Tag: love

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Power of Love

Wednesday night I was afforded the privilege of being able to see Huey Lewis and the News in concert.  It was a pretty good show.  It was good to hear songs that I had not listened to for a long time, and to remember those great days in the eighties!
Anyway, its just an obvious leap that I have to take it – The Power of Love!  And that takes me to Romans 8, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.  Check it:

31-39So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (Romans 8:38-39, The Message)

So on this Friday, ‘when all you want is a couple days off’, but you have to keep on ‘working for a living’, remember the ‘Power of Love’ in your life and the impact you can have on those around you!

“Step by Step, rung by rung”

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How He Loves

Since I will be missing a few mornings with Andrew this week, I decided to sit down and eat a bowl of Trix cereal with him this morning.  Yes, Trix are for kids – what does that tell you?  Anyway, Andrew, usually a morning person, was a little grumpy this Monday morning, and really found my company to be more of a nuisance then a pleasure. (watch your thought there – especially Mrs Patty Z!)

But really, I was looking at him in his grumpy state and thinking about me, who was willing to do anything, talk about anything, and listen to anything – just generally wanting to share time with him. And as I watched his overall rejection of the idea, I could not miss the parallel to our larger lives staring at me.

It’s a Monday morning – the time when reluctantly we get back to the “work-a-day world”.  Usually we are so caught up in ourselves that we  very easily reject the goodness that is sitting at the breakfast table with us.

So today, take a moment to glance at the sun rise, notice the mountains off in the distance, feel the cool of the breeze on your skin, hear the rustle of the wind in the trees and remember that the Creator of all of this loves you more then any bit of the creation.

Of course, that reminds me of a song, one that  I have been listening to a lot this weekend, How He Loves, in which the second stanza says this:

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Psalm 136
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.

2 Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.

Remember His Love for you today, remember he is there for you. Let that impact your day as you impact those you touch!

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Year of Giving

I stumbled upon this earlier this week while browsing around the web with my mouse hand, while my headphone ear diligently listened to a conference call.

Unemployed D.C. man giving money away to strangers to help foster kindness

I was immediately blown away, and inspired at the same time!  This guy had lost his job, yet he is out giving $10 away a day – to complete strangers.  He also has been blogging about his encounters here.   This blog is definitely worth a gander as he retells of his encounters each day. Its confusing.  its a little mind boggling.  He should be saving everything he has correct?  Unfortunately, that’s the way we usually look at things like this.  But really imagine if we all took approaches like this.   I have taught many classes on this concept from Luke:

Luke 6:38 (New International Version)

38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

But this at times is a hard concept to implement.  Yes, Ray its not all about money ( sorry that’s a little inside joke to my friend Ray), its about giving and trusting.  I am impressed with Reed Sandridge.  I am inspired by him and I hope to learn from him.

Today, give.  Give because it helps others.  (and as I blogged about two weeks ago, that’s good and catchy!)  Give knowing that it will come back to you in ways that you will never ever expect.

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An Anxious Weekend

Wow, what a weekend.  I am not sure what caused more anxiety for folks – watching some of these last minute bracket busting March Madness games or watching the house work until late at night passing this Health Insurance Reform Bill.  I had some other things in mind today, but on my morning run, I decided I  should probably touch on this rather historic bill, especially since after checking Facebook, it seems to be on everyone’s mind.

No matter how you look at this, America as a country will never be the same.  I have really not spent much time reading the details of the bill, and really who knows since it was passed in such an seemingly unconventional way last night.  I really don’t know whats in or out, and so its hard for me to judge the impact at this point.  I am sure some will be helped, and other will be harmed with the passing of this bill.  Time will tell us the real impact to America.  Some will offer praise today, some will ask for guidance and express concern.  Personally,  I am not overly excited about the deal.

If you are expressing joy today for this change in America – do so with a kind spirit.  If this bill was not to your liking, educate yourself, protest peacefully and lovingly and work for change.  But either way, the thing we can point to today, is something that is bigger than this bill.  Something that I hope will keep you striving today to impact the world immediately around you and to make a impact in peoples lives.

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39 (New International Version)

17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17 (New International Version))

Whether your team lost this weekend, or you think the country is going down the tubes, keep striving to impact your neighbor, and keeping doing the will of God – which is to love your neighbor!

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Cothrom An Lae Shona Duit

Well Jason is sleeping in this morning enjoying his much deserved and needed vacation, yesterday afternoon when I spoke with him he was forcing his eldest son to push mow part of the yard, oh the joys of parenthood!

Well Happy Anniversary! Wait you thought I would say Happy St. Patrick’s day but no this day is not known as that in my household. On this day 9 years ago I married my beautiful bride. It has been 9 years…. 4 years of the Army, 3 children, and here we still stand. Many of you may be saying 9 years, that is nothing! Well, I believe in this day and time, every day is an accomplishment. There are so many people who give up so easily and call it quits. Marriage isn’t easy, it takes work, many days you can’t stand the person on the other side of the bed but you keep going (I of course have never felt that way, my wife is wonderfully perfect 😉 ). So on this day every year when everyone else says Happy St. Patrick’s Day, I will always say Happy Anniversary because of the beautiful wonderful woman who 9 years ago today, agreed to be my wife. But in the spirit of the day Cothrom An Lae Shona Duit (Happy Anniversary in Gaelic)!

Mark 10:7 (New International Version)
7’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[a]

Ephesians 5
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself