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April 30, 2008
THE SPONTANEITY OF LOVE
Love suffereth long, and is kind ...
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=1co+13:4-8&sr=1
Love is not premeditated, it is spontaneous, i.e., it bursts up in
extraordinary ways. There is nothing of mathematical certainty in
Paul's category of love. We cannot say - "Now I am going to think no
evil; I am going to believe all things." The characteristic of love
is spontaneity. We do not set the statements of Jesus in front of us
as a standard; but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live
according to His standard with out knowing it, and on looking back we
are amazed at the disinterestedness of a particular emotion, which is
the evidence that the spontaneity of real love was there. In
everything to do with the life of God in us, its nature is only
discerned when it is past.
The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for
the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has
been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign
that we do not love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the
absolute spontaneity of our love, it comes naturally. In looking back
we cannot tell why we did certain things, we did them according to
the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God manifests
itself in this spontaneous way because the springs of love are in the
Holy Ghost. (Romans 5:5.)
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THE SECRET MESSAGE OF JESUS: UNCOVERING THE TRUTH THAT COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING, by Brian McLaren
Unafraid of controversy or the uncomfortable gray areas of life,
McLaren's quest is to find the essential message of Jesus' life - even
if it overturns our conventional ideas, priorities, and practices.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?253
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MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST - by Oswald Chambers /\/\
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