Love Is All You Need

 

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13. It tells us that love is not just a word -- it's a verb! Love is more than just a feeling -- it's a way of life. 

     I really, really like the way For King and Country quotes it in their song "Proof of Your Love": 

     

     If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 

     If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 

     If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. 

     So no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, 

I am bankrupt without love.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, but whatever we do, we must to it heartily, as to the Lord. We MUST have love, no matter what. If we don't have love, it doesn't do us any good! No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I am bankrupt without love. Love completes us. Love is all we need. Love heals, love encourages, love binds up, love rejoices in the truth. But most importantly, Love DIED for us. LOVE is what saves us from who we once were. LOVE is all that matters. LOVE is everything.

I Believe In Mount Calvary

If a thought comes to mind all of a sudden, it's best if I write it down right away, because I really will lose the idea if I'm not careful. So, here I am, sitting at the piano, singing songs to myself, and the words just got to me.
Do you ever catch yourself singing a song at worship and because you know every single word, every single note by heart, you just sing it nonchalantly? Are you JUST singing the words, or are you REALLY thinking about the words you're saying and the thoughts you're proclaiming? I find myself JUST singing sometimes, and since I can read music, that makes it worse, because I get too caught up in trying to get every note and measure perfect. But then I realize the words I'm singing aloud. Do I TRULY believe in what I'm vocalizing? Am I taking the words to heart or am I simply making sound with my vocal chords? Basically that's what I'm doing if I don't wholeheartedly understand and mean when I sing to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. If I don't mean what I'm saying, then to Him I am just a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal!
So as I sat here in the living room humming a song, I got to thinking about the lyrics:

I BELIEVE IN A HILL CALLED MOUNT CALV'RY,
I'LL BELIEVE WHATEVER THE COST;
AND WHEN TIME HAS SURRENDERED AND EARTH IS NO MORE,
I'LL STILL CLING TO THAT OLD RUGGED CROSS.

Although the tune to this song is really pretty, if you you really stop to listen, the whole thought is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! These are words of PROMISES, DEVOTION, COMMITMENT, and LOYALTY! How many of us TRULY mean it when we sing, "I'll believe WHATEVER THE COST"? I hope we all would, but sadly that's not necessarily the case. How many of us, if the day came when being a Christian meant you were to be put to death, would keep proclaiming His word, continue singing His praise, and if it came down to it, GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR CHRIST?
This is important. If I truly BELIEVED in something, I shouldn't be weak enough to back down because I am afraid. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" REALLY! And besides, by someone killing us for being a follower of Christ, God is GAINING a saint in heaven! There really is no loss at all.
So my point is this: When we sing a song to the God and Creator of it all, we should MEAN what we are saying. And secondly, we should most definitely, as soldiers of Christ, be SO devoted, fully committed to Him, that we are able to still believe -- "whatever the cost; and when time has surrendered and earth is no more, [we'll] still cling to that old rugged cross."
Have a blessed day, y'all!

2 Peter 1:5-11

"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 

(2 Peter 1:5-11)

Be always diligent to do what you were called to do, to obey God and study the Word, and you will never, ever stumble! How assuring is that? If we do those things, we won't fail, but we will be rewarded abundantly the everlasting kingdom of our Lord -- Heaven! That makes life SO worth the living!!

Have a blessed night!