LOVE

LOVE

Going back to school.

Saying "Goodbye" to summer friends.

Wondering if relationships will last through the absence.

Wondering if school-oriented relationships will be resumed.

One brief verse in the BIBLE gives a succinct indication as to whether or not your love is enduring.  Simply stated, it says,

"GOD IS LOVE."

If, indeed, God is love, then any emotion that does not have HIM at its core is not real love.  It is counterfeit.

Just as having a million counterfeit dollars does not make you a millionaire, neither does having counterfeit love mean that you have love.

You may have Hollywood's imitation of love.  You may have the illusion of being in love because your relationship includes unbridled passion or even mere empathy or mutual interests, but if GOD is not in it; if HIS values and HIS heart are not woven integrally into the fabric of your relationship, it is not love.  IT IS NOT TRUE LOVE.

How Can You Have True Love?

How can you be sure that the love you have -- the love you give; the love you receive -- are indeed real, abiding true love? 

By first receiving JESUS CHRIST as your personal LORD and SAVIOR.  HIS death on the cross for your sins proved HIS absolute, perfect, eternal love for you.  HIS sacrifice of HIS sinless self for your sinful self shows the world that you are HIS and HE is yours.

Open your heart to receive that perfect love by saying, "JESUS, I am a sinner.  Thank YOU for covering my sins with YOUR shed blood.  Thank YOU for making one as vile as I am pure in the eyes of our HOLY GOD by washing my sins away in the flow of Calvary.

Let me love as YOU love.  Let me receive the love of others that flows through the purifying filter of YOUR heart.

As I lay my life at YOUR feet, cleansed by the blood of GOD'S HOLY LAMB, I am justified -- it is "just as if I'd never sinned."

Help me to live and to love worthily of such a sacrifice.  Help me to live and to love as YOU live and as YOU love.  

It is in YOUR mighty, matchless name that I ask, JESUS. Amen. 

Take this love back to school with you.  Leave this love with your summer friends.  Spread CHRIST'S love wherever you go, to whomever you meet.  The world will be a better place.

H