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His
Plan and Purposes for mankind and
the function of the church :
Ephesians
3:16-21 AMP
16 May He grant you out
of the rich treasury of His glory to
be strengthened and reinforced with
mighty power in the inner man by the
[Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling
your innermost being and
personality].
17 May Christ through
your faith [actually] dwell (settle
down, abide, make His permanent
home) in
your hearts! May you be rooted deep in
love and founded securely on love,
18 That you may have the
power and be strong to apprehend and grasp
with all the saints
[God's devoted people, the
experience of that love] what is the breadth and
length and height and depth [of it];
19 [That you may really
come] to know [practically, through
experience for yourselves] the love
of Christ, which far surpasses mere
knowledge [without experience];
that you may be filled [through all
your being] unto all the fullness of
God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence,
and become a body wholly filled and flooded
with God Himself]!
20 Now to Him Who, by (in
consequence of) the [action of His]
power that is at work within
us, is able to [carry out His
purpose and] do superabundantly, far
over and above all that we [dare]
ask or think [infinitely beyond our
highest prayers, desires, thoughts,
hopes, or dreams]--
21 To Him be glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations forever and ever.
Amen (so be it).
God
Loves You!
Love in
terms of what?
What are the standards of
Love?
What are we to love in our fellow
Christians?
How are we to act toward them?
Love
is Lawful! It takes note of
God's standard of righteousness. It
seeks to apply those standards in
every human situation. Love is
visible. Love is the visible Man of
the Law (Jesus Christ) in
action. It is systematic
commitment to the welfare of others
in terms of God's Law.
1 John
4:19-21 AMP
19
We love Him, because He first
loved us.
20
If anyone says, I love God, and
hates (detests, abominates) his
brother [in Christ], he is a
liar;
for he who does not love his
brother, whom he has seen,
cannot love God, Whom he has not
seen.
21
And this command (charge,
order, injunction) we have
from Him: that he who loves
God shall love his brother
[believer] also.
By linking the
Love of God and the Law
of God, we can better
understand the Cross.
John
3:16 AMP
16
For God so greatly loved and
dearly prized the world that
He [even] gave up His only
begotten ( unique) Son, so
that whoever believes in
(trusts in, clings to, relies
on) Him shall not perish (come
to destruction, be lost) but
have eternal (everlasting)
life.
Deut
10:17-19 AMP
17 For
the Lord your God is God of gods
and Lord of lords, the great,
the mighty, the terrible God,
Who is not partial and takes no
bribe.
18 He
executes justice for the
fatherless and the widow, and
loves the stranger or temporary
resident and gives him food and
clothing.
19
Therefore love the stranger and
sojourner, for you were
strangers and sojourners in the
land of Egypt.
John
15:12
AMP
This
is
My
commandment:
that you love one another
[just] as
I
have loved you.
God, Who
is the universal sovereign, requires
all men to heed His commands.
The Biblical doctrine of Love:
● to
render honest judgment
● to
bring the rule of God 's Law over
all men...including the stranger.
Love is the fulfilling of the Law.
The Cross is the supreme symbol both
of God's Love and God's absolute
justice. Christ died on the
Cross to satisfy God's justice and
His sacrifice reveals God's
incomprehensible love for His
adopted sons.
=================================
The following
Article is the work of
Andre Lefebvre
artist, musician, writer, graphics
designer.
In the wake of the
Renewal, came a fresh revelation
of the Father's Heart of God and the 20th
century Church has been impacted
forever.
And so we have learned to just
stay put, open our hands, close
our eyes, and receive prayer,
experiencing the most amazing and
deepest of changes: forgiveness,
healing, renewed strength,
visions, commissions,
confirmations, affirmation from
the Father...
Please read the following
Scriptures. they are part of the
article.
They release the working power of
the Holy Spirit abiding in you.
The
Soul of God - ‘ponderingment’
Psalm
42:1
As the deer pants for
streams of water, so my soul
pants for you, O God.
Psalm
42:2
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God. When can I
go and meet with God?
Psalm
42:4
These things I remember as
I pour out my soul: how I used
to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the
house of God, with shouts of joy
and thanksgiving among the
festive throng.
Psalm
42:11
Why are you downcast, O my
soul? Why so disturbed within
me?
Put your hope in God, for I
will yet praise him, my Savior
and my God.
Psalm
57:1
Have mercy on me, O God,
have mercy on me, for in you my
soul takes refuge. I will take
refuge in the shadow of your
wings until the disaster has
passed.
Psalm
62:1
My soul finds rest in God
alone; my salvation comes from
him.
Psalm
62:5
Find rest, O my soul, in
God alone; my hope comes from
him.
Psalm
63:1
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you; my soul
thirsts for you,
my body longs for you, in a
dry and weary land where there
is no water.
Psalm
84:2
My soul yearns, even
faints, for the courts of the
LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry
out for the living God.
Psalm
104:1
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very
great;
you are clothed with
splendor and majesty.
Psalm
108:1
My heart is steadfast, O
God; I will sing and make music
with all my soul.
Isaiah
61:10
I delight greatly in the
LORD; my soul rejoices in my
God.
For he has clothed me with
garments of salvation and
arrayed me in a robe of
righteousness, as a bridegroom
adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself
with her jewels.
Luke
10:27
He answered: ” ‘Love the
Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and
with all your strength and with
all your mind’; and, ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself.’ “
Our soul
thirsts, hungers, longs, wants,
reaches out, needs fullness, peace,
steadfastness, and
the Scriptures tell us our soul
finds its fullness in God alone.
Created by God, with
the majestic gift of freedom
and relationship. We speak often of
God’s Spirit, in fact that’s
basically all we hear about when we
speak of God, and very seldom do we
hear about the Soul of God.
Yes, God has
a soul… I love the reality of
it! Because I am then free to
relate to Him, finding anchor for my
experience in the Word, yet
exploring my friendship with God
considering He is a person,
just like me.
The veil has
been torn, the way has been opened,
the path leveled for the Lord and us
to move toward one another and meet.
And as I live this gift of a new
birth, adopted in God’s household,
I stand amazed at how sobering it is
to be able to relate to God as a
person. No familiarity, yet plenty
of freedom to be real and know
that God will not be phased by my
clumsiness and immaturity.
God’s soul
shows through the amazing details of
Creation, brilliant choice of
colors, shapes, life forms, tissue
textures, animal and insects
sounds, the purity of newborns, in
all wind and water,
the mad and frightful beauty of
volcanoes, storms, the pageantry of
earth and sky, colors, light and
shadows…
Lord God, I
want to know You as You know me…
All kindness I can give others, I
have learned from Your kindness
toward me,
as well as toward those I
hated…
I will dance, free, in my soul and
in my life…
I will sing, my voice out of tune,
maybe, but not my soul…
Your Soul, O God, can be met in the
embrace of Your eternal compassion
and mercy…
Why have I
let fearful ones decide for me the
boundaries of my experience of God?
Was God offended by David’s
extravagant dancing?
By David’s reckless abandonment to
God’s mercy and righteousness?
Many seem to fear that if I pursue
God and engage Him with all my soul,
it could be selfish, or worse, I
could fall prey to mysticism and
heresy, doctrines of demons, etc.
Yet, the Psalmist and prophets often
point their soul to find a nest, an
anchor in God Himself.
Not just His words and promises, but
in Him, as a child finding refuge in
a parent’s safe and engulfing
embrace.
I
love the Heart of God, the
Spirit of God,
the Son of God, and
I love the Soul of God.
As
an artist who belongs to Him, there
are no sounds I should fear
painting, no colors out of His
spectrum, no pain out of reach of
His healing, and I will be free to
shine in His shadow as I go about my
life, seeking and welcoming His
Potter’s Hands shaping my soul to
the plumbline of the character of
Christ.
To reflect
His glory, to glorify Him, His name,
His person, His perfections, His
love…
that is why I was created, was
brought into this world, given grace
and called to experience the Light
of His revelation hammering the
emptiness of my own existential
aspirations…
aspirations fueled by pride and
resentment, revenge and vanity…
The Soul of
God is revealing His true Self,
in spiritual intimacy, in divine
perfections, accessible
to our experience, real, as much as
we are…
Let’s not be afraid of knowing Him
as He knows us. In my opinion, this
is much closer to worshipping in
spirit and in truth, than any
contrivances we may create to
surround us with a sense of
devotional dignity.
I pray that He will carry me to
freedom, enough so that I won’t
fear to love without
restrictions, knowing He is with me,
and knowing how He has
pursued me in the darkest of places.
God’s
sadness became apparent one day, as
I meditated on His genuine
experiential suffering
as He has to contemplate the task of
having to send human souls to
eternal damnation at the end
of times…
Father,
Papa, Abba, my Creator, Judge and
Savior, my Home and Destiny, blessed
are You for revealing to us not only
Your Will, Your Love, Your Power,
but also Your Soul.
And here I rest today, writing these
words out of conviction that You are
much more than I could ever
understand, but You are the
Incarnation of humility coming to us
and speaking our name like only
someone who truly loves us could…
and how we respond!
What life rushes through our beings,
short-circuiting the exponential
waves of our multi-faceted
resistance, threatening to drown our
wildest hopes…
You are
worthy, O Lord, to receive the
expression of our worship with and
without words, beyond the unsettling
movements of our runaway emotions,
or sense of worth, stepping over the
gulf of our lack of originality and
fear of “going too far” from the
models of the past…
My heart is set on the True North of
heaven, of your Kingdom, of Your
embrace,
and my soul rejoices in You, God my
Savior!
Andre
=================================
LOVE
To speak
and act in agape
love is spiritual language.
Eros
love is physical, tactile
love.
Eros love was given to be
shared between a man and a woman
under the cover of the marriage
covenant.
To honor God is "to become
married;" to become one in
unity!
Divine Covenant does not exist
outside of marriage!
Jesus is the Husband of
the Church, His bride.
Matt 25:10
KJV
... the
bridegroom came; and they
that were ready went in with
him
to the
marriage: and the door was
shut.
Eph
5:25-30
AMP
Husbands,
love
your
wives,
as Christ loved the church and
gave
Himself up for her,
26 So that He
might sanctify her, having
cleansed her by the washing
of water with the Word,
27 That He might
present the church to Himself
in glorious splendor,
without spot or wrinkle
or any such things [that she
might be holy and
faultless].
28 Even so
husbands should love their
wives as [being in a sense]
their
own bodies. He who loves
his own wife loves himself.
29 For no man
ever hated his own flesh, but
nourishes and carefully
protects and cherishes
it, as Christ does the church,
30 Because we are
members (parts) of His body.
God
loves
mankind. He does not love
acts violating His Laws of Light.
Repentance is the repudiation of
actions of a self-centered life.
Through repentance, we invite
Christ to establish his will at
the center of our lives. When we
marry, we must think of another
person in all our decisions. When
we receive Christ, we enter into a
consultative relationship with Him
about every area of our lives.
It is not a master-slave
relationship. It is one founded in
lovingkindness.
He cares, tends and protects us as
we seek His guidance through the
Holy Spirit.
Agape
love is that spiritual
reasoning, intentional,
devotion as is inspired by God's
love for and in us.
The
Father's
LOVE
(luv)
('ahebh, 'ahabhah, noun; phileo,
agapao, verb; agape, noun):
Love
to both God and man is fundamental
to true religion, whether as
expressed in the Old Testament or
the New Testament. Jesus
Himself declared that all the law
and the prophets hang upon love (Matt
22:40; Mark 12:28-34). Paul, in
his matchless ode on love (1 Cor
13), makes it the greatest of the
graces of the Christian
life-greater than speaking with
tongues, or the gift of prophecy,
or the possession of a faith of
superior excellence; for without
love all these gifts and graces,
desirable and useful as they are
in themselves, are as nothing,
certainly of no permanent valuein the
sight of God.
Not
that either Jesus or Paul
underestimates the faith from
which all the graces proceed, for
this grace is recognized as
fundamental in all God's dealings
with man and man's dealings with
God
(John
6:28 f; Heb 11:6); but both alike
count that faith as but idle and
worthless belief that does not
manifest itself in love to both
God and man. As
love is the highest expression of
God and His relation to mankind, so it
must be the highest expression of
man's relation to his Maker and
to
his fellow-man.
I.
Definition.
While the Hebrew and Greek words for
"love" have various shades and
intensities of meaning, they may be
summed up in some such definition as
this: Love, whether used of God or
man, is an earnest and anxious
desire for and an active and
beneficent interest in the
well-being
of the one loved.
Different degrees and manifestations
of this affection are recognized in
the Scriptures according to the
circumstances and relations of life,
e.g. the expression of love as
between husband and wife, parent and
child, brethren according to the
flesh, and according to grace;
between friend and enemy, and,
finally, between God and man.
It must not be overlooked, however,
that the fundamental idea of love as
expressed in the definition of it is
never absent in any one of these
relations of life, even though the
manifestation thereof may differ
according to the circumstances and
relations.
Christ's interview with the apostle
Peter on the shore of the Sea of
Tiberias (John 21:15-18) sets before
us in a most beautiful way the
different shades of meaning as found
in the New Testament words phileo,
and agapao.
In the question of Christ, "Lovest
thou me more than these?"
the Greek verb agapas, denotes the
highest, most perfect kind of love
(Latin, diligere), implying a clear
determination of will and judgment,
and belonging particularly to the
sphere of Divine revelation.
In his answer Peter substitutes the
word philo, which means the natural
human affection, with its strong
feeling, or sentiment, and is never
used in Scripture language to
designate man's love to God.
While the answer of Peter, then,
claims only an inferior kind of
love, as compared to the one
contained in Christ's question, he
nevertheless is confident of
possessing at least such love for
his Lord.
II.
The Love of God.
First in the consideration of the
subject of "love" comes the love of
God-
He who is love, and from whom all
love is derived.
The love of God is that part of His
nature-indeed His whole nature,
for "God is love" - which leads Him
to express Himself in terms of
endearment toward His creatures, and
actively to manifest that interest
and affection in acts of loving care
and self-sacrifice in behalf of the
objects of His love.
God is "love" (1 John 4:8,16) just
as truly as He is "light" (1:5),
"truth" (1:6), and "spirit" (John
4:24). Spirit and light are
expressions of His essential nature;
love is the expression of His
personality corresponding to His
nature. God not merely loves,
but is love; it is His very nature,
and He imparts this nature to be the
sphere in which His children dwell,
for "he that abideth in love abideth
in God, and God abideth in him"
(1 John 4:16).
Christianity is the only religion
that sets forth the Supreme Being as
Love.
In heathen religions He is set forth
as an angry being and in constant
need of appeasing.
1.
Objects of God's Love:
The
object of God's love is first and
foremost His own Son, Jesus Christ
(Matt 3:17; 17:5; Luke 20:13; John
17:24). The Son shares the love of
the Father in a unique sense; He is
"my chosen, in whom my soul
delighteth" (Isa 42:1). There exists
an eternal affection between the Son
and the Father-the Son is the
original and eternal object of the
Father's love (John 17:24). If God's
love is eternal it must have an
eternal object, hence, Christ is an
eternal being.
God loves the believer in His Son
with a special love. Those who are
united by faith and love to Jesus
Christ are, in a different sense
from those who are not thus united,
the special objects of God's love.
Said Jesus, thou "lovedst them, even
as thou lovedst me" (John 17:23).
Christ is referring to the fact
that, just as the disciples had
received the same treatment from the
world that He had received, so they
had received of the Father the same
love that He Himself had received.
They were not on the outskirts of
God's love, but in the very center
of it.
"For the father himself loveth you,
because ye have loved me" (John
16:27). Here phileo is used for
love, indicating the fatherly
affection of God for the believer in
Christ, His Son. This is love in a
more intense form than that spoken
of for the world (John 3:16).
God loves the world (John 3:16;
compare 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).
This is a wonderful truth when we
realize what a world this is-a world
of sin and corruption. This was a
startling truth for Nicodemus to
learn, who conceived of God as
loving only the Jewish nation. To
him, in his narrow exclusivism, the
announcement of the fact that God
loved the whole world of men was
startling. God loves the world of
sinners lost and ruined by the fall.
Yet it is this world, "weak,"
"ungodly," "without strength,"
"sinners" (Rom 5:6-8), "dead in
trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1
King James Version), and
unrighteous, that God so loved that
He gave His only begotten Son in
order to redeem it.
The genesis of man's salvation lies
in the love and mercy of God (Eph
2:4 f). But love is more than mercy
or compassion; it is active and
identifies itself with its object.
The love of the heavenly Father over
the return of His wandering children
is beautifully set forth in the
parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke
15). Nor should the fact be
overlooked that God loves not only
the whole world, but each individual
in it; it is a special as well as a
general love (John 3:16,
"whosoever"; Gal 2:20, "loved me,
and gave himself up for me").
2.
Manifestations of God's Love:
God's
love is manifested by providing for
the physical, mental, moral and
spiritual needs of His people (Isa
48:14,20-21; 62:9-12;
63:3,12). In these Scriptures
God is seen manifesting His power in
behalf His people in the time of
their wilderness journeying and
their captivity. He led them, fed
and clothed them, guided them and
protected them from all their
enemies. His love was again shown in
feeling with His people, their
sorrows and afflictions (Isa 63:9);
He suffered in their affliction,
their interests were His; He was not
their adversary but their friend,
even though it might have seemed to
them as if He either had brought on
them their suffering or did not care
about it. Nor did He ever forget
them for a moment during all their
trials.
They thought He did; they said, "God
hath forgotten us," "He hath
forgotten to be gracious"; but no; a
mother might forget her child that
she should not have compassion on
it, but God would never forget His
people.How could He? Had He not
graven them upon the palms of His
hands
(Isa 49:15 f)? Rather than His love
being absent in the chastisement of
His people, the chastisement itself
was often a proof of the presence of
the Divine love, "for whom the Lord
loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth" (Heb
12:6-11). Loving reproof and
chastisement are necessary oftimes
for growth in holiness and
righteousness.
Our redemption from sin is to be
attributed to God's wondrous love;
"Thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit of
corruption; for thou hast cast all
my sins behind thy back" (Isa 38:17;
compare Ps 50:21; 90:8). Eph 2:4 f
sets forth in a wonderful way how
our entire salvation springs forth
from the mercy and love of God; "But
God, being rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us,
even when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together
with Christ," etc. It is because of
the love of the Father that we are
granted a place in the heavenly
kingdom (Eph 2:6-8).
But the supreme manifestation of the
love of God, as set forth in the
Scripture, is that expressed in the
gift of His only-begotten Son to die
for the sins of the world (John
3:16; Rom 5:6-8; 1 John 4:9 f),
and through whom the sinful and
sinning but repentant sons of men
are taken into the family of God,
and receive the adoption of sons (1
John 3:1 f; Gal 4:4-6).
From this wonderful love of God in
Christ Jesus nothing in heaven or
earth or hell, created or uncreated
or to be created, shall be able to
separate us (Rom 8:37 f).
(from International Standard Bible
Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database
Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft)
=================================
III. The Love
of Man.
1.
Source of Man's Love: -
Whatever
love there is in man, whether it be
toward God or toward his fellowman,
has its source in God - "Love is of
God; and every one that loveth is
begotten of God, and knoweth God. He
that loveth not knoweth not God; for
God is love" (1 John 4:7 f); "We
love, because he first loved us"
(1 John 4:19).
Trench, in speaking of agape, says
it is a word born within the bosom
of revealed religion. Heathen
writers do not use it at all, their
nearest approach to it being
philanthropia or philadelphia - the
love between those of the same
blood.
Love in the heart of man is the
offspring of the love of God.
Only the regenerated heart can truly
love as God loves; to this higher
form
of love the unregenerate can lay no
claim (1 John 4:7,19,21; 2:7-11;
3:10; 4:11 f). The regenerate man is
able to see his fellow-man as God
sees him, value him as God values
him, not so much because of what he
is by reason of his sin and
unloveliness, but because of what,
through Christ, he may become; he
sees man's intrinsic worth and
possibility in Christ
(2 Cor 5:14-17).
This love is also created in the
heart of man by the Holy Ghost (Rom
5:5), and is a fruit of the Spirit
(Gal 5:22).
It is also stimulated by the example
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who,
more than anyone else, manifested to
the world the spirit and nature
of true love (John 13:34; 15:12; Gal
2:20; Eph 5:25-27; 1 John 4:9 f).
2.
Objects of Man's Love:
God
must be the first and supreme object
of man's love; He must be loved with
all the heart, mind, soul and
strength
(Matt 22:37 f; Mark 12:29-34).
In this last passage the exhortation
to supreme love to God is connected
with the doctrine of the unity of
God (Deut 6:4 f) - inasmuch as the
Divine Being is one and indivisible,
so must our love to Him be
undivided.
Our love to God is shown in the
keeping of His commandments
(Ex 20:6; 1 John 5:3; 2 John 6).
Love is here set forth as more than
a mere affection or sentiment; it is
something that manifests itself, not
only in obedience to known Divine
commands, but also in a protecting
and defense of them, and a seeking
to know more and more of the will of
God in order to express love for God
in further obedience (compare Deut
10:12).
Those who love God will hate evil
and all forms of worldliness,
as expressed in the avoidance of the
lust of the eyes, the lust of the
flesh
and the pride of life (Ps 97:10; 1
John 2:15-17).
Whatever there may be in his
surroundings that would draw the
soul away from God and
righteousness, that the child of God
will avoid.
Christ, being God, also claims the
first place in our affections.
He is to be chosen before father or
mother, parent, or child, brother or
sister, or friend (Matt 10:35-38;
Luke 14:26).
The word "hate" in these passages
does not mean to hate in the sense
in which we use the word today. It
is used in the sense in which Jacob
is said to have "hated" Leah (Gen
29:31), that is, he loved her less
than Rachel;
"He loved also Rachel more than
Leah" (verse 30).
To love Christ supremely is the test
of true discipleship (Luke 14:26),
and is an unfailing mark of the
elect (1 Peter 1:8).
We prove that we are really God's
children by thus loving His Son
(John 8:42). Absence of such love
means, finally, eternal separation
(1 Cor 16:22).
Man must love his fellow-man also.
Love for the brotherhood is a
natural consequence of the love of
the fatherhood; for "In this the
children of God are manifest, and
the children of the devil: whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of
God, neither he that loveth not his
brother" (1 John 3:10).
For a man to say "I love God" and
yet hate his fellowman
is to brand himself as "a liar"
(4:20); "He that loveth not his
brother whom
he hath seen, cannot love God whom
he hath not seen" (verse 20);
he that loveth God will love his
brother also (verse 21).
The degree in which we are to love
our fellow-man is "as thyself"
(Matt 22:39), according to the
strict observance of law.
Christ set before His followers a
much higher example than that,
however. According to the teaching
of Jesus we are to supersede this
standard: "A new commandment I give
unto you, that ye love one another;
even as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another" (John 13:34).
The exhibition of love of this
character toward our fellow-man is
the badge of true discipleship.
It may be called the sum total of
our duty toward our fellow-man, for
"Love worketh no ill to his
neighbor: love therefore is the
fulfillment of the law"; "for he
that loveth his neighbor hath
fulfilled the law" (Rom 13:8,10).
The qualities which should
characterize the love which we are
to manifest toward our fellow-men
are beautifully set forth in 1 Cor
13. It is patient and without envy;
it is not proud or self-elated,
neither does it behave
discourteously; it does not cherish
evil, but keeps good account of the
good; it rejoices not at the
downfall of an enemy or competitor,
but gladly hails his success; it is
hopeful, trustful and forbearing-for
such there is no law, for they need
none; they have fulfilled the law.
Nor should it be overlooked that Our
Lord commanded His children to love
their enemies, those who spoke evil
of them, and despitefully used them
(Matt 5:43-48). They were not to
render evil for evil, but
contrariwise, blessing. The love of
the disciple of Christ must manifest
itself in supplying the necessities,
not of our friends only (1 John
3:16-18), but also of our enemies
(Rom 12:20 f).
Our love should be "without
hypocrisy" (Rom 12:9); there should
be no pretence about it; it should
not be a thing of mere word or
tongue, but a real experience
manifesting itself in deed and truth
(1 John 3:18).
True love will find its expression
in service to man: "Through love be
servants one to another" (Gal 5:13).
What more wonderful illustration can
be found of ministering love than
that set forth by Our Lord in the
ministry of footwashing as found in
John 13?
Love bears the infirmities of the
weak, does not please itself, but
seeks the welfare of others (Rom
15:1-3; Phil 2:21; Gal 6:2; 1 Cor
10:24); it surrenders things which
may be innocent in themselves but
which nevertheless may become a
stumbling-block to others (Rom
14:15,21); it gladly forgives
injuries (Eph 4:32), and gives the
place of honor to another (Rom
12:10).
What, then, is more vital than to
possess such love?
It is the fulfillment of the royal
law (James 2:8), and is to be put
above everything else (Col 3:14); It
is the binder that holds all the
other graces of the Christian life
in place (Col 3:14); by the
possession of such love we know that
we have passed from death unto life
(1 John 3:14),
and it is the supreme test of our
abiding in God and God in us (1 John
4:12,16).
(from
International Standard Bible
Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database
Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft)
=======================================
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With a heart full
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work He accomplished through the
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that we are counted in right standing
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Through Christ we have come
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and are promised
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life in Him on earth!
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centuries and of this century who
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We thank God for all of them
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demonstrated
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Mighty Eternal King. We would not have
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truth.
● We recognize the
Body of Christ whose Headship is the
Lord Jesus Christ.
He is building a mighty
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to proclaim the glorious reality
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The Lord Jesus is the Light to the
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too, that we might
exponentially
shine
forth
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