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Love is the universal language of the world (John 14:23-34), April 1, 2017

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Today’s Podcast


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  1. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
  2. We hear about love a lot. We think we see it everywhere. Jesus commands that we love. So what is it, anyway?
  3. Scripture
    1. John 14:23-34
    2. Jesus:  Anyone who loves Me will listen to My voice and obey. The Father will love him, and We will draw close to him and make a dwelling place within him.  The one who does not love Me ignores My message, which is not from Me, but from the Father who sent Me.
  4. Devotional
    1. I went to everyone’s favorite source of perfect information to find the answer to the question, “What is love?” The Internet, specifically Wikipedia
      1. Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection (“I love my mother”) to pleasure (“I loved that meal”). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment.[1] Love can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—”the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”.[2] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one’s self or animals.[3]
      2. Ancient Greeks identified four forms of love: kinship or familiarity (in Greek, storge), friendship (philia), sexual and/or romantic desire (eros), and self-emptying or divine love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of romantic love. Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states.[4][5] Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning—notably in Abrahamic religions. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.
      3. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.[6]
      4. Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.[7
    2. Does that get us any closer to understanding love?
      1. Definition of love is like definition of ice cream
      2. Must experience it to really understand it and even then do you really understand it?
      3. How can you really describe the experience?
      4. Yet when we go through the event, when we eat ice cream for the first time, we know we like it and we want more
      5. When we experience real love, not the mushy fake lust we see advertised, but real love,we know we like it and we need it and we want more
    3. How do we get love?
      1. We get it unconditionally from God
      2. Most of us get it unconditionally from mothers and fathers who try to be good parents no matter how flawed they are
      3. Most of us get love, though sometimes misunderstood and again flawed by the image of what love is from the media and the world in our marriages
      4. But the best way to get love? Give love to others – unconditionally
      5. What kind of love? – that one that says, “Love can be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—”the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”.[2] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans,
      6. That’s the love God shows toward us and asks us to give it to others in return
    4. Jesus says if we love Him we will obey Him, His commands usually come in the form of helping others, thinking of others more than we think of ourselves. Doing and giving and lifting others to show them real, genuine love in a world that knows so little about real love today
    5. Love is the universal language, but so few know how to speak it today. Go out and teach them through your actions
  5. If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Good advice from the One who knows (Matthew 5:27-30) January 13, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 3-5

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 5:27-30
Jesus: As you know, long ago God forbade His people to commit adultery. You may think you have abided by this Commandment, walked the straight and narrow, but I tell you this: any man who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart. If your right eye leads you into sin, gouge it out and throw it in the garbage—for better you lose one part of your body than march your entire body through the gates of sin and into hell. And if your right hand leads you into sin, cut it off and throw it away—for better you lose one part of your body than march your entire body through the gates of sin and into hell.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We don’t like these words today. A lot of us would just as soon skip over this part of the Sermon on the Mount and pretend Jesus never said these things. But He did. So what do we do about them? Barna Group surveys show that adultery in the church happens about as often as adultery outside the church. The media says it’s okay. In fact, our culture seems to encourage sexual experimentation before marriage and out of marital relationships.

Our culture wants us to believe it’s okay, to engage in pre-marital and extra-marital affairs. No harm done to any parties involved. Or so they say. Look around at our society and it’s easy to see the damage, though. Broken homes, damaged and castaway children. Emotional wreckage along the pathway of life because we think it’s okay to disregard Jesus’ words.

And just like with His discourse about murder, Jesus starts with a behavior that we know will disrupt the fabric of a healthy and wholesome society and reminds us that behavior doesn’t come from pure instinct within the framework of the human creation. We have a choice in our behavior, our actions spring from thought, not pure base instinct as in other animals. We can decide to act differently. We can choose behavior that glorifies God and keeps the norms of society on a higher plane.

So the act of adultery doesn’t just happen. One must decide to engage in adulterous behavior. But the thought generates from lust long before the full blown thought of sexual engagement with another, just like the act and thought of murder simmers and grows from the germ of separateness and envy and anger.

And what is the germ of lust? Wanting something you don’t have. It’s that selfish motive that says, I want something that doesn’t belong to me…no matter the consequences. It gets back to the same motive Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden. They decided they knew better than God. Lust is the same way. I disregard what God knows is best and decide I know what is best for my life. I want to satisfy my desires the way I want them satisfied despite the consequences.

The consequences always show up. Sooner or later, you reap what you sow. Remember the story of king David and Bathsheba? He saw her bathing from his rooftop and decided he would take her even though he knew it was wrong. She got pregnant. David tried to get Uriah home from the war to pass the child off as his. But Uriah didn’t go home. The stakes get worse. David’s lust leads to murder as he sends Uriah into the heart of the battle and has Joab abandon him. Then David tries to cover his sin by doing an honorable thing…marrying the poor hero’s widow to make sure she is taken care of the rest of her life.

The people bought the ploy. God didn’t. Bathsheba’s child died. David’s son raped his half-sister. Then his daughter’s brother, killed his half-brother in revenge. His avenging son tries to take the throne and is killed in battle against David’s army. But David’s family is a disaster. The throne is in jeapordy. The nation is a mess. The loyalties of the people are torn between two factions. And it all started with David’s selfish desire for something that wasn’t his – lust! It’s a deadly game we play when we let our thoughts run away with us.

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows how what seems like innocent thoughts can turn into disasterous actions with long range results , just like they did for David. “If your right eye leads you into sin, gouge it out and throw it in the garbage—for better you lose one part of your body than march your entire body through the gates of sin and into hell. And if your right hand leads you into sin, cut it off and throw it away—for better you lose one part of your body than march your entire body through the gates of sin and into hell.” Good advice from the One who knows us best!

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.