What kind of love do you have? The word “love” is used in such a plat­i­tudi­nous man­ner these days, but what kind of love do YOU have? Do you know what true love is? Have you ever real­ly loved some­one? Have you ever felt tru­ly loved? Philosophical ques­tions, to some, maybe, but hope­ful­ly you can take a few moments to read on, and get a glimpse of what true love looks like. Let me tell you what it means to me, based on my beliefs. In I John 4:8b (King James Version), the Bible tells us that God is love. God’s char­ac­ter, the essence of who He is, is love. “Love” is just one of the words used to describe who He is. So we can use this state­ment as a barom­e­ter for mea­sur­ing true love, and what it looks like. Now how do we know that “God is love” is not just a state­ment? Because God demon­strat­ed his love towards us, in that while we were yet sin­ners, he died for us (Romans 5:8). That means for every­body, because all of us have sinned, and come short of the glo­ry of God (Romans 3:23). Love is sac­ri­fi­cial. It gives of itself. So……when was the last time that you gave of your­self, for some­one else, maybe some­one you don’t even know? In this present-day cul­ture of busy­ness, with very lit­tle time for fam­i­ly, much less for a stranger, when do we make the time to love oth­ers with the “God kind of love”? We are often so con­sumed with our own prob­lems, so we can­not even begin to be con­cerned about the next person’s issues. I have to ask myself this ques­tion on a reg­u­lar basis. I am an unabashed Christian, who believes in the prin­ci­pals set forth in the Holy Bible, and believe that every word of it is true. Therefore, I must find myself giv­ing impor­tance to what is impor­tant to God. The 25^th chap­ter of Matthew, vers­es 31 through 46 describes what is of great impor­tance to God. This read­ing tells of when Jesus Christ will come in all of his glo­ry, and will gath­er all the nations, and make the ulti­mate sep­a­ra­tion-the sheep on the right, and the goat on the left. On the right He will invite the blessed ones to inher­it the king­dom, pre­pared from the foun­da­tion of the world (wow, that’s anoth­er sign of His great love-He has had us on his mind for a LONG time!). And what will be this group’s dis­tinc­tion? That when He was hun­gry, they gave him meat; when He was thirsty, they gave Him drink; when He was a stranger, they took Him in; when He was in prison, they vis­it­ed Him. To those who ignored the cries of these same unfor­tu­nate and needy souls, He will place on the left, and say “Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever­last­ing fire, pre­pared for the dev­il and his angels” . The right­eous inquired of God, when did we do all of these things? And He replied-Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me. Whoa. So this is what we must be doing on the earth? Not being a “good” per­son, as many pro­fess to be? Not just going to church? Not mak­ing as much mon­ey as pos­si­ble, to buy as much stuff as we can fill our hous­es, garages, stor­age spaces with? Not just hav­ing as much fun as we can before we leave this earth? I see now. So clear­ly. God wants us to have HIS kind of love. Towards the “least of these”. To the down­trod­den. To the widow/​er, the orphan, the addict, the poor, the sin­gle par­ents, the lone­ly, the weak, those in prison, those who are “unlov­able”. This is how we glo­ri­fy God. If we love with the “God kind of love”, we will ful­fill the whole law-we won’t break one of the com­mand­ments! If we love God’s way, we will not serve any false God, we will not mur­der, com­mit adul­tery, steal, lie, cov­et what some­one else has, or dis­hon­or our par­ents. We will not be self­ish. As we pro­ceed in life here on earth, let us return to the God kind of love-this is what the world needs. I know some will say that this is sim­plis­tic, even impos­si­ble, in the midst of all of the hate and evil that seems to dom­i­nate this age. But to those I retort that we are each respon­si­ble for our­selves, and what we do. So let it begin with me/​you. I pray that God will empow­er me to be more like Him. That I won’t ignore the cry of the needy, know­ing that I have the pow­er to help. That I will love those who are dif­fer­ent than me. That I will even love those who do all man­ner of evil, even though I may not love the things that they do.

Some of you may not believe in “God”, per se, but I chal­lenge you today to find out more about Him before con­tin­u­ing in your non-belief. Read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and learn about Jesus; how he lived, died, and was res­ur­rect­ed. How He loved. If and then you still don’t believe, well, then, I pray that you will one day get the rev­e­la­tion of this “God kind of love”, and expe­ri­ence it for yourself……

Love, Peace and Blessings,

GODSCHILD

xox­ox­ox­oxo