Love.

This past weekend was spent in community with 12 others in a cabin in Pinetop, Arizona. It was absolutely beautiful weather and absolutely beautiful communion. With the current condition of my knee (almost 3 weeks out of surgery for my ACL and meniscus repair), I had a lot of time to sit and view the others as they interacted with one another. If only the love I saw coming from each of them for each other could multiply exponentially to the entire world! I saw people sitting and discussing important issues with one another - not only giving their own opinions, but also actively listening to the other person's thoughts/concerns. We not only grew in knowledge of one another but we formed bonds of trust and love.

Yesterday morning was the final "bible study" which was an extension of the theme started at the bible study Saturday morning. "Love".

Twelve of us sat around picnic tables outside of the cabin - one in the Spirit - and read scripture. The first scripture brought up was 1 John 4:7-12.


"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he so loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

Also stated was Romans 5:6-8.


"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."


Love is one of the greatest gifts we have been given and as such, we as Christians should be walking pictures of what Christ's love is. Through our discipleship with Christ and our serving of our Brothers and Sisters (not meaning only other Christians...meaning....EVERYONE) we can truly learn to love. Perfect love is not attainable in our current states - I do believe however that it is something we can each work towards and will be achieved in our eternal life through Christ.

To end our bible study yesterday, the teacher had prepared us for taking communion together that we may truly remember the love Christ had for us. Many times we as Christians seem to go about our daily lives and will forget - Christ gave us a way to remember his sacrifice and love for us. The 12 of us (yes just like the 12 disciples) tore off bread and drank from the same glass in remembrance of Christ. If I can take but one ounce of the love and oneness in the Spirit that was felt in those moments out into the world, I believe so many lives could be changed. I pray that God helps me to pass it along to others without judgement, without fear and that somehow even just one person's life could be changed as a result.

In ending - here are lyrics for the day:

THE FACE OF LOVE

by Sanctus Real

I’ve seen your face on stained glass, in colored lights

In pictures of you looking to the sky

You’ve been portrayed a thousand different ways

But my heart can see you better than my eyes

‘Cause it’s love that points the portrait of your life

The face of love

The face of love

You look more like love everyday

I’ve read your words in the pages of your life

And I’ve imagined what you were like

I may not know the shape of your face

But I can feel your heart changing mine

And your love still proves that you’re alive

The face of love

The face of love

You look more like love everyday

You are the face that changed the whole world

No one too lost for your love

No one too low for you to serve

So give us the grace to change the world

No one too lost for me to love

No one too low for me to serve

Let us see....

Let us be your face