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Lavishing Love on others


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#1 thirstydeer

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Posted 05 October 2010 - 11:46 PM

After listening to the free audio book this month on christianaudio I have been thinking a lot about love.

The first story in the book (by Gary Chapman) is about a person and their family/friends lavishing love
on a complete stranger. It is one of the most amazing and touching stories I have ever heard.

Also I have been thinking about the scripture in 1 John where it talks about how God has lavished his love on us by making us his own children. The other scripture that comes to mind is the one about the good Samaritan.
I looked the parable up and found this... really amazing stuff..

In the time of Jesus, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for its danger and difficulty, and was known as the "Way of Blood" because "of the blood which is often shed there by robbers."[4] Martin Luther King, Jr., in his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, on the day before his death, described the road as follows:

I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about twelve hundred miles, or rather, twelve hundred feet above sea level [actually about 2100 feet or 640 metres[5]]. And by the time you get down to Jericho fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about twenty-two feet below sea level [actually 846 feet[6] or 258 metres]. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking, and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?"
(source: http://en.wikipedia...._Good_Samaritan)


Do Christians really love lavishly? I mean the kind of love that IMPACTS not only the receiver but the world. The kind of love that is truly AMAZING.

I don't love like that. I really don't. And I don't feel like I get that love either.

Do you think the expectation is too high to think that every christian SHOULD be receiving this love and giving it?

We are all broken with sin yet this is the kind of love I know I want.

Thirsty deer.

#2 Guest_Marvin Harrell_*

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 07:26 AM

Do Christians really love lavishly? I mean the kind of love that IMPACTS not only the receiver but the world. The kind of love that is truly AMAZING.

I can only pray that God would transform me into that kind of lover. The kind that looks not to themselves but to the source of love, Jesus himself. I feel like the only way that love works is when it is sacrificial...Jesus himself showed us how on the cross.

I don't love like that. I really don't. And I don't feel like I get that love either.

neither do I. But I can't help but think that the desire to love like that is God's gift to us. And if I hold to that desire with the belief it is from Him and that he grants the desires of our hearts, I look forward to the transformation that only he will bring.

Do you think the expectation is too high to think that every christian SHOULD be receiving this love and giving it?
We are all broken with sin yet this is the kind of love I know I want.

One of my favorite quotes when I hear the word "should" is one from Brennan Manning. He saw it written on the wall of a nun's apartment. It said, "Today I promise not to should on myself." That said, I believe that the only thing stopping us from receiving this love is a misdirected perspective of what love is. And I think sin is what has misdirected our perspective. I've found that the moments I "love" best are the moments "i" am out of the equation, and the heart of Jesus beats in my chest. Considering with my will that I am dead and alive in Christ goes a long way to eventually having the feelings there.

#3 Julie Daube

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 01:06 PM

I don't think I love like that, either (in fact, I am quite sure that I don't). But I am blessed to know other believers who do, including my father and my stepmom. Despite being in their late 70s, they adopted a 10-year old girl (my stepmom's granddaughter) who was in an abusive situation and desperately needed a stable, loving home. When I reflect on how they have given their lives away to raise a child at a time in their lives when most people their age are resting from their labors, I am simply blown away. If this isn't lavish love, I don't know what it is. Then I think of the hundreds of Alliance international workers around the world who have given up comfortable, "safe" lives in North America to bring Christ's message of redemption to those who would otherwise die in their sins. That's lavish love. Then there are believers in many parts of the world who rejoice when they are persecuted for the sake of the gospel - they have a lavish love for their Savior that puts me to shame.

Yes, thirstydear, that kind of love is truly amazing!

#4 thirstydeer

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 01:54 PM

What I find hard is that we ARE broken. How can we give God's love when we desperately need it ourselves?

You can't give what you don't have or can you?

We aren't to love selfishly but can we deny how much some of us (if not all of us) need this kind of love too.

If you understand what i mean?! lol

I find my motive in trying to love is to be liked, loved and get love back.

#5 Julie Daube

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Posted 07 October 2010 - 08:26 AM

What I find hard is that we ARE broken. How can we give God's love when we desperately need it ourselves?

You can't give what you don't have or can you?

We aren't to love selfishly but can we deny how much some of us (if not all of us) need this kind of love too.

If you understand what i mean?! lol

I find my motive in trying to love is to be liked, loved and get love back.


I really admire your honesty, thirstydeer. And if I am honest with myself, I would have to confess that I've done the same thing (showing love in order to get love back), more often than I'd like to admit. There are certain people in my life that I just can't seem to please, and I am often tempted to lavish them with love just to get them to love me. It's during those times that I have to remind myself that ultimately, the only Person whose opinion matters is my Savior. Since He loves me, it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of me. But it is one thing to know that He loves me; it is another to feel that way.

The thing is, I don't think we can gage God's love for us by how "loved" we feel. God's love is a reality that we just have to trust, because it's revealed to us in Scripture. Recently, I read about three Alliance believers in Africa who were tortured by fire. They were tied up by an angry mob, and their feet were doused with kerosene and burned. These men face months of hospitalization and numerous skin grafts before they can walk again. I am sure they didn't "feel" God's love during that horrific ordeal; but that doesn't change the objective truth that God does in fact love them. They belong to Him, and nothing can ever separate them from His love. The same is true for all of us who were washed in His blood and call Him our Lord and Savior. We may not always sense His love through how we are feeling, but we can look at what His Word says and know that we are loved.

Sometimes when we are struggling in a particular area, it helps to meditate on what the Word says about the subject. I wonder if it might help you to write down various Scriptures about the love of God on index cards and keep them handy, so you can read them at those times when you really need assurace of His love. You might want to personalize them by inserting your name within the text. Maybe this will help you. In any case, I pray that the Lord will bless you with a fresh realization of His infinite love for you.

#6 thirstydeer

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Posted 07 October 2010 - 05:21 PM

I was just thinking last night bout how I need to declare the truth so thanks for that Julie :-)

I think when other people share their struggles it really helps. It doesn't feel like you're the only 'one'