Fw: the love product

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 7:24 AM
Subject: the love product

Who doesn't agree that we should love each other?  But is it simply a matter of choice or of discipline to love others? The apostle John talks about this in his short book called First John. 

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Consider verses 7 and 8 of 1 John 4:  ^"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

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Just as one identifying statement about God is that He is love...defined by love, we learn that the love is God's export product from Heaven.  He demonstrated it, perhaps in the greatest way, when He sent Jesus to die for us.

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Reflect on these two phrases:

Verse 9 "...that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him."

Verse 10 "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

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We have the Creator demonstrating love for us by sending His Son to die and rescue us.  We have the example of Christ actually carrying through on offering His life for us.  God goes one step further to help us love the way we ought to.  Consider verses 16 and 17: "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us."

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This great identifying quality of God can become a consistent characteristic of our attitudes and behavior when we recognize and accept God's great love sent through Jesus for us.  As we have received this great love from Heaven, he dwells within us and completes the expression of love from us.  When we love others this way we are seeing God's living presence come through our personalities.

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...a lovely picture!

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Rob Smith