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Category: Love

7 Ways You Can Make Relationships the Best Part of Life

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Relationships…talk about the ultimate challenge in life.
Learning to get along with another human being is just plain hard. It is an experience filled with heartache and pain and personal turmoil.
Your beliefs get tested and all your inner struggles and insecurities get revealed.
Yet, you power through because you know relationships are the best part of life.
You want to care and to be cared for. You want to know and to be known. You want to love and to be loved.
This just doesn’t happen. Relationships are built. They start with a good foundation and then with the right building materials grow and deepen over time.
Jesus is the foundation. He has equipped you with everything you need to build enduring and fulfilling relationships.
As you trust Him, you will see these seven relationship builders forming and shaping every relationship you have.

  1. Patience
  2. Kindness
  3. Truth
  4. Protection
  5. Trust
  6. Hope
  7. Perseverance

Relationships are the best part of life when they are built on the love of God.

The Best Lesson I've Learned About the Christian Life

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Christianity is filled with people who think they have it all together. They’ve figured it all out and can speak to every issue and problem. At least, that is what they think. I was one of those guys.
I couldn’t understand why other Christians didn’t have it together like me. All the dots were connected in my mind and everything about the Christian life made sense.
Mind you, I was in my early twenties at the time. I didn’t have a lot of experience to speak of, but I did know what was wrong with the church. At least that is what I thought. Here was my analysis: “The church needs to love more.” Brilliant, right?
I thought the church should be doing more to help people in need. Every chance I got, I railed about what I perceived to be the church’s lack of vision and effort to help the poor and underprivileged in our community.
One day it dawned on me that I should stop talking about the problem and get about the business of loving those in need. Boy was I in for a shock. I quickly found out that I knew very little if anything about love.
I volunteered to be a Big Brother. The coordinator paired me with Floyd. Floyd was 43 years of age with the mental capacity of a second grader. He lived in a group home and spent most of his days at the local community center along with many other mentally challenged citizens. I met Floyd for the first time at this community center.
At first glance, I could tell there was something special about him. I really wanted to make a difference in his life.
I asked Floyd what he wanted to do the next time we got together. Without hesitation, he blurted out, “Bob, I want to go to Six Flags.” I wasn’t expecting this response, but I thought it would be great fun for the two of us.
But something strange started happening in meas the day drew closer. I started to get concerned about what people might think of me? Would they laugh at me, or make fun of me? Would I ever live it down with my friends that I went to Six Flags with a 43 year old mentally challenged “Little Brother?”
I knew I couldn’t back out. The day meant too much to Floyd.
I am ashamed to admit this, but when I awoke that Saturday morning to the sound of rain, I felt a sense of relief. I called Floyd with the bad news, but I promised I would take him the following Saturday.
That next Saturday was beautiful. When I picked up Floyd, he had a big smile on his face. He was ready to experience the best day of his life.
The Log Jamboree was the first ride of the day. The line was long, about a 45 minute wait. Approaching our turn, we marched up several steps and then crossed over a short bridge. While standing on the bridge, we watched those ahead of us taking off for their “white-water” adventure. After a few minutes, we walked down steps on the other side of the bridge and loaded into our log.
The attendant released the lever and off we went, around the bend and under the bridge. Right as we got to the bridge, Floyd ripped off his shirt and raised his hands to the sky. His spontaneous show of emotion turned the heads of onlookers. I felt a thousand pairs of eyes staring right at us. I wanted to hide under the seat. As I looked back, people were pointing and laughing. Floyd was joyfully oblivious to the jeers and sneers. I, however, felt every one.
Lunch was more of the same. Floyd wanted a hamburger with French fries. We got our food and searched for a table. The only one available was right next to the park’s main walkway. Of course we were there on one of the most crowded days of the year. Floyd piled on the ketchup and mustard. He opened his mouth wide and then chomped down on that juicy burger. Ketchup and mustard flew everywhere to the amusement of onlookers. And with each bite Floyd took, a steady stream spewed down his chin and onto his shirt.
I lowered my head and waited for Floyd to finish. He ate every bite. What he did leave was prominently displayed on his shirt. He cleaned up with little help from me, and then off we went to conquer the rest of the park.
At four that afternoon, Floyd was spent. He had given his all and experienced fun beyond his wildest imagination. But he was ready to go home. I was ready to go home, too. Protecting my fragile self-image had taken its toll on me.
As we were walking toward the gate to leave, Floyd put his arm around me, pulled me close and said, “Bob, I love you!”
My chin started to quiver. I fought to hold back the tears. I knew he genuinely meant it, but his words crushed me.
This day was supposed to be about Floyd, but all I could think about was good old me. Floyd didn’t know what was going on inside my heart and mind. For him, the day was monumental. He told his friends at the group home that it was the best day of his life. And it should have been the best day of my life.
It turned out to be one of the most painful. The day exposed my insecurities and fears. Floyd’s words brought them into razor sharp focus. His words also let me know that I knew very little, if anything, about the love of God.
I wanted to love people the way Jesus did, but that day I failed miserably. It took several years to pinpoint the problem. Finally, it hit me like a ton of bricks: I couldn’t love like Jesus because I didn’t know how He loved me.
Maybe, you’ve had a similar experience. Maybe you know the frustration of trying to love someone with the love of God only to end up totally concerned with your own issues. If that is the case, I invite you to step back and take a fresh look at the definition of love. What the Bible tells us about the love of God is life-changing. That’s what we will examine in this book.
Let me say up front. God wants you to know and experience His love more than anything else in life. So much so, He moved Paul to pen this incredible prayer:

I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

This is my prayer for you. I pray you will adopt it as your personal prayer. I guarantee this is a prayer God will answer in ways that far exceed anything you could “ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
Excerpted from Love Is — http://loveisbook.net/

Three Rules for a New and Better Life

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Jesus said this; “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me…” (John 14:21).
This is very clear. Obeying Jesus’ commands is proof that we love Him.
But what commands?
Is Jesus referring to the Ten Commandments or the 613 other commands that are listed in the Mosaic Covenant? Or did He have different commands in mind?
The writer of Hebrews stated, “For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.” This verse will help us answer this last question.
The New Covenant is a changing of the guard. The Levites were the stewards of the Old Covenant. They had specific duties and responsibilities all anchored to the Law of Moses. Jesus’ death on the cross ended those duties. He was the once for all sacrifice for sin. He fulfilled the Old Covenant in its entirety.
Today, we live in the New Covenant. Jesus Christ is our high priest, appointed to be so by God the Father. With this change in the priesthood, there was a change of the law.
The new commands are these.

  1. Believe in Jesus Christ (I John 3:23)
  2. Hope in God’s promises (1 John 3:1-3)
  3. Love God and people. (John 13:33-34, Romans 5:5)

Faith, hope and love constitute the law of the New Covenant.
God writes these laws on our hearts and in our minds. This is the first promise of the New Covenant. God empowers us to live out faith, hope and love through His Spirit.
The laws of the Old Covenant were the responsibility of the people to Israel to keep. They didn’t have it in them to do so. Neither do we.
In this New Covenant, God gives us a new heart and His Spirit to mark our lives with the laws that are most important to God – faith, hope and love.

How to Walk in the Spirit

Posted on by Bob Christopher

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). To live in the Spirit is to be controlled by the love of God. This new life we have been raised to walk in is faith in Jesus Christ expressed in love to others.
Through His Spirit, God has poured His love into our hearts and has given us the desire to walk by faith in Jesus. As we do, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Learning to say “no” is the by-product of saying “yes” to the Spirit.
It is important to understand this distinction. So many well-intentioned believers spend a life time trying to overcome sin in their lives. They wake up each morning with this prayer on their lips: “Lord, please help me to not sin today.” At the end of the day, all they have is another unanswered prayer.
A better prayer is this: “Lord, teach me to abide in you and to follow the leading of God’s Spirit in my life.” God’s Spirit is never going to lead you into sin. He leads you to trust in the Lord, to live righteous and upright lives. He leads you to love and serve others. If living out the Spirit’s work in your life, you will automatically be saying “no” to sin. Peter put it this way:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4
Walking in the Spirit is trusting God to complete the work He began in you. You can count on Him to complete this task, even when you do not fully cooperate. This is His promise: “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…”
When we do get off course, and we will, the Holy Spirit merely recalculates our journey and continues His work in conforming us to the image of His Son. He does so without condemnation. Nor does He manipulate us with fear and guilt to get us back on track. He uses our mistakes, reminding us of the forgiveness we have in Christ, and works them together for our good. He comforts our hearts with this amazing promise: “that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
You are not alone on your journey. Jesus is there with you every step of the way. Trust Him, rely upon Him, and live out what He is working in your life. When you do you will be saying “no” to sin and “yes’ to the will of God.
The center of God’s will, that’s the place where believers are to live their lives. Temptation may look exciting; the world makes sure of that. But it has nothing on its menu that can satisfy the soul and bring contentment to the heart.
The world promises happiness, but delivers pain, sorrow and misery. There is only one person who does deliver on his promises, Jesus. And He gives so much more than mere happiness. Peace, contentment, a life of godliness and love: these are His gifts of grace to us.
And there is nothing more rewarding than experiencing Jesus living His life through you.
It is time for us abandon ourselves to Jesus, to put all that we are in His hands. It is time for us to live out Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Let’s walk by the Spirit and discover that His will is good, pleasing and perfect for us.

Relationship Destroyer #2 – The Braggart

Posted on by Bob Christopher

The word boast in Greek, which is only used in 1 Corinthians 13:4, comes from a word that means braggart. Braggarts brag or boast. It’s what they do. But not God, not love.
You probably know people who love to brag and boast. They talk about their accomplishments, and all the stuff they have, and who they know, as if they are special or superior to everyone else. They think more highly of themselves than they ought, as Paul would say. They make you feel “little” in their presence. How could you call that love? It’s not.
The Bible calls it worldliness. John the Apostle wrote, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For every¬thing in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father but from the world” (I John 2:15-16). Boasting does not come from God. Here is the reason.
Boasting is nothing more than a lie. Think about it. Those who boast and brag think they are superior to everyone else. Is that true? They may have more stuff and greater accomplishments, but does that make them better than anyone else. According to the Bible, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We all stand as equals at the foot of the cross.
Those who boast put others down. They humiliate those who, in their opinion, do not measure up. This was happening in Corinth. The rich in Corinth looked at their wealth as a sign of God’s approval. They despised the poor and would not associate with them, even at the Lord’s Supper. Paul confronted this evil head on. “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
Those who boast are self-centered to the max. They seem to live to put others down. The dignity of others is of no concern to these braggarts. Paul warns that this self-centered bragging will be one of the causes of trouble during the last days. His words are alarming: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them” (2 Timothy 3:2-5).
Aren’t you glad that God is not like this, that He does not brag or boast? He could. He has much to boast about. He spoke, and the world came into existence. He conquered death. Who are we in comparison? Yet, He is mindful of us. I love what the writer of Hebrews had to say about Jesus: He is not ashamed to call us brothers. Jesus became one of us, was tempted like we are and tasted death so that we could become like Him. That’s love, a love that does not brag or boast, but reaches out.
Yes, we are humbled in His presence, but we are never humiliated. We may feel that He is miles away, yet in grace He draws us near. In love, He calls us, who were sinners by birth, His own. This is God, the One who “…chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord'” (1 Corinthians 1:28-31).
Excerpted from Love Is — http://loveisbook.net/