Hello Saints,
Today is National Love is Kind Day. I think we can all agree that our world desperately needs all kinds of love. We live in a time of uncertainty with regards to COVID-19, the Cold Civil War that has been brewing for decades, and the turbulence with the upcoming election. When you turn on the news or view social media feeds, we sure don’t see a whole lot of love being expressed. What we see among us is division, hatred, and evil on many fronts. Sure, there are some acts of kindness always going on. Still, as kingdom people, there has never been a time when we as kingdom community need to be sending love, spreading love, sharing love, and demonstrating the full expression of love in every aspect of our lives. This expression needs to be practiced in all our affairs, including at home, work, church, community, and social media.
In his famous text 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gives us one of the most beautiful and best definitions of love ever written; please give it a study and allow the words to penetrate your soul:
1 Corinthians 13
The Message Bible
The Way of Love
13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Trust, hope, and love, all three are fantastic, but the best of these is love.[1]
Friends, we have all heard the phrase “God is Love,” Amen? Since Jesus is the full expression of God with skin on and has fully demonstrated what it means to love the disenfranchised, homeless, prostitutes, addicts, alcoholics, hustlers, womanizers, and sinners like ourselves, we are called to do the same. We are called to live out the kingdom life by surrendering to the double commandment, Love God, and Love Your Neighbor. If we confess with our lips that we love God but we don’t love those we disagree with or who live contrary to our beliefs and values, then we are simply lying to ourselves and we are in denial. I know these words are tough to hear, but it is the truth. There is a famous spiritual axiom, that when we are disturbed, for any reason, then the problem centers inside us.[2]
I encourage you to reflect on those people in your circles that need to feel some love from you starting today. Start with God, then yourself, next your family, co-workers, neighbors, and then strangers. If you truly want to be bold, then demonstrate the full expression of “love is kind” by doing something kind for somebody today and don’t get caught. If you get caught it doesn’t count.
“The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.” ~ Hada Bejar
Never forget these words from Jesus himself.
John 15:13-15
The Message Bible
11-15 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
Wow, what powerful words from Jesus! Every day should be “National Love is Kind Day.” My hope is that you take the words of Jesus seriously. Please stop your gossiping, stop your judging, stop the divisiveness, and stop the evil. Learn to love, love, and love some more in everything you do. You will feel the Lord smiling upon you, and you will experience the best day, the best month, the best year, and the best life possible. These are the true results of living the kingdom life.
“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see.” ~ Mark Twain
Lastly, today at some point, I want you to try practicing the “love meditation.” There are a variety of ways to do this, but here is what I recommend, and the way I was taught by my friend Scott Lee. Simply get into a comfortable and relaxed position, whatever that looks like for you, and get quiet. Listen to the air fill your lungs and then being exhaled. As you breathe in the air, I want you to think about a specific person or persons in your life that needs love. Then as you exhale, imagine a large heavenly conduit coming out of your mouth, and release the air from your lungs. Visualize the air being released from your lungs as your love being sent out to the person or persons you were focused on. You can do this many times as necessary to complete the list of people you need to send love. This list should also include your enemies and people you don’t feel a whole lot of love for right now. You will be blown away by what happens to you and to them by practicing this power love meditation exercise. It is amazing, and it works, it really does.
Each night before I go to sleep and engage my nightly review, which is made up of ten questions, and I ask myself “who do I need to send love to today?” So, every night I am asking myself this important question and then I send love out to those people, it’s a wonderful way to prepare to go to sleep. Friends, Satan himself has no defense against love, and neither do your enemies. Nobody can prevent you from sending love to them, even if they told you to “NEVER” contact them again. Let me encourage you to give the love meditation a try and add it to your spiritual toolkit, you’ll be glad you did.
Shalom,
Pastor Harold Long
[1] 1 Corinthians 13:13, The Message Bible.
[2] Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions by Bill Wilson, P.90, Alcoholics Anonymous.
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