Love God--Love People!
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Dear people,
We desire greatly to obey our Lord's commands to love Him and to love you. Please pray for us, because we need help. We often fall short of God's love, but believe us when we say, "We want to love Him and to love you."
If at any time we have failed to love you, please do not respond by not loving us. Forgive us...talk to us...rebuke us... and please pray for us, because we really need help from God.
Forbearance! Ephesians 4:2--"..bearing with one another in love". When we fail at loving you please bear with us. We want to love you, but sometimes in this flesh it is a struggle. You also are in the midst of this struggle as all followers of Christ are, so please be understanding and bear with us in love.
If, for some reason, some people refuse to love us when we are unloving, God's command to us is still the same--forbear in love. So when we mess up and you do not love us in the midst of our faults, we desire to love you when you are unloving and to forbear you when you lack forbearance. Pray for us about that...Because we need help from God!
If, we haven't loved you...and, in response, you didn't love us...and then, in response, we didn't love you...Let us both remember the love of our Lord toward us all--- Who stretched out His hand all day long to a rebellious people (a people who provoked Him to His face continually-Is 65:1-3), Who "while we were still sinners...died for us" (Rom 5:8), Who "laid down His life for us"! And if we dwell on the great love with which Jesus loved us, maybe, by God's help, we can stop this pattern of failed attempts to love each other. Pray for us all about that.
Here's where it gets tricky---Ephesians 4:15 says, "speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ". Speak truth (God's word is truth--Jn17:17) in love! So... Speak truth AND love each other. Teach each other using God's word (Col 3:16, 2 Tim 3:16-17, Heb 10:24-25) AND love each other ("Let all that you do be done with love." -1 Cor 16:14). We are asking God to help us grow in "SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE". Sometimes we are like awkward teen-agers trying to talk to a girl, we say dumb things that don't come across the way we mean. So have mercy on us. Sometimes we speak the truth but our hearts are not loving the person we are speaking to (1 cor 13:2 says this profits nothing). Sometimes we don't speak the truth and claim 'I just want to love them' (which in reality is not love at all, because if we loved you we would want to speak that which builds you up-Eph 4:15, Prov 27:5,6). So please pray that we would have a heart to speak the truth to you, to exhort you, AND to love you. Also, please speak the truth to us. And please love us. We want to be taught by you, corrected by you, and rebuked by you. And when you speak the truth to us we will know that you are doing it because you love us. And even if you are not loving us when you speak the truth to us, we will try to forbear you in love. Because we understand that this struggle is common to all believers. Pray for us all in this.
If you know us really well and we spend a lot of time with you, then know that in the future we are going to fail and you are going to fail and we are both going to get chances to practice the forbearance and love of Jesus on each other. Praise God! He will use these times in our lives to "conform us into the image of His Son". Biggest mistake we could make during that time would be to end fellowship with each other because of bitterness ("lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled"--Heb 12:14-15).
If you know us a little and we spend a little time together, give us more than one chance to love you. Remember: God said, "I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people". So please live out that love toward us. If we do something or believe something or say something that you don't like or disagree with, "put on love, which is the bond of perfection". We understand that we could be wrong in what we do, believe, or say, but know that we are trying our best to do, believe, and say according to God's word. Come and ask us if you have any questions about the things we do, believe, and say, or if you want to correct us..we welcome and need correction ("let the righteous strike me, it shall be a kindness. Let him rebuke me, it shall be as excellent oil"). You may help us in understanding God's word, we may help you in understanding God's word, or we may just disagree. But no matter what the outcome lets seek to "put on love, which is the bond of perfection".
If you don't know us at all. Don't believe everything you hear. We have many faults, but I hope this blog post has helped you a little to see our heart.
We love ya'll!
