Love Aflame

[telecine]

You've seen 'em, right? Bookmarks and tchotchkes bear the well worn bible quote "Love is patient, love is kind." What is love to you? Maternal, romantic, friendship? For a long time that's how I understood it. In reality it's only the tip of the iceberg.

Have you heard of agape love? It engulfs and rises above all others, strong as they may be. It is the kind of love that makes you completely forget about yourself and tune into others with no other agenda than sharing that love. It is truly a glimpse of the divine, because it does not originate from our mortal hearts. It is God shining through.

Agape is the kind of love that would cause God to sacrifice his precious son Jesus to pay for everything everyone has ever done wrong. Agape is the kind of love that would cause the Son to willingly sacrifice himself for those who are willing to accept such a gift. Following Christ is not about being perfect, it's about being truly sorry about what you've done, asking forgivness, and willingness to learn and change. It's not about how many "kind" things you do, it's about the attitude of your heart when you do "kind" things. If you want learn how to accept this gift of love click here

Rather than share a little quip about the love that is available to us, it's more honest to share the whole passage. It's not a little soundbite, but it's worth reading.

Be truly loved....

1 Corinthians 13 (New Living Translation)

Love Is the Greatest

¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^a]">[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^b]">[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^c]">[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.