Main Menu
- Home Your Menu †
- Devotionals Awesome Stuff
- Community Chat / Discussion
- TDDM Tour Coming to you?
- Salvation Enhance your life
-
Multimedia Broadcasting
- TDDM Radio Show Coming very soon.
-
TDDM Minute Coming very soon.
-
January
-
February
-
March
-
April
-
May
-
June
-
July
-
August
-
September
-
October
-
November
-
December
-
Archived Minutes
-
- TDDM Gear Rock the gear
- About TDDM Who we are
Comments
-1corinthians 13
Now, I'll approach the first subject. The meaning of the word "love" in several places in the bible is "fire." It is mainly a translation from Greek (I think that's it) so that's why it's not all of the words.
Now, that means that "Love God" mean "fire for God," or something like that. Now, this doesn't mean that the fire is a bad thing. It means that we need to have our hearts "on fire" for God. We need to have a passion for him--and love him.
Another thing about this fire is that fire makes people uncomfortable--am I right? But when we have the fire in our hearts, we will want to spread it to others! They'll be uncomfortable and we'll have to leave our comfort zones, but we HAVE TO SPREAD THAT FIRE!!
Another things is that "love" is actually NOT an emotion as we think of it as. That isn't what it means when the bible says "God's love." Love is an action--a willingness. The verse John 15:13 is "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."
It is not a feeling you have for someone--not exactly. That feeling does give you this "willingness to action" though.
God's love was showed through action--when Jesus gave his life so that we may continue to live. I want you to think about this--because I know that, if you're like me, you've heard this story of Jesus on the cross a million times. But it doesn't make your heart break, does it? You're too used to it.
Think about this--what if you were walking across the road and the next thing you know an 18 wheeler comes racing toward you. You can't avoid it. You are going to die...
Then, suddenly, a stranger leaped out of nowhere, pushes you out of the way, and dies where you should have that day. Her dies, yet you leave without a scratch.
That's what love is.
Love = Fire
Now, everyone knows that we are supposed to love God. All of us Christians have heard, “Love the Lord your God!” before, haven’t we? We hear it so often that it doesn’t mean anything to us anymore. But how do you “Love God?” Definitely not by saying, “I love God.” Nope, words don’t mean much of anything. It’s action that matters. I know, you must be thinking “but love is an emotion…”
First of all, what does the word “love” mean? Some of you may be saying, “Oh, it’s an emotion you have for someone or something you like” or “A special feeling for a person such as a husband, wife, friend, or family member.” Well, that’s not the same.
In some translations of the word “love” in the bible, the word actually means “fire.” Loving God is having a “fire” in your heart. That’s what it means. A fire of passion for him—of excitement, awe, and thankfulness.
Now, what does a fire do? It spreads! Fire wants to spread! So it’s your job, when having a fire in your heart for God, to spread that fire to other peoples’ hearts! Now, this isn’t easy. Because fire has another attribute too: it makes people very uncomfortable.
You and I both would be nervous near a fire, right? It’s the same thing for people who look at you—they should be uncomfortable! Why? Because kindness, love, compassion, forgiveness, and selflessness are not qualities a human has the ability to have. And when they see you with such qualities, they don’t feel right being near you.
How do you have these qualities anyway since you are human? Because Jesus has come to live in your heart—and he is GOD! Eventually, that fire in your heart will produce these traits.
Now, back to others who sees you. When I say “they don’t feel right being around you,” I don’t mean that they will cower and cry because they don’t feel worthy. Nope, not at all. In fact, these people may feel envy, anger, or even absolute hatred toward you. YOU WILL BE PERSECUTED.
However, that doesn’t mean that you give up! God promises great things for the persecuted. Just one of these promises is in the Beatitudes (Mathew 5:112):
“‘10Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“‘11Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
“‘12Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’”
Verses 10-12
Listen, if we “Love God” we have a fire in our hearts and a need to spread that fire. Now, I’m not trying to say that you have to go stand at a street corner and scream “Come to Christ or go to Hell!” In fact, don’t do that. That pushes people away from God. Instead, when you have that fire you will get several qualities in your life: Kindness, love (the emotion), compassion for others, forgiveness, and absolute selflessness! And these are just a few! Not to mention you will gain all the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control!
Yes, you’re going to be different. You will stand out and YOUR WILL BE PERSECUTED. But remember, God is more important than all of those things. Don’t put any idols—this could be a person, a thing, yourself… anything that you place above God. Just remember what he did for you, and do all you can to fulfill his kingdom!
RSS feed for comments to this post.