love, love, love!!! :)

First of all, the love I have is little compared to what God wants me to have...

But still, I want to say a few things, because God has shown me some things...

It is when we have love that we have understanding and knowledge. Without love, we do not understand things correctly.... well maybe worldly things we do, but not spiritual things. With love, our eyes are opened so that we can understand. Without love, we will not really understand the scriptures. We may have a head knowledge of them, but love causes us to really understand. And love comes from God.

The Bible says to think and act like Jesus Christ. Many think that is impossible, and I would say it is impossible, but what is impossible for man is possible for God. So God can do that in us, and make us think and act like Jesus Christ. To transform our hearts. And to have a heart like Christ´s is to have a heart full of love and grace.

It is amazing to me how different things really are than how the world understands them. Everything is different. How God see´s things is so different, and that is so good.

Without love, I am nothing. But with love, then I am useful to God. Obedience to God is impossible with a cold heart, but when we love, we are living a life obedient to God. But there is a difference between the worlds view of love and God´s love. God´s love is not self seeking, but the worlds love is self seeking. Self seeking love is not what God wants for us. 1 Corinthians 13 describes God´s love.

Love motivated the samaritan to help the man laying on the side of the road. Love motivated Paul to risk his life to tell other nations about Jesus Christ. And most of all, God demonstrated his love to the world when He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins, so that we may be saved by believing in Him. It was love that motivated God to send Jesus, and it is love that motivated Jesus to go to Jerusalem, knowing what would happen to them there. None of us will ever really understand what Christ went through for us. Yes, many people have been crucified like Jesus was, but Jesus took God´s wrath for us. He was innocent, yet carried our sin. He was innocent, and yet was punished. Our sin put him there. Yours and mine. But Christ is a live again, and we will all one day stand in front of Him. By raising from the dead, Christ showed us that death is not an end.

I believe it is by understanding God´s incredible grace that causes us to love. I heard about a Christian that always said ¨God, keep me near the cross¨. I think we all need to stay near the cross, because we need to remember what happened there. I think when we forget about Jesus, our hearts begin to go cold. I believe when our eyes are on Jesus and his sacrifice for us, love and grace flows into our hearts, and the love that God has shown us, we can then show it to others.

May God do these things in me, and you. But it will be God that does it in us, and not of ourselves. It will be by the grace of God. Everything that is good is by the grace of God. If you see something good in me, God did that in me out of His grace. If you see something bad in me, that is my fault, and my sin. And so I am glad that God is full of grace, because I am forgiven, and God continues to work to change me to be like His Son, and He will continue until that work is finished in me.

I was reading a blog that Jenny wrote about in her blog, and it is called ¨bring the rain¨. It is dedicated to the womans daughter who died a few hours after being born. It is called ¨bring the rain¨ because... well that is from a song, and so here is some lyrics of the song, and that will explain it... It is from Mercy Me, Bring the Rain.

¨and I know there´ll be days when this life brings me pain,
but if thats what it takes to praise you Jesus, bring the rain¨.

Bring the rain, give us patience when we have to suffer, but when it is over, may we see you like never before, and may we praise you...