Greetings Dear Reader,
We have all seen it in romantic movies. The moment when one person confesses love for
another. We wait to see if it is
reciprocated. We wonder how love will turn
out. We see the risk deployed in admitting
our love for others, romantic or else wise.
At the foundation of all we are to be in following Christ is
love. To love the Father with all of our
heart, mind, soul, and strength is the bedrock of all that we are to
become. Then the requirement becomes to
love each other fully. Add to this that
as Jesus prayed for us, he asked that we love the way the Father loves the
Son.
There is then nothing greater than the expression of love to the Father and to others. The single gift we can give is to love fully and completely in every situation. However, we are hesitant to tell each other that we love. We are somehow hesitant to take on the mantle that is supposed to be a cloak around us.
We (and I do mean “we”) fear to put it all on the line. In situations that hurt or we feel rejected
we fear to respond with love. Recently I
encountered someone from my past who still held great anger at me for my failures. He launched a verbal assault at me using
language that he had obviously rehearsed in his mind for years.
A soft word in response to anger is an act of love. I owned my failure with him. I asked his forgiveness and then told him that
even though my actions did not display it in the past, that I loved him. This did not mollify him.
As he spat more epithets at me, I could feel my pride and
arrogance vie for my attention and response.
I could hear my fallen spirit demand that I defend myself. That in me that is owned by and conforming to
Christ rose to remind me that I am working to be lovingly unoffendable. It chuckled and said, “You have an opportunity
to practice here. One cannot be
unoffendable unless someone offers an offense.”
I looked this man in the eye as he spoke and when he took a
breath, I said it again: “I love you.”
He tried to show more anger but at some point, the anger must translate
to action if it will expand. I wish I
could say that the anger was diffused and that we reconciled our friendship. That has not happened yet.
What must be my code and fealty is that I must choose love
every time. I must say it, think it,
and live it. It is hard and easy all at
once. The idea of love is cognitively
foolish and spiritually eternal. Without
love, life, reconciliation, and redemption are not possible. Since the Father and
Son choose to deal with us in love, I must do the same in all things. I must recommit my heart, mind, soul, and
strength to it every moment, Dear Reader.
After all, giving it away never runs out. There is always more.
Don’t
Tell Them Jesus Loves Them – Steve Camp
Oh, the suffering souls
Crying out for love
In a world that seldom cares
See the hungry hearts
Longing to be filled
With much more than our prayers
And a young girl sells herself on Seventh Avenue
And you hear her crying out for help
My God! What will we do?
Don't tell them Jesus loves them
‘Till you're ready to love them too!
‘Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do?
Don't tell them Jesus loves them
‘Till you're ready to love them too!
All the desperate men
Are we reaching for the souls,
That are sinking down sin?
Oh, cry for the church
We've lost our passion for the lost
And there are billions left to win
And another 40,000 children starved to death today
Would we risk all we have
To see one of them saved!?!
Why have we waited so long
To show them Jesus lives
To share salvation's song!
Why have our hearts become so proud
That we fail to see
To love them is to love God!
And a young girl sells herself on Seventh Avenue
Hear her crying out for help
What will we do?
Don't tell them Jesus loves them
‘Till you're ready to love them too!
‘Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do?
Don't tell them Jesus loves them
‘Till you're ready to love them too!
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become
a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands
out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Every human story is part of the great story that leads
to the Father getting everything back to Good.
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
#aramisthorn
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