Love #2

"Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, "that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. "Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you--' a land flowing with milk and honey.' "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 6:1-5, www.solascriptura.com

Father, for clarity of Your commandments, we are grateful. You literally carved them in stone and they are as right today as they were then. We see here that fearing You is followed by the command to love You. You are an awesome God, more powerful, more present and more omniscient that we can easily understand.

A proper response, when we enter into that moment in time in which our souls are judged, will be fear, especially if we only have a casual awareness of who You truly are. But we know it will go well for us when Jesus and His angels separate the sheep from the goats, the saints from the sinners, as long as we have loved You with all of our heart, soul and strength and loved our neighbors as ourselves.

Maybe that is why fear is necessarily our initial response. Father, our love for You is too imperfect, our witness is too weak and our fidelity too uneven for us not to have fear. We hear the words of Jesus; fear not, for I will be with you. Father, absent the power of the Holy Spirit we are in big trouble. We will not overcome fear by good works. It is only by faith that we are saved and we pray that our faith gives rise to obedience and good works, works that bring glory to You. In Your Holy name, we pray, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

Love #1

'You shall not hate your brother in your heart... ...you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

'And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. 'The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:17-18, 19:33-34, www.solascriptura.com

Dear God, Jesus taught us that there are two commandments that encompass the 10 commandments and they are not hard to learn: Love God with all of your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.

Here in Leviticus we find that Jesus was quoting Moses and of course You told Moses what to say. It is so helpful to us Father when the Old and New Testament shed light upon each other.

Our problem, Father, is not in not knowing what You expect, but it is in fulfilling Your expectations. We have learned that You will require evidence of how we showed our love to You and to our neighbors. The wonderful truth is that when we failed to meet your commandments, before we had our record of sin expunged by Jesus, our failure will not be held against us.

Now that we have confessed our sins and been cleansed of them, we are creating a new record. Give us wisdom, discernment and Your grace to love You and others in a new way, Your way. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

Love #3

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred.

...love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it…

Proverbs 10:12, 15:17, Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Father, there is no question in our minds about the effect of hatred. We see it everywhere and it seems so irrational, so distressing and so destructive. To choose hatred is to choose misery, not only for ourselves but for others. How could we have drifted so far from Your will?

Here, Solomon teaches us that love covers all sins. Is that true Father, that the reality of love actually covers all sins? You have taught us that is true and you told us Jesus that there are two over-arching commandments and if we satisfy those commandments we fulfill the entire law. We must love You with all of our heart mind and soul and our neighbors as ourselves. When we do so, love is the key to forgiveness and eternal life. Is hatred ever O.K.? We know you hate sin but You are the Judge, not us. Help us to work toward the redemption of every soul, even our enemies.

We also see that a life style of abundance, if lived in a hate filled circumstance, is much worse than a simple meal, even in an atmosphere of poverty. If love is absent, so are You.

You teach us that true love will make the ultimate sacrifice but when we are jealous, it results in cruelty greater than the grave. Jealousy truly fans a flame than can destroy relationships. But again You tell us that even a flood can not drown out the flame of love. Return us to the spirit of our first love with you and all of those we have ever loved. In Jesus' Holy name, we pray, amen.

Bruce Caldwell