Thought of the Day- 9 February 2007

Love

So I am totally on this love kick! My whole life I have heard people say that they have "fallen into love" and that they "love pizza". Personally nothing good has ever come about from me falling, and come on, pizza isn't that good! In fact, I fell off a 50 ft cliff before and all it got me was a demolished, grotesque knee and a sweet scar....not a babe! In fact (again), it wasn't until recently that I found out that "all the girls liked me" in 5th grade, the year I fell off the cliff. If I would have known that I would haved milked that injury for all it was worth...Brandon would have been getting some kisses for sure!

Moving along.

In all honesty and seriousness, I am pursuing love. What does it mean to love? What does it "feel" like to love someone. How do you know if you genuinely love someone or if you are just saying you do? How can I live a life focused on love? Why do we tell people we love them?...shouldn't we be asking them if we love them?

So my mom sent me this excerpt from a book today and I think that every Christian should have the opportunity to read it. I hope you like it.

The Language of Love
by: Graham Cooke

Jesus Christ: Treasure hunter

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke to the treasure God had deposited in people. He even blessed the spiritual treasure people themselves did not realize they had. Jesus once met a crooked tax collector named Zacchaeus. Not once did Jesus reveal the man's sin. All He did was bless him and honor him. Humbled, Zacchaeus knew what to do: "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold" (Luke 19:8) The man simply stopped cheating others, signed away half of his possessions and made a contract with heaven to restore what he had previously stolen. "I robbed you of a hundred dollars; here's four hundred back" That is God at work in one of His special treasures.

God has placed His fingerprint in the people around us, and we need to speak to that spiritual treasure. In Johns gospel we read that the disciple Philip brought his brother, Nathanael, to meet Jesus. Nathanael was at first skeptical: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he asked. But when he finally met Jesus, the Lord spoke to the treasure in him: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!" Jesus said, noting prophetically that He had seen Nathanael sitting under a fig tree earlier that day(John 1: 46-47). "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" exclaimed Nathanael(John1:49), who then left everything behind and became a disciple. Jesus had spotted the treasure deposited in Nathanael's life and had spoken to it. The result? Nathanael became a pillar of the early church.

Jesus knew that whatever He spoke to would create greater value in people. Humanity always speaks to the earthen vessel, noting every crack, flaw, and warp: " If you put this right, and change that, then we'll let you in and accept you." God is not remotely like that. He speaks to the treasure in a person and releases it from captivity of the flesh. He extracts the precious from the worthless. We often try to do the opposite - take out the trash and see what is left. When we speak to the treasure in people, it moves to the surface of their lives, from the hidden to the obvious. And the rubbish always comes with it. When people see their own worth, they get rid of their own carnality...God knows there is treasure in all of us, and He wants to bring it to the surface. Do not let your view of the worthless obscure that which is precious about a person. We have to change the way we think of and behave around other people. We must realize that our real enemies are the devil and his demons...

*Note: If there were any spelling errors in this...my mom isn't the best typer (runs in the family) so have mercy. This was a long stink'n excerpt!

More love to Come!