Artistic

The more I think about it,

 

the more I realize there is

 

nothing

 

more artistic than

 

to love others.

~Vincent Van Gogh

Pursue Love

Paul tells us to pursue love (I Cor. 14:1)
W.E. Vines says that pursue, in this case, is to "follow after, as one would a calling".

I am to pursue Love as a career?

Hmm.

Why DO I pursue a career?

To receive compensation

To share my gifts and talents with others

To feel a sense of accomplishment

To stretch myself to continually grow

I see it!

Pursuing a career in Love IS the same!

To receive compensation (my reward in Heaven)

To share my gifts and talents with others

To feel a sense of accomplishment

To stretch myself to continually grow

Wow! I sat down today to write a quick blog post and then work on my online school for my new career, having no intention of tying the two together. I guess God had other plans.

As I pursue my new career in Home Staging I am going to simultaneously pursue a serious career in Love.

I'll keep you posted!

Increase and Abound in Love

Every now and then a verse jumps out at me and says

THIS IS IMPORTANT!

And I wonder why I never realized it before. But I believe that is the living and active part of the Word: God knows where I'm at in my walk with Him and He knows what I need at this moment and He always provides it. GOD IS GOOD.

So, the jumped-out verse is:

"And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all . . . so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."  I Thessalonians 3:12-13



W.E. Vines also paraphrases the passage like this:

"The Lord enables you more and more to spend your lives in the interests of others in order that He may so establish you in Christian character now, that you may be vindicated from every charge that might possibly be brought against you at the Judgment seat of Christ."

Maybe "love covers a multitude of sins" comes into play here.


So, I guess the ah-ha moment for me here was this:

The exercise of LOVE is the means God uses to develop Christ-likeness in His children

SO THAT we are covered at the Judgment.

It's like an insurance policy!

Somehow, that perspective makes it easier to love in ALL circumstances.

I want my heart to be established blameless in holiness.

So Lord, please make me increase and abound in love.

Because with you, all things are possible.

Where the music begins

After hearing some difficult teachings from the Lord, many of His followers turned away "and walked with Him no more." Jesus has just asked the twelve if they will also turn away from Him.

Peter's answer always brings tears to my eyes (though I'm not sure why):

"Lord, to whom shall be go? You have the words of eternal life."

                                                                                                 (John 6:68)    

 And it has has occurred to me:

 this is where the music begins to play in Peter's life.

Peter is convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And once that fact has been clearly understood, there is no where else to go.

(Funny, I've unintentionally got Mozart playing on Pandora as I type now.)

Anyway.

 Peter had a long, hard road ahead of him. He would deny the Lord and then repent, suffer extreme cruelty, imprisonment and death.

But none of that mattered

 once the music began to play.

Our Greatest Fear

I Cor. 16:13-14:"Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.
                           Let all that you do be done with love."

Ignoring the numerical division of the verses I see a strong connection I had never seen before:

Be brave

 Be strong

Love



Isn't the fear of LOVING and being rejected one of our greatest obstacles in LOVING as the LORD loves?

 I must be brave and strong and act on faith that God knows what he's doing, despite my fears, to truly LOVE, agape style.

Knowing that GOD truly understands the difficulties of life on Earth, and that He is rooting for me

 is ENOUGH. 



'Bird Song' by The Wailin' Jennys

I think we must be related

C.S. Lewis:
"I am a safety-first creature. Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as

 "Careful! This might lead you to suffering."

To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond  to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilites. I doubt whether there is anything in me that pleases Him less. And who could conceivably begin to love God on such a prudential ground- because the security (or so to speak) is better? Who could even include it among the grounds for loving? Would you choose a wife or a Friend--if it comes to that, would you choose a dog--in this spirit?"

(I think we must be related!)