Who is Your First Love?

Revelation 2:4 "Nevertheless I have a complaint, you have left your first love" 

How much do you love your smart phone?  Probably not as much as the California man who married his phone in a Las Vegas wedding chapel last summer.  Ok, so the ceremony in Vegas may have been ridiculous, but this man made his point about how people are connected to their phones.  As crazy as it sounds to wed your phone, there's no denying the degree to which smart phones have infiltrated our daily lives.  Studies show that Americans check their phones every six and a half minutes during waking hours or one hundred fifty times a day. 

After a busy day at work or caring for children, couples desperately need meaningful conversation to help them reconnect, but for many the habit of conversation falls by the wayside, from long intimate talks focused on getting to know each other to short exchanges focused on administrating their lives, budget, to do lists, working through conflict and putting out the latest fire. 

After speaking of all the church of Ephesus had accomplished, and all they had labored to do, the Lord says in Revelation 2:4, "Oh, there's one important thing, I want you to return to your first love".  You first love is God's over the top love for you.  Here's the question, are you spending more time on the work of the Lord, or on the Lord of the work?  God loves you, that’s what brought you to Him!  His love for you!  Make that your focus today.  Take some time and think about just how madly in love Jesus is with you! 

*Excerpts taken from Focus on the Family

Group Hug by Natalie Fortunato

1 John 4:19 - "We love because He first loved us." 

I loved when my kids would say the words, "Mommy sandwich!"...then my daughter gets in front of me and my son gets in back of me and they squeeze me real hard until I cry out for relief!  Even our dog, Benny, gets all excited when we do this!  I feel so loved by them.  You've been there too, right?!  When someone says, "group hug!!", then everyone throws their arms around each other in a huddle.  It feels so good to be loved.  

Years ago, I was spending time with God and thinking about how great it is to "receive" God's love.  I sensed His love so strongly, and I just started saying, "I'm receiv'n Your love, I'm receiv'n it, thank you Father".  Then I imagined Jesus joining us with His arms around me too, then I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Group hug!", and felt His arms around me too, all three just loving me, with smiles on their faces and making that "mmmm" noise when you grip someone tight in a hug!  I know it sounds crazy but, talk about feeling loved, God's love feels SO good and it's so real.  

I can truly understand why God wants us to receive His love...it's the only way we will be able to give it away!

Who is the Holy Spirit? by Natalie Fortunato

John 14:16-17  "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you."

Many want to understand the gifts, fruit, voice, power and workings of the Holy Spirit without first coming to know Him as a Person.  Yes, a Person, not a human, but a divine Person, the third Person of the Godhead.  He is not an "it", or a mystical power that flows from God, He is God.  

I encourage you to take a minute and think about what place you give Him in your personal day to day life.  Ask yourself, "Do I honor and reverence Him as a Person?  Am I aware that He knows me best, and loves me most.  Or that He has made His home in my heart and wants to be actively involved in my life?  Do I long to spend time with Him, getting to know Him through the Word, and developing an intimate relationship with Him?"  

If you can honestly say that you have pretty much ignored Him, or give Him little room in your life, let me re-introduce you to the most amazing, wonderful, kind, tender, sensitive, mighty Person on the face of the earth. He is all-knowing and all-powerful.  He is a lifelong and permanent companion who is willing and able to teach, help, protect, counsel and guide you.  He is infinite in majesty, glory, splendor, wisdom, knowledge, and holiness.  He is God. 

Honk Lessons From Geese - Part III

Ecclesiastes 4:10 "For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" 

Geese care for one another!  I still remember where I was and how I felt, when I received very timely and caring messages from two friends.  It was one of the toughest times in my whole life, just after my first wife passed.  After the funeral I spent a week in Florida with my Pastor and his family.  When I arrived home, the message light was flashing on my answering machine.  I pressed the button, I and there were two messages from young pastor friends of mine, who shared their love and concern for me.  I still remember their words, almost twenty years later.  It truly made an impact on me. 

When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again.  Then they launch out into formation with another flock or catch up with their flock.  If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as the good times!  Here's a great bumper sticker, "Honk if you love Jesus and people".

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

Ephesians 3:19 - "And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." 

I read a magnificent story from Joseph Prince's book The Power of Right Believing. He tells of a minister from Oregon who was assigned to provide counseling to patients in a state mental illness facility.  When he arrived for duty, he was sent to a padded cell with a large group of deranged, barely clothed people.  The stench of human excrement filled the room.  When he tried to talk with the patients, they responded with groans, moans and demonic-like laughter.  

Then the Holy Spirit prompted him to sit in the middle of the room and sing the familiar children's song, Jesus Loves Me.  For a full hour, he sang, "Jesus loves me, this I know.  For the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to him belong.  They are weak but He is strong.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  For the Bible tells me so". 

Nothing happened the first day, but he persisted.  For weeks he would sit and sing the same melody, but with greater conviction each time.  "Yes, Jesus loves me!  Yes, Jesus loves me!  Yes, Jesus loves me!  For the Bible tells me so!"  Soon the patients began singing with him, one by one.  By the first month, 36 of the severely ill patients were transferred from the high-dependency ward to a self-care ward.  Within a year, all but two were discharged from the facility.   

No matter what challenges, failures and misdeeds you or I might face, the love of Jesus remains constant.  "Jesus loves me, this I know".  My question to you is, do you know that Jesus loves you?  Do you know how much He loves you?  How can we know?  The Bible tells us so.  So simple, yet so powerful. 

I challenge you, as often as you look in the mirror, say to yourself, "Jesus loves me, this I know.  For the Bible tells me so".  And enjoy the forgiveness, freedom, healing and restoration that comes from truly knowing the love of Christ that passes all knowledge!