Mark My Words – Love Is In The Air

It was about a week or so after Christmas that I began to see a transformation take place on the candy aisle of our local Walmart. Just a few days prior, the aisle was chocked full of Christmas goodies. You could find Hershey’s Kisses dressed in the colors of the season. Many of our favorite candies could be found in various seasonal shapes such as Christmas trees and bells instead of their regular, boring rectangular and circular shapes.  However, after Christmas, all of this was now beginning to change. Now our favorite candies could be found in the shape of hearts. Small and large, beautiful heart shaped red boxes, with bows in some cases, began lining the shelves. These new offerings pointed to another upcoming holiday, Valentine’s day. Yes, love is in the air. Love was in the air at Christmas with the birth of God’s one and only son. As we journey toward Easter by way of Valentine’s day we are once again reminded that love is in the air. This time we see love in the form of a Savior dying and rising again from the dead. Even now, we who have trusted Christ, and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, know that love is in the air every day that we live upon this earth. His mercies are new to us every single morning. We also know that when we die or if we are alive at the return of Christ, that we will be united with perfect love and truth for all eternity. His name is JESUS. We will live eternally with Him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Let’s now take a look at the worldly understanding of love in comparison to the Christian understanding of love.

A worldly understanding of love can best be characterized by the term SELFISH. Lust is a term often used in connection with this understanding of love.  This understanding, or should I say misunderstanding, of love places physical/sexual needs above the spiritual and emotional needs of human beings. Sex outside of a loving, caring, committed marital relationship falls into this category. People are taken advantage of in this world by people who have adopted this worldly view of love. The tragic results of this type of love is that it leaves a trail of brokenness and disillusionment in its path for those that fall prey to its perpetrators. The physical/sexual aspects of love were never meant to be detached from the emotional and spiritual aspects of love. God created the union of marriage for the well-being of husband and wife. He knew that the physical/sexual, when detached from the spiritual and emotional, would only lead to heartache and pain for those involved.

God’s love can best be described as SELFLESS and SELF-GIVING. Jesus is our perfect example in this matter. What was in it for him when he came to earth as a little baby?  Nothing. He had to temporarily set aside some of His glory in order to relate to us as humans, yet He was without sin. What was in it for Jesus when He died a cruel, inhumane death on a rugged Roman cross? Absolutely nothing. It was all about us. It was all out of perfect love that He came to earth, died on the cross, rose again from the dead, and ascended back into heaven. It was all about Him leading the way for many sons and daughters from every tribe and nation to become children of God and also making them fit to live with Him eternally.

Love is in the air at Oriental First Baptist Church. With every kind word, prayer, text, phone call, and visit that you make, love is in the air. Love is present when we meet together, because the God who is Love is present with us through the Holy Spirit. I pray this Valentine’s day that you would come to know the love of God that is found in His Son Jesus Christ, in a fresh, new and personal way.

Be blessed and be surrounded by His Great Love,

Mark