Love
God’s love is unconditional and steadfast. It is perfect and eternal. It is personal. It is not based upon good works or performance. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more or less. He loves us even though we are unworthy. God's love is for everybody. He simply wants us to believe in His love!
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
Jeremiah 31:3
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38,39
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:10,11
What does it mean to love God?
We must completely abandon ourselves to Him and desire God’s will above our own happiness. We have to set aside our thoughts, desires, and emotions so that God’s love can fill our hearts. We simply must obey his commands. We are called to love God with all of our passion, with all of our soul, with all of our thoughts and reason, with all of our abundance, with all of our life! When we do this, the Holy Spirit will guide us in a Godly lifestyle.
In every situation we can choose to love. The Greatest Commandment is:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Matthew 22:37
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself
Matthew 22:39
Our ministry in Luhansk, Ukraine has really taught me how to love like God calls us to love. Here is what it has looked like:
This month we are working with Bruce MacDonald. Bruce puts on eye clinics at different churches throughout the area. It happens at a nearby Protestant Church and patients receive a free eye exam and free eye glasses. The reason behind this is to reach the older generation. While they wait for their exam we play music, have someone preach or share a testimony, pray for people and just talk! We prayed for one babushka (grandmother) that had cataracts and her eyes were healed! Read about this awesome testimony here. This ministry is amazing because it brings the older generation into the church. Remember that almost all of these people grew up in a communist nation and believe anything of the Protestant church was a cult.
We also got the chance to teach grade-school kids English and the value of it. Some of these kids have never seen Americans besides Bruce and his family who visit from time to time.
We got a chance to go to the orphanage and spend time with the kids. It is one of the largest in the area and has over 250 invalid children. It's hard to describe the emotion that occurs when you see them. Some of these kids have serious disabilities. The one in the last picture with Jill never leaves the bed. Even though it breaks my heart, I look at them through God's eyes. They are beautiful and are in need of love, someone to touch them or talk to them. It's life changing!
We have eight days left and none will be wasted. We still have more eye clinics, church, and an English camp all up until the last day. God has more in store and I'm choosing love in everything I do!
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13
FINANCIAL UPDATE: I leave for Tanzania in eight days and I will be there for a month. I doubt I will have much internet connection at all but I need $3,000 by July 1st to be FULLY FUNDED! I still have more than half way to go on the race and I'm trusting God to provide this money as He has multiple times before! You guys are incredible and I'm praying for you all! Make this happen so I can continue!
