Book 3 of Musings Dwelling in Love

Love is the highest form of joy. To be eternal, love's source must be God.

There is an uncrossable gulf between physical attraction and love, although they may coincide. As also is the case with holiness, true love is God Himself.

Love is the most powerful force in the creation. It is God's motive in all that He does.

We humans are so bound in our bodies that we have a difficult time knowing what love is. We cannot separate it from our biologic appetites.

There is the love of parents for their children. There is a love among men who are bound in a common purpose, such as in the military. There is romantic love that is greatly honored in America, but is really is a delusion that does not stand the test.

The love that comes from God and is God is of a different quality than the love that is part of our adamic nature. God's love has to be experienced in order to be understood; it can't really be described.

It is a common practice, both in the Christian churches and in the world, to tell people we must have love. But our sinful, adamic nature is not a trustworthy source of love.

God in His love has brought forth the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. It was the greatest of all sacrifices when God gave His Son to die on the cross for our sins. We cannot comprehend the sorrow that God experienced at that time.

It has pleased God that His love in Christ reach outward to those whom God has chosen. That love reaches out to us. Then we return that love to Christ. Sometimes the love of Christ for us is overwhelming-more than our emotional nature can manage. But ordinarily it is a deep joy in us that becomes increasingly secure the longer we serve the Lord.

All the covenants of God are issued in love. Sometimes we get so religious that we teach the covenants in a pedantic manner, missing the love that issued them and is in them.

For example, the Communion, the receiving of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. Can you imagine the love that is behind this? It is the Lord saying, "I love you so much I want you to take into yourself My flesh and My blood. Isn't that astounding when you think about it? Imagine, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of God! But remember: the Communion is love in action; it is vastly more than a religious or theological exercise.

I think when we come to maturity the Lord will direct His love in us toward other people. We will have to be mature to handle this, because His love is intense, and it would be easy for our fleshly nature to become involved.. But it is this Divine love that draws us all together into one whole in Christ in God.

We have been commanded to love one another. We can do this by acting kindly and thoughtfully toward each other. We may or may not feel any particular emotion. We just act in a loving manner regardless of how we feel.

I expect, though, when the Lord is ready to make His Church one as He and the Father are One, that He will fill us with such intense love for one another, and for those members of the nations whom He has given us for an inheritance, that the emotion will be quite beyond anything we can imagine.

Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. (Isaiah 60:4-5)

We hear Christians talking about their golden mansion or the material wealth they will enjoy in Heaven. They have no idea what they are talking about. Gold and material wealth do not bring lasting joy on the earth and they would not bring lasting joy in Heaven.

The only inheritance worth having is people. When God gives His love to Christ, and Christ gives that love to us, and then through us to other people, that is the greatest joy it is possible to experience.

God indeed is capable of enormous wrath. But God's Nature in the final sense is one of love. It is for this reason that Christ, who can be a Lion and a Warrior-King on occasion, appears in the last two chapters of the Bible as the Lamb.

The Church never is the bride of the Lion, or of the Warrior-King, or even of the Lord. The Church always is the Bride of the Lamb, because she is married to the Lamb by eating His flesh and eating His blood. This is the highest of all expressions of love. If we move forward to the fullness of God, we will dwell in that holy fire for eternity.

In this way, love is made complete among us so we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:17-18)