December 29, 2020 – “I Hold You In My Heart!”

    I will hold you in my heart until I can hold you in Heaven.  This locket received this Christmas brought tears to my eyes at the love that it holds in just fourteen words. The first thing I thought about was the growing heart-felt love that this means.

When did Love begin? What is Love? How do we know when we love? Why is Love important?

Love began In the beginning when God created the Heavens and the earth and then created the first man and woman in the Garden of Eden. The beautiful and perfect Garden of Eden became marred with sin, when the Serpent suggested that power like Father God’s could be theirs if they ate of the fruit from the tree of good and evil, they were not to touch. Instead of power, God cast them out of the Garden of Eden.

Did the first man and woman love each other? Did they blame each other for losing their home in the Garden of Eden?

When was Love known in the Bible? Genesis 22:2, God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and to land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Abraham’s  hand was stopped by the voice of God at the last moment, and Isaac was spared. God then knew the depth of Abraham’s faith.  God did not spare His only Son, Jesus, from death on the cross. Jesus, sent by God, is to be a sacrifice so our sins are forgiven. This brought hope. In the chapter of I Corinthians 13:13—tells how important Faith and Love are.  “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.”

How long does God’s Love last? How long can we depend on God’s love being steadfast?  “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extoll Him, all peoples! For great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Love!” Psalm 117:1-2.

Have you ever wondered, does God hold us in His Heart until He can hold us in Heaven? Many years ago, He taught His people, the Israelites, the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:2-3. The first commandment is to honor our Father God.

Then Jesus came.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him”. John 3:16-17.  God’s love endured many generations from Adam and Eve, and then He sent Jesus.

This truly is enduring Love. The kind spoken about in I Corinthians 13:4-8. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong-doing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

When we place our name before each phrase, we can know what God sees in our hearts.

What do these commandments from Jesus mean?  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-38.

First of all, these are commandments, and are to be obeyed. What kind of spirit of Love will obedience create? There is a transforming spirit of the Love God desires to dwell in our hearts. Anger, evil, lies, envy, strife, and divisions, and other ways contrary to God’s desire of love for us disappear. Our Hope in our Lord God dims.

The Holy Spirit gives us the fruit of the Spirit., qualities of how to love others, to honor God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23.

Who is the Good News of Jesus Christ for? Every nation, and every tribe, and every race. All were created in the beginning. His chosen people are those who obey and love His One and only Son.

     And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.

         By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. I John 3:16-18.

         “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:12-14.

         Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8-10.