I used to love listening to ‘Just three words’ on Radio 2 drive time. Listeners texted snippets of their news into the radio station in just three words. eg:
School Play Tonight
Broken finger ouch!
Yummy Birthday Cake
Peppermint tea please
Brand new puppy
Homework’s all done
Although the above three words are about relatively minor life events, it got me thinking about the power of words. Just three words:
God is love
If you ever land in Dublin airport, you’ll see those words on a steeple as you walk out of the terminal. The Bible declared it first in 1 John 4:8: ‘God is love.’ The essence of God is love. At the heart of God there’s love- true love.
God loves you
I read this on a handmade wooden sign hung on a tree between Ballywalter & Ballyhalbert last week. And it’s true. We may feel unlovely or unloveable but we are never unloved. We are loved by the One who knows us best- our Creator God.
‘Knowing God is love is not the same as knowing God loves you’ (Ann Voskamp)
‘You are loved. Rest in your God-breathed worth’(Sarah Bessey)
God so loved
‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’
(John 3:16 ESV)
God so loved that He gave. He gave His One & Only Son.
Love came down
God,
whose very essence is love,
sent His Love down to our little planet &
wrapped Love in flesh & swaddling clothes.
Love walked earth’s dusty, well-trod paths.
Love grew and gave.
Love brought hope to the hurting,
total healing to the sick,
sunsets and rainbows to the blind,
walking & leaping to the lame.
Love gave,
and kept on giving
to a world dying to know true Heaven-sent Love.
When Love’s God-appointed Day arrived,
Love gave Himself for us-
Love nailed to a cross,
yet held there by Love-
that we, the unlovely,
would know that we are truly, deeply loved by God.
But,
even brutal crucifixion could not kill Love,
for, Love rose with the sunrise in the garden,
and returned to heaven in a cloud.
Now Love dwells in the hearts of those who believe in faith
God’s love speaks
God tells of His love in His Word- the Bible.
He has given us everything we need for life & godliness- His great & precious promises. (2 Peter 1:3&4)
‘Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.’
(2 Timothy 3:17 MSG)
Grounded in love
We can be secure in God’s love ‘rooted and grounded in love’ (Eph 3:17) & begin to grasp its vast dimensions.
Love makes everything grow! (Including us!)
Impacted by love
‘If we were all to live as how we are loved – everything would change’
(Sarah Bessey)
Love one another
‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.’
(John 13:34 ESV)
‘Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out’
(Hebrews 10:24MSG)
‘Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.’
(1 Peter 4:8 NLT)
I Corinthians 13:4 reminds us:
Love is patient
Love is kind
True love is more than words, for:
Love’s a verb
‘Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.’
(1 John 3:18 NIV)
I’ve been listening to audiobooks by Bob Goff. The titles speak volumes Love Does & Everybody, Always about becoming love.
Love lives here
This is the title of Bob’s wife Maria’s book, about love at home.She wrote:
‘We all don’t need to do big things, but we can do equally important things.’
Love builds up
(1 Cor 8:1)
Love never fails
(1 Cor 13:8)
Love never ends
I watched the new purple gliders ‘glide’ through Ballyhackamore as I took my morning caffeine.
Just up the road at Stormont Presbyterian they’d created an acronym on their purple billboard:
God’s Love Is Deep Everlasting Redeeming
There’s great truth & forgiveness in the redeeming, never-ending, eternal love of God.
‘So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’
(1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV)
Always remember- no matter what else you’re thinking on this journey called life:
You are loved
Blessings,
Ruthx
Blessed! 