... About Love

I am on a rotating schedule to lead prayer meeting at my church on Wednesday evenings.  The leader gives a short message.  On February 3rd, I led the prayer meeting.  Below is a copy of my notes of the message I presented that evening.  All Scripture is taken from the New International Version of the Bible.

Prayer Meeting - Wednesday, February 3,2016 - LOVE

With Valentine's Day just a couple of weeks away, I've been thinking about love

All of us want to be loved
What the world needs now is love, sweet love  It's the only thing that there's just too little of - 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David

à Love of God

·  God is Love - 1 John 4:16

The very essences of God is love - just as God is Holy; God is Righteous, God is gracious and compassionate, God is mighty, God is good, God is sovereign, God is merciful and forgiving, 

·  Fruit of the Spirit is Love - Gal 5:22

Fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy, peace….

In a couple of prior Wed night services, I spoke about joy - One component of the Fruit of the Spirit is joy, another is love, God wants us to be filled and overflowing with His love, When we yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will begin to bear the Fruit of the Spirit.  Are we filled with His love?

·  So great is his unfailing love - Lam 3:32

Some of the saddest words - “I  don’t love you any more.”

St Paul wrote that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Rom. 8:38-39 - We will never heard God say, “I  don’t love you any more.”
God keeps His promises - People may fail us but God doesn’t - Because of His love, He wanted not one to parish; so He sent His son to die for us to provide salvation

·  what great love the Father has lavished on us, - 1 John 3:1 (lavished - generous, abundant, sumptuous, bountiful)

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him -1 John 3:1

God has created us but we do not become children of God until we believe on His son, Jesus.  Once we become His child, we take on His characteristics -

When I first saw my daughter, Amy after she was born I said to her, "You look just like your daddy."  I has been fun watching her grow and seeing how much she is like him.

My Mother tells me I am a lot like my father and I have to agree.

So if God is love, are we “love”?

· ...so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:23

Here John records one of Jesus prayers - Jesus wanted all believers to be brought to complete unity and why - so that the world would know that God loved them - Is there unity among us - at the general church level, at the local level? Does the world know that God loves them?  What are we doing so that they will know?

· ... to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3:18-19

We sang the song The Love of God - It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell;

Filled to the measure of all the fullness of God - For something to be filled, it must be empty - we need to be empty of self and selfish desires -

à Love for God

·  what does the Lord your God ask of you but ... to love  him, Deuteronomy 10:12a

·  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your mind.’ Mat 22:37

Love: A Holy Command - by Oswald Chambers ----

We looked at the prayer of St. Paul (above Ephesians 3:18-19) Here is what is written to the Church in Ephesus  in Revelations  - You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. (Rev 2:3-4)

Relationships - Husband and wife
Personal Relationship with God - spending time with Him - reading His Word - What is He saying to me?
Hearing sermons - what is in it for me? - God knows who is going to hear the message

à Love Because of God

·  Do  Everything in Love - 1 Cor 16:4

Everything? _ Before you speak THINK -

·  Christ’s love compels us -2 Cor 5:14

Compels - a driving force - must do it

·  We love because He first loved us - 1 John 4:19

Earlier I stated we take on His characteristics

·  Love one another deeply - 1 Pet 1:26   

Deeply -

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:3-4
Book - What would Jesus Do?
I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
I prayed and asked God to love others as He loves - to forgive, etc.

Atlantic Ocean – Photo by Lela

        The Love of God
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky
                                      - Frederick M. Lehman

 

 

... about a wig - spreading God's love

One summer evening in 2007 I attended Bowman camp.  At the end of the message as I was moved by the Holy Spirit, I went forward and knelt at the altar to pray.  I knew the speaker personally.  He had even stayed in my husband and my home when he had been the speaker at my church.  So I kept in touch with him and in July of 2009 I wrote him a letter.  Here is part of that letter:

You may recall that a few years ago when you were the speaker at the Bowman Camp, I knelt at the altar and asked God to use me, to work in and through me.  After the service I shared with you some of what was on my heart.  You recommended that I get a copy of the book, "Just Walk Across the Room."  Since that night God has begun a great work in my life.  I am truly amazed.

 

I had gotten a copy of the book and one thought in the book was to look for opportunities to spread God’s love in small as well as big ways, perhaps doing nothing more than giving someone a smile.  And so I began to look for those opportunities.  I would like to share a recent one with you.

For twenty-five years I had worked as a programmer/analyst.  For most of those years, I followed the suggestions of dressing for success.  I wore business suit and heels and had a professional hair cut.  However, I am not a morning person and to get moving in the morning is difficult for me.  Most mornings, I would be running late.  So I decided to buy a wig and when I didn’t have time to fix my hair I would wear the wig.  Later, dressing for success went out the window and business casual dress was allowed in the work place.  My wig ended up all but forgotten in the back of a shelf in my closet.

In Feb of 2009 I was laid off of my job as a programmer/analyst.    In Oct 2009, I started working as a Customer Service Rep for an insurance company that provides Medicare supplement insurance to people on Medicare.  I have talked to thousands and thousands of people all across our great land.  I was totally out of my comfort zone on this job.  My talents lay in my being a programmer/analyst.   However, each day as I struggled with my job, God opened my eyes in ways that I had never imagined to a real and hurting world.   And so I began praying for my customers.  I have told countless number of my customers that I would pray for them.  At least two asked me to pray for them and one customer asked me if I were a Christian and he told me I was angel.

It was then that I remembered that wig in the back on my closet.  I got it out and all the cleaning and styling products that went with it.  I decided that the very next customer that called and asked if a wig would be covered by the health insurance because they had lost all their hair due to cancer treatments I would offer them my wig.  Within days of my decision, a lady named Jane called and asked if wigs were covered.  I had to tell her no they were not.  So I offered mine to her.  She gave me her email address and asked if I would send her a picture of the wig which I did.  Here is her reply. 

The Wig

Surprisingly, I have often worn my hair in such a style   and with summer highlights the color is not too far off.   If you want to send the wig, I will try it and return it if I cannot use it.  Mailing address… With thanksgiving for your thoughtfulness.

And so I mailed her the wig along with all the accessories and included one of my photo greeting cards that I had made.  In it I told her I would pray for her.  

Until the day I retired, I struggled with my job but God had helped me - one day at a time.   For Jane, He gave me the opportunity to spread some of His love by offering her my wig and for others He had given me the opportunity to let them know someone cared and was praying for them.

… about Friends and Family

This past Christmas, I mailed A LOT of Christmas cards via the United States Postal Service.  Since the onset of the internet, there are several ways I could have send my greetings electronically; but I decided to go the old fashion way - how nice to open our mail boxes and find something besides bills or junk mail!  I was amazed at the number of cards I mailed; but I wanted everyone on my mailing list to get a card from me.  At least one person in the household receiving the card has had an impact on my life.  I would not be the person I am today had our  paths not crossed in our journey through life.

My father’s ministry and my career took me to different places within the United States, outside the United Sates and within Pennsylvania.  Having lived and worked in so many different places I have met a lot of wonderful people whom I would have never met otherwise.  Others I became acquainted with at the churches I have attended.  Some I have known for a long, long time and others for a very short time.  Never-the-less, I am glad I have known each one!  It’s interesting though, some on my mailing list I have never met.  Their names were added to a prayer list that I received; so I prayed for them, sent a note to them letting them know I was praying for them, and added their names to my mailing list.   

Others are on my mailing list because they are family and I love them dearly.  Some family members were added to our family at birth and others were added through marriage.  As our family has grown over the years, it’s been harder and harder for all of us to get together at one time.  My oldest daughter Melissa was so excited when she and all her cousins on the Walker side of the family were at her aunt Lena’s wedding last May and she was able to get a picture of all of them together.  When my aunt Doris passed away in November of 2014, I got to see my two cousins that I hadn’t seen in some time. 

How awesome it is that so many people have been a part of my life - to have gotten a hug, a smile, a word of encouragement or instruction, a note in the mail, an email, a greeting on Facebook (sorry, I’m not on much) a Christmas card, a thank you, a comment: you’re in my thoughts and/or prayers.  The list could go on and on.  I am truly blessed and thank God for everyone who has been a part of my life in both small and big ways!

Hartranft Family 2015 Christmas Picture