… BECAUSE OF LOVE

“….God has poured out His love to fill our hearts. 
God gave us His love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us.” 
{Romans 5:5}

“If you believe in Me, come and drink! 
For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.”
{John 7:38}

 God is love and His love is the best kind of love you can have in your heart.
 The beautiful thing about God’s love is that it is a giving love —
 A love that flows in abundance with kindness, generosity, and goodness. 
 It is a love that embraces and does not push away. 
 It is a love that restores, mends, and heals.
 It is a love of compassion, good will, and tender care.

The love that God has poured into you is also the love that He wants to pour out through you.  Today is your best day because you have the awesome priviledge and opportunity to give His love away to other people.  The love that you are able to give to others is not something that you make up or pretend to have.  You are not the souce of the love you can give away; God is the source.  God’s love is not received into your life through study or good works.  His love is yours because the Holy Spirit has come to live in your heart.

The Holy Spirit has come to live in you like a river, not like a lake.  A river flows and moves freely.  A lake sits and goes nowhere.  A river reaches out to new places and nourishes new ground.  A lake is self-contained and can become stagnant.  The love of God in you first comes to bless and enrich your life, but its course is to flow out from within you to touch and enrich other hearts. 

Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading of love in your life today.  Count upon His love, lean upon His love, and draw upon His love to be the source of God’s love through you. It may be expressed through a prayer you offer, a word you speak, a kindness you show to someone, or even through a hug or a smile that you give today!  Share God’s love today!

 I hope you’ve all had a wonderful, blessed weekend, walking in, and sharing the gift of love that God has so freely given us!  We ran some errands and had dinner out Saturday, then yesterday, we went to see my in-laws, and we are very concerned for them, so we are asking for prayer on their behalf … 

Lewis’ sister drove up as we were leaving Mom and Dad around 7:00PM yesterday.  She asked me to do some research on assisted living apartments for them, and find out where they were located on our side of town.  That way they would be close to us, their other daughter and husband, and also Rebecca said she would move to this side of town in order to be near them, as well.  We are concerned for them both, as Dad doesn’t eat, unless reminded, and Mom has so many medications that she needs to take on a regular basis.  They seem so frail in both mind and body.  An assisted living complex would enable a nurse to check in on them every day, make sure they are well cared for, and getting what they need, yet it is like being in their own home, they would still have their privacy … and it would be nothing like a nursing home! 

Lewis and both of his sisters have discussed this before, and Dad knows that they are only trying to help them.  They have a beautiful condominium now, with all of their furniture, etc., and we aren’t sure what they would have to do with everything in the event they would go to an assisted living apartment.  Another small problem … their church is up farther north from where they live now, and they all love them both, and have been there and reached out to them since they started attending a couple of years ago.  We used to attend the church as well, before we moved south, and we love everyone there, so we are expecting that Mom and Dad probably would not want to leave their church family!   

This is so very hard, and we would so appreciate your prayers for wisdom, and that God will work all things out for them to be safe, secure and happy.  If anyone has been through this, or has any words to encourage us, or give us wisdom on handling these things gently, we would so welcome them! 

 Ian and Tim are still working very hard at their internship out in California!  They are filming a lot of testimonies then editing them to play at the church.  My brother-in-law referred a couple to them to see if they would be able to film their wedding near the end of July…well, Ian will be here filming his cousin’s wedding on July 7th, and I’m not sure if he would be able to come back again from California so soon after just having been here.  They’ll be staying for a week after his cousin’s wedding, to rest, and celebrate Ian’s birthday!  They’ve had about 3 people ask for their services since they’ve been away, so when they finally get home in November, they will probably have a busy filming schedule!  God is blessing, and I’m looking forward to having him home again … that will be wonderful!  Well, you all have a wonderful blesed Monday, and let the river flow today through your life, and into the hearts of others! 

 & Hugs,
~  Deborah <><