Perfect love casts out fear

I Need to Love Something

by Mary Cosby

I need to love something so desperately that the love of it will cast out every fear. A lot of us know about that kind of love. For something, some cause, some combination of wonder that is happening -- to love it so desperately that you move right into it and there is no fear because your love is so great. The highest love is that of the Lord himself. That love can be so focused, so deep, so intense and so related to the call of God that even when I know I'm not "safe" in the surface sense, being faithful to that call I know I'm safe. I know that all things are working together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

Selah.

Source: Sermon (April 30 1989)

Love from innocent eyes

Love described by 4-8 year old children

Here are some pretty excellent descriptions of love from the eyes of children. Sometimes kids get it a lot better than grownups... and here, some of these kids are pretty amazing in their takeaways of love. For instance, the one boy who says that when someone loves you, your name is safe in their mouth -- pretty awesome! Or, the boy who says that love is what is in the room at Christmas if you stop opening gifts and just listen. Or, the girl who says that love is the grandfather who paints the toenails of his wife, when she can no longer bend over from arthritis... incredible! So, enjoy!


Rebecca - age 8:

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.

So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Billy - age 4:

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

Karl - age 5

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Chrissy - age 6:

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Terri - age 4:

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Danny - age 7:

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Emily - age 8:

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.

My Mommy and Daddy are like that.. They look gross when they kiss'

Bobby - age 7:

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Nikka - age 6:

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.'

Noelle - age 7:

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday..'

Tommy - age 6:

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Cindy - age 8:

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Clare - age 6:

'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night...'

Elaine-age 5:

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

Chris - age 7:

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

Mary Ann - age 4:

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'

Lauren - age 4:

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Karen - age 7:

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.'

Mark - age 6:

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'

Jessica - age 8:

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Selah.

Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

Bethlehem: The place where God’s love broke in

Where love breaks in

This is what happens when God’s power breaks in: darkness is cast out. The power of evil spirits is broken and driven away. The Holy Spirit creates a pure atmosphere, one of unity and of peace.

The little stable in Bethlehem was a place where God’s love broke in. While on earth, Jesus expected God’s kingdom to break in. His expectation was that light must break in upon this darkened earth. He saw that death had heaped up a barrier so that light could not come into life on earth. Therefore he sacrificed his life so that in the area of death an opening might be made; so that there might be a rift in the layer of gloomy fog around the earth – an opening through which the light of God could come in. If a house has even only one window where the sun shines in, it can no longer be dark inside the house.

If Jesus opens a breach in death then God’s kingdom comes down to this earth. This was the faith that the early Christian church had when they waited for the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They were determined to wait until the flame of the Spirit, like the star over Bethlehem, should come down at this one place. And this did happen; it came.

From the place where a stream enters, it pours out into the entire world. Where love breaks in, all other forces yield. Jesus was victorious on the cross, not by a greater force, but by a greater power – the power of love – in comparison with which all force is nothing. No human force is able to achieve anything in comparison to the power of love.

The birth of Jesus is the in-breaking of the power of love.

Eberhard Arnold

A birthday blessing -- faith!

Thank you, Amber! You blessed me so much with your special card... and I love the faith remembrance! I now have one on my office desk and at home, thanks to you! :-)

And, a very special thank you to each one of you who made the huge surprise party a success. You could have knocked me over w. a feather! You pulled it off... and Joyce with the veggie cake! Oh my goodness: who would've thunk it? And the cake w. my picture on it... a work of art! I never would have imagined such works of art, and each card and gift were simply perfect. THANK YOU, all!

I love you all, and bless you! :-)

A word for the day: Raging waters, constancy, love

If the Lord had not been on our side

Psalm 124

If the Lord had not been on our side,
let Israel now say;
If the Lord had not been on our side,
when enemies rose up against us;
Then would they have swallowed us up alive
in their fierce anger towards us;
Then would the waters have overwhelmed us
and the torrent gone over us;
Then would the raging waters
have gone right over us.
Blessed be the Lord!
he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowler;
the snare is broken and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.

Those who trust are like Mount Zion

Psalm 125

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but stands fast for ever.
The hills stand about Jerusalem;
so does the Lord stand round about his people,
from this time forth for evermore.
The sceptre of the wicked shall not hold sway
over the land allotted to the just,
so that the just shall not put their hands to evil.
Show your goodness, O Lord, to those who are good
and to those who are true of heart.
As for those who turn aside to crooked ways,
the Lord will lead them away with the evildoers;
but peace be upon Israel.

A Song of Divine Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-13

Love is patient and kind,
love is not jealous or boastful,
it is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way,
it is not angry or resentful.
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing
but rejoices in the truth.
Love bears all things and believes all things;
love hopes all things and endures all things.
Love will never come to an end,
but prophecy will vanish,
tongues cease and knowledge pass away.
Now we know only in part
and we prophesy only in part,
But when the perfect comes,
the partial shall pass away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
But when I became mature,
I put an end to childish ways.
For now we see only puzzling reflections in a mirror,
but then we will see face to face.
Now I know only in part;
then I shall know fully,
even as I have been fully known.
There are three things that last for ever,
faith, hope and love,
but the greatest of these is love.

Selah.

A strong wind from another Land

A spacious place, free from restriction

Bless our God, you peoples;
make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our souls in life,
and will not allow our feet to slip.
For you, O God, have proved us;
you have tried us just as silver is tried.
You brought us into the snare;
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water;
but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.
I will enter your house with burnt offerings
and will pay you my vows,
which I promised with my lips
and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
I will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts
with the smoke of rams;
I will give you oxen and goats.
Come and listen, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he has done for me.
I called out to him with my mouth,
and his praise was on my tongue.
If I had found evil in my heart,
the Lord would not have heard me;
But in truth God has heard me;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer,
nor withheld his love from me.

Lift up your voice, fear not!

Go up to a high mountain,
herald of good tidings to Zion;
lift up your voice with strength,
herald of good tidings to Jerusalem.
Lift up your voice, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him.
Behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
God will feed his flock like a shepherd,
and gather the lambs in his arms;
He will carry them in his breast,
and gently lead those that are with young.

Selah.

Put all your faith in God's great goodness

Put all your faith in God's great goodness

Words: Amos Cresswell (born 1926) based on Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten by Georg Neumark (1621-1681)
Tune: Neumark

Put all your faith in God's great goodness
and hope in him for every day;
through all your anguish, pain and sadness
his shadow guards along life's way:
and if he leads you by the hand
you never build on shifting sand.

When we are lonely and despairing,
when visions fade and hopes are dim,
he comes, our depths of sorrow sharing,
invites our faith to turn to him;
he never will forsake his child;
his hold is form though storms are wild.

Our Lord is present in our weakness,
for this he left his heavenly throne.
His power and strength lie in his meekness,
'You will not agonise alone;
I drank the bitter cup for you;
my crucifixion proves this true.'

Sing, pray and tell the mighty story;
God comes to us in vibrant Word.
The wonder of the heavenly glory
is seen by us in Christ, our Lord.
Our God has never left in need
a soul who trusted him indeed.

Selah.

A divine measure of love

How a man truly loves a woman

A heart has to be taught to love, and its first lesson, however well learned, no more makes it perfect in love, than the A B C makes a philosopher. The man who loves most will love best.

The man who thoroughly loves God and his neighbor is the only man who will love a woman ideally -- who can love her with the love God thought of between them when he made man male and female. The man, I repeat, who loves God with his very life, and his neighbor as Christ loves him, is the man who alone is capable of grand, perfect, glorious love to any woman.

Because his love was towards everything human, he was able to love her as others were not able to love her. To that of the most passionate of unbelieving lovers, his love was as the fire of a sun to that of a forest. The fullness of a world of love-ways and love-thoughts was his. In sweet affairs of loving-kindness, he was in his own kingdom, and sat upon its throne.

And it was this essential love, acknowledging and embracing, as a necessity of its being, everything that could be loved, which now concentrated its rays on the individual's individual. His love to her stood like a growing thicket of aromatic shrubs, until her confession set the fire of heaven to it, and the flame that consumes not, but gives life, arose and shot homeward. He had never imagined, never hoped, never desired she should love him like that. Only from her own lips could he have come to believe that she would view him more than a nobody, a mere burning heart running about in tattered garments.

His devotion to her had forestalled every pain with its antidote of perfect love, had negated every lack, had precluded every desire, had shut all avenues of entrance against self. Even if "a little thought unsound" should have chanced upon an entrance, it would have found no soil to root and grow in: the soil for the harvest of pain is that brought down from the peaks of pride by the torrents of desire.

Immeasurably the greater therefore was his delight, when the warmth and scent of the love that had been from time to him immemorial passing out from him in virtue of consolation and healing, came back upon him in the softest and sweetest of flower-waking spring-winds. Then indeed was his heart a bliss worth God's making. The sum of happiness in the land, if gathered that night into one wave, could not have reached half-way to the crest of the mighty billow tossing itself heavenward as it rushed along the ocean of his spirit!
.
Selah.

George MacDonald, The Baronet's Song.

A Memorial Day tribute

Cross the Green Mountain

God bless all of you this Memorial Day.

May it be more than cookouts and games... may it be an actual life check, a new commitment to live along the sacrificial lines, only through which our great land will find a new birth in freedom.

Last night I watched a Memorial Day special at the mall in Washington, D.C. There, as they played the songs of the service men and women, they played the Navy song and a young man with a burned and reconstructed face stood to attention -- all his being giving witness to the sacrifice he had made in a cause far greater than himself. I snapped to attention: salute, sir!

This is the honor of which Joshua Chamberlain spoke and witnessed -- the honor that I just shared in conversation with my cousin Eric, a Memorial Day witness to honor and sacrifice and country.

Here's a song of tribute. May it touch your heart to new dedication. Thank you: thank you veterans, thank you men and women of our armed forces, thank you to all who dare to live truly in a false age.

Happy Memorial Day!

Selah.

Thy ceaseless, unexhausted love

Thy ceaseless, unexhausted love

Words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Tune: University

Thy ceaseless, unexhausted love,
Unmerited and free,
Delights our evil to remove,
And help our misery.

Thou waitest to be gracious still;
Thou dost with sinners bear,
That, saved, we may thy goodness feel,
And all thy grace declare.

Thy goodness and thy truth to me,
To every soul, abound,
A vast, unfathomable sea,
Where all our thoughts are drowned.

Its streams the whole creation reach,
So plenteous is the store,
Enough for all, enough for each,
Enough for evermore.

Faithful, O Lord, thy mercies are,
A rock that cannot move;
A thousand promises declare
Thy constancy of love.

Throughout the universe it reigns,
Unalterably sure;
And while the truth of God remains
The goodness must endure.

Selah.

Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat

Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat

Words: John Newton (1725-1807)
Tune: Tallis' Ordinal

Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat
where Jesus answers prayer;
there humbly fall before his feet,
for none can perish there.

Thy promise is my only plea;
with this I venture nigh:
thou callest burdened souls to thee,
and such, O Lord, am I.

Bowed down beneath a load of sin,
by Satan sorely pressed,
by war without and fears within,
I come to thee for rest.

Be thou my shield and hiding-place,
that, sheltered near thy side,
I may my fierce accuser face,
and tell him thou hast died.

O wondrous love! to bleed and die,
to bear the Cross and shame,
that guilty sinners, such as I,
might plead thy gracious name!

Selah.

Love all lovely, love divine

Love came down at Christmas

Words: Christina Rossetti, 1885
Tune: Hermitage

Love came down at Christmas,
love all lovely, love divine;
love was born at Christmas:
star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
love incarnate, love divine;
worship we our Jesus,
but wherewith the sacred sign?

Love shall be our token;
love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
love for plea and gift and sign.

Selah.

A living prayer

Here is my prayer for today! I'll share it with you... God bless you! :-)

October awareness: Hope, faith, courage, strength, love

October is breast cancer awareness month. Tell someone you love!

And be strong, those of you who battle cancer: Hope, faith, courage and love to you!

By the broken I will mend you

By the hungry I will feed you

by Sydney Carter

By the hungry I will feed you
By the poor I'll make you rich
By the broken I will mend you
Tell me, which one is which?

Selah.

The laughing Jesus

I feel as if I've arrived in the world: I'm now taking pictures of Jesus! :-) I snapped this photo from a painting, while at a retreat. It's a great representation of Jesus -- this is the kind of Jesus that children loved: the irresistible smile and humor, pure laughter from the heart! He probably just cracked a perfect joke, right before the artist caught this canvas. :-) Stop for a moment, and visualize the smile of Jesus, the very smile of God upon you. You are His child, and He is for you!

Hear this word, and hope:

The LORD your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing! [Zeph. 3:17]

Alleluia!

Selah.

A healing freedom: The fear of the Lord

The fear of the Lord

The fear of the Lord is a powerful spiritual principle, a weapon for good, yet it is often misunderstood. Understood properly, it is freeing and life-giving, life-affirming; however, understood negatively, it can keep a son or daughter of God at arms length, not fully trusting Abba.

Consider the following verses:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. [Proverbs 9:10]

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow His precepts have good understanding.
To Him belongs eternal praise. [Psalm 111:10]

There are a constellation of verses that mirror this same concept. It is emphasized often in Scripture, and for good reason. Yet, consider these verses:

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him or her. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. [1 John 4:16-18]

Here is the apparent contradiction: if the one fearing is not fully accessing divine love, then why are we instructed to fear the Lord? If perfect love casts out fear, then how does Scripture tell us that the fear of the Lord is the key to spiritual wisdom and greatness?

The answer is in the nature of fear. The fears referenced here are two different things.

The fear of the Lord is a numinous awe, a reverence related to worship. It is a daily thing. The best definition of the fear of the Lord is this: living in continual awareness of the presence of God. It is living daily in the knowledge that the Spirit of God is with us, in us – looking over our shoulder, guarded by the Angel of the Lord.

There is a negative fear, a crippling anxiety that keeps us from being all we were meant to be – that is not the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord – living daily in His presence of love – frees us from those other hurtful fears. Bathed in Love, we are clean from the anxiety of the world. We are freed from the factors of punishment – whether this be without or within.

• True fear of the Lord frees us to real life, abundant life.
• False fear cripples us and keeps us from true life.

The key is the love and continual awareness of God. Live today in His presence, as if every action and thought is guarded by Him – see what a difference it makes in the fears of the world!

Selah.

A word for the day: grace, endurance, hope

A song of the justified: Hope is not in vain

Romans 5 selections

Through Christ we have gained access
to the grace in which we stand,
and rejoice in our hope of the glory of God.
We even exult in our sufferings,
for suffering produces endurance,
And endurance brings hope,
and our hope is not in vain,
Because God's love has been poured into our hearts,
through the Holy Spirit, given to us.

Selah.

New every morning is the love

New every morning is the love

Words: John Keble, 1822
Music: Kedron

New every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,
hover around us while we pray;
new perils past, new sins forgiven,
new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If on our daily course our mind
be set to hallow all we find,
new treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
as more of heaven in each we see;
some softening gleam of love and prayer
shall dawn on every cross and care.

The trivial round, the common task,
will furnish all we ought to ask:
room to deny ourselves; a road
to bring us daily nearer God.

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
fit us for perfect rest above;
and help us, this and every day,
to live more nearly as we pray!

Selah.

While I am a pilgrim here

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare

Words: John Newton, 1780
Tune: Song 13

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He himself has bid thee pray,
therefore will not say thee nay.

Thou art coming to a King,
large petitions with thee bring;
for His grace and power are such,
none can ever ask too much.

With my burden I begin:
Lord, remove this load of sin;
let thy blood, for sinners spilt,
set my conscience free from guilt.

Lord, I come to thee for rest,
take possession of my breast;
there thy blood bought right maintain,
and without a rival reign.

Show me what I have to do,
every hour my strength renew:
let me live a life of faith,
let me die thy people's death.

While I am a pilgrim here,
let thy love my spirit cheer;
as my Guide, my Guard, my Friend,
lead me to my journey's end!

Selah.