Love?

The Bible says, "God is Love."

How few of us even have a clue of what this means. The word "love" has been misused, abused and twisted to simply mean "lust," "mushy feelings," "twitter pated," or some other emotional response.

God's Love issues from His nature which is Love, agape. This is an unconditional decision to love that brings with it a desire to benefit the one loved. The late Edwin Lewis Cole said, "Love gives at its own expense for the benefit of another. Lust takes to gratify self at the expense of another." Our society is living in the "lust" zone. Everything is about "me, me, me."

Even Christians will say, "I love you," and walk away from their pastor, church and friends. Husbands and wives will say, "I love you," and sleep with someone else on the sly. Society has lost its moral moorings and doesn't know that without "Love," that is, God's Love, they will ever be torn by the lack of commitment that only real love brings into their lives.

My wife, Sharon, and I have been married over 52 years. We are still married because we made a decision to commit to one another for life. We are still married because we were touched by the love of God and learned to look beyond each other's faults and look at each other's strengths. We learned to forgive and move ahead with hope and faith. The effort it takes to build a marriage, a church or any other relationship is well worth the work it takes to develop lasting relationships.

God has committed to each person who will receive His Son as Lord and Savior. He enters into an unbreakable covenant with each one and says, "I will never leave nor forsake you." He adopts such a one and makes him to be a joint-heir with Christ promising him the riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

That's what I'm thinking about today.