I think the parties are finally over. For me that is. I am absolutely partied out. Out of time, energy and money. And the ability to sit in a circle and talk to the SAME people for yet another four hours.....LOL. Seriously, Brad and Jess, thanks for inviting us to your parties!!
In church yesterday we were talking about denial. What things we don't wanna admit - and why. The things we just don't want to see out of fear of what that might mean in our lives. Great topic for Father's Day, eh? Anyway, Mike asked what we are in denial about and why. Wow. That's sobering. Convicting too. I was thinking that I have been wrestling with love - for a while now. Some of you know this. True Christ like love. Loving others, the unlovable. Why it is so hard. Why I struggle. Loving people that I really don't like. The ones that truly push my buttons. The convicting part wasn't in the admission of the problem, the facing up to the denial, it was WHY it was so hard to face the facts. Basically, because John says in First John 4:
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Love is the manifestation of belief in God. Refusing to love - isn't that the same as rejecting God? Instead of "you might be a redneck if", it's "you might not be a Christian if...." And that's why I am in denial. This love thing is tough. Working on it. Admitting it is half the battle. Now I have to figure out how to live this way......
...you shall know the truth,
and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
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