I printed this off and am using it as a dry erase board for me and the hubs. It sits in our bathroom Too many days pass without us thinking to speak lovingly to each other. Just to walk into the bathroom and see something the other one wrote feels wonderful. I love you today because.....It could be something that I did not know he even recognized, but he shows me he did! Love has to be spoken, intentional, with effort.
  Me and the kids are studying the fruits of the spirit. We have learned that love perceived by the world is strictly based on emotion, or what we feel. I'm sorry, but there are times when I don't feel like loving. God's love is not based on a gushy feeling, it is a choice. He chose to love us as we are. We too have to chose to love others.  We are choosing to love, even when we may be unlovable. It is these simple acts of being intentional with our words and actions to each other.

1 Corinthians 13 (The Message version)

The Way of Love

 ¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If 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. ^3-7If 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'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.
 ^8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

We are called to be Radical...

I just read a blog entry by a sweet lady. She is reading "Radical" by David Platt. We read this with our small group but I may have to reread it. God is using David's book as a huge conviction and blessing in the lives of Christians all over. It is good to have our toes stepped on. That is the only way to see where change is needed.
     Personally, my family and I are no longer content to sit comfortable and keep the wonderful message of the Gospel to ourselves. Fire insurance is not enough! He has blessed us to bless and share with others, not to sit on and enjoy ourselves. We as Christians will do more harm than good when we live for ourselves. It is my prayer that more and more Christians rise up and step out of the normal flow of this world, pick up our crosses and follow Christ. We have to not only read the Word, but know and apply it to our lives. Forget the "American dream" of self-indulgence. Start living the sacrificial lives we are called to live in Christ. We can and should indulge in Him alone.

“The price is certainly high for people who don’t know Christ and who live in a world where Christians shrink back from self-denying faith and settle into self-indulging faith. While Christians choose to spend their lives fulfilling the American dream instead of giving their lives to proclaiming the kingdom of God, literally billions in need of the Gospel remain in the dark” 


~David Platt~

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

~Philippians 2:5 The message version


These things are all a part of the Christian life to which you have been called. Christ suffered for us. This shows us we are to follow in His steps.

~1 Peter 2:21 NLV

This is the kind of life you've been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.  He never did one thing wrong,
Not once said anything amiss.
They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.

~ 1 Peter 2:21 Message Version

For the Son of Man came not to be cared for. He came to care for others. He came to give His life so that many could be bought by His blood and made free from the punishment of sin.”

~ Matthew 20:28 NLV

When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage."

~ Matthew 20:28 The Message