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I
would speak a word with you this morning, but it is a word that I have
spoken for 2,000 years, and it is simply this: that you would love one
another, that you would care for one another, that above all that you
would seek to keep the unity of the bond of the Spirit in love, and that
all things would be done in love, that you would prefer one another in
love. This is my highest
joy; this is my aspiration; this is what everything that has been given to
you, has been given to you for- that you would grow and expound and lead
in love.
All
of the money, all of the ministry, all of the buildings, all of the
blessings has been given for this one purpose: that you would grow and
knit together in love, that you would seek reconciliation where it is
needed, that you would be concerned about your brother’s field, that you
would repair the broken fences, that you would seek to heal the breaches
and the wounds that have come upon the Body.
I am not so interested in numbers as I am in quality.
I am not so interested in great figures as I am in character and in
acts of love and kindness and mercy.
I have a word for the Church and that word is to love and to love
and to love and to love and to continue to love and to be grounded and
rooted and to grow – deep and high and wide in the love of God, in the
love of God, in the love of God! So,
reapply yourself to this principle of the Scriptures.
The center of the Bible is the love of God.
It is the keel of the ship; it is the rudder; it is the wheel; it
is the wind in the sails!
It is the love of God that must drive each and every one of you, not
the glory of ministry, not the promoting of gifts, not even the reaching
out of souls. You must, you
must, you must come again to that place in God where your motivations are
strictly to love – the love, the love, the love of God.
And if your well is dry and your soul is parched, then remember,
there is a refilling of this Divine love that can come.
I can make it to where you feel like a teenager again!
I can take out all of the weariness, and the hardness, and the
bitterness, and all of the things that have happened can all be washed
away in a flood of the love of God. And
I promise you, you can skip upon the hills of God and as a young calf
gambling through the fields.
I can put the joy – the sap of youth back in you.
I can put the thrill of the chase in your heart.
I can put the love of God so fervent in your bones that you will
sing when you awake in the morning. But,
the question is, do you want it? Do
you want it? Do you want it?
Are you willing to drop, not only your preconceived ideas, but also
your prejudices, your misconceptions, your bitterness’, your angers,
your desire for revenge upon your enemies?
Having been slighted, are you willing then to bless those who have
picked up the sword against you?
‘Tis
a difficult question, but I ask it of you. . . Will you walk as He walked
in blood stained shoes? Will
you forgive those who attacked you, unmercifully, without warning?
But yet, loving them in their sins, as He loved them – dying for
them when they did not deserve. This
is what I am calling you to – the love of God, the higher realm.
Mailroom:
Center of the Bible
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