Living a life of Love

Yes love is again the topic of this post, every week God teaches me a little more about love. This week I was camping in Cypress hills with Joe's place and many of the devotional times were threaded with messages of love. The Lord laid on my heart what I explained last post about love being a sacrificial thing that we must be willing to give up things for others and for God. The story I was reminded of was Abraham and Isaac in Gen 22, where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son but then God provided a ram instead of the boy Isaac. Relating this story to the story of Jesus death and challenging everyone to be will to give up what they have and trust that God will provide.
The next devotion was lead by Curtis, he talked about the life after baptism and about loving others and not holding anything against those that we are called to love. Weather it be that they smoke that they drink or whatever love looks past those things and embraces the person behind all the pain.
Finally on the last devotion Cat lead us in a discussion of loving others even when they hate you. reading 1 John 4:7-21 which speaks of God's love for us and are need to love others as God loves us. One more side comment that Joe made was that "Loving someone when they hurt you or are threating you does not mean that you take no action against them to seek justice. But rather seek justice in a loving way." an example that he gave was if and when his family his threatened he doesn't turn a blind eye to the person but will call the police to come and deal with the person treating his family. But also will visit that person and stand with them when they are on trail. God is a God of justice and mercy the wrong things done toward us should be dealt with in a loving way. Meaning it is alright to have an enemy serve the consequence of their actions but don't do it out of revenge rather do it out of love.
This is what God has taught me about love and how to live and life of love.

The give and take of life = LOVE

So over the past week I have been struggling to understand love. Not the romantic dizzy, confusing and annoyingly I can think of no one but her love. But rather what is Love the act of loving people of loving myself and what is God's love. I have been blinded by the studies of "deeper" spiritual things from bible college. Until tonight as I returned from Joe's Place and started to ask God "How do I love" and "what does that look like." What was revealed to me was sacrifice; love is the act of sacrificing something for something that you care about more. God's example was Jesus dying on the cross suffering for us sinners, that is love. I was struggling with the thought of living for Jesus why do I do it. Well duh he gave his life to set me free from the bondages of sin should I not be living a life as if to repay what he has done? and then he keeps showing his love to us even when we screw up he will bless us with something that we needed but didn't know how to handle.
I then thought back to my hiking trip at the beginning of Kaleo. This is me nearing the peak of Mount Albert Edward. there was still a ways to go that was all up hill where we spent about 30min-to an hour on before descending back down the mountain to camp. This trip was a lot about life we spend so much time struggling to get up the mountain only to spend a little while at the summit then there is only one way to go and that is down. there is the easy way down or the hard way. God has provided the easy way by blazing the trail and creating a bridge back to where we desire to be. but so many see the hard way it looks like fun, it's a challenge that we think we can take on. But so many end up dead because they slip and have nothing to hold onto. falling until they reach the bottom or are blessed with a safe catch with only some scraps and broken bones. but a way back up and down the easier side of the mountain. Then sometimes God sends down people to help lift you up and heal your broken spirit. These people are giving of their time to help the lost and broken of this world. the ones that thought they could do it on their own. I am glade that God got my attention through my parents example and the many other people that surrounded me with their love.
Now I must learn to give of my time to help and lead those that are around me to the Lord and his example. I have been given all I need his word, his people and the most important a way to communicate and know that he is their with me.

Love, solitude and people.

This past week end has been different. I took time to myself and tried to spend it with God. I did spend most of it with him but it didn't go as planned which is ironic because i had no real plan other then to get out of Moose jaw for a couple hours and go some where I have never been that i knew no one. I wanted to be by myself. I wanted God to be revealed to me in a new way. Which he was but know I am finding it harder to follow him. I guess that is a good thing but my problem is that i loved being alone on a hike that only lasted a couple hours and came back to people. People means Drama I am know finding it really hard to love or even like a lot of people there are some that i can stand but for the most part I wish people didn't complain about their lives and their problems. What gets me is that I do the same thing, when there is silence i feel the need to fill it with words which usually is me complaining about something i cannot help any way. I really don't know why I am writing this because in truth I am just complaining more. Why must life be filled with drama?