

When you realize that you have grown apart from a friend, what do you do? Buy them gifts to win their friendship back, impress them, or talk to them?

Do you know God or have you been too busy doing things that will make you look good in His eyes?

What have you banked your eternal destination on?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)