"Inseparable housemates that offer hospitality to hope"

Blown away. Filled to overflowing. Bursting with joy. Energy that doesn’t make sense.
That’s where I’ve been. That’s where I am. Haven’t always… oh no, it’s been bad, really bad at times.
First thing, I’ve gotta say is this!:
Friend, if you’re tired, if you’re hurting, if it looks bleak, if your worn… to tears, if pain is gripping, if you’re deafened by the silence, if lonely is camping darkness or sadness on your heart, if you’re terrified, weighed down by guilt…
If you don’t know what in the world to do, if your heart aches and you’d rather sleep and the next breath is a trial, if you’re disillusioned by the mundane or perhaps the evil that you see (or anything in between), if you don’t even feel like you can talk to the Lord, much less seek Him for help, if you’re mad that everyone else is doing so well, or hurt that someone you love isn’t…

I’ve been there.

AND GOD IS FAITHFUL.
When I picture His LOVE, I get this image of a rider on horseback. The horse's muscles strong and sure, flexed purposefully. The rider, unseen… certain. A vision of One pursuing, galloping, mud flying as the horse’s hooves hammer the ground. I hear the horse breathing vigorously, powerfully, not out of desperation, but with the goal of LOVE.
That is how I feel His pursuit.





The current lesson:
Galatians 5:22-23 (New Living Translation)
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.


There is no law against these things!

Romans 5:5 (New International Version)
5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

I'm learning that love is beyond a choice, far beyond emotion; it's our call. The highest call.

I am discovering what that looks like in reality. What sacrificial love can mean.
I used to view selfless love as actual acts... you know - doing the chore, nobody else wants to do, giving a gift rather than buying something, or going to the movie I didn't want to see...
(by the way, I wasn't so good at those either).


Now I see a deeper element. True sacrifice is the willingness to invite the pain that love requires. Loving in the face of rejection. Loving in the face of doubt. Loving in the face of loss. Loving because the LORD called you to - with no other bonus in sight. The sacrifice of putting your heart on the line
"...is a daily commitment of the will to vacate the heart's premises of its own preferential affections and make its chambers fleshy canteens for the liquid love of God. Yes, it's still a challenge, but it's no longer the impossible dream. We live by faith. We love by faith. Faith and love are inseparable housemates that offer hospitality to hope. When we lose our faith to love, we lose the energy to love. Then we lose our hope." (B. Moore)


Sweet friends... when I started this blog, I told you of a hand knocking with all its might.
Now, let me tell you about big time amazement... undeserved and overwhelming, sweeping wind and rushing "liquid love."

PRAISE HIM.
"Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." James 5:17-18
A man - JUST LIKE US. Claim it.