Category: Love

God’s Constant Presence

Posted on by Dorci

 

It’s funny, I never even dreamed of becoming a writer when I was growing up. Oh sure, I loved to read, I loved English class, and yeah, I loved sitting at my desk diagramming sentences. I was nerdy that way.

But even as an adult writing never crossed my mind until sometime after God saved me. I don’t remember exactly how it started, but a friend saw something there, something God had graciously given me, and asked me to write a short devotion or two. From there Lord continued to open up a desire in my heart to share His love, the love I’d always needed, but in Him I’d found in an infinitely more profound, glorious, faithful, healing, miracle-working way than I ever thought possible. How could I not want to share that love with others?

With that being said, I’m so excited to let you know I have another short story that’s been published, this time in the eighth volume-Lifted by His Word-in an 8-volume series called God’s Constant Presence by Guideposts. It is full of short stories written by people who have experienced God’s presence through His Word, speaking to their hearts in one miraculous way or another, the way He wants to speak to all of us.

It was a joy to relive my story from so many years ago, reminding me again what a personal and loving and gracious God we serve, and to share that love with others.

You can order the book through Amazon by scrolling down and clicking on the image of the book on the right, or at the bottom if you’re on a mobile device.

Or you can order directly through Guideposts by clicking here.  You can receive a 15% discount by using the code AUTHOR15. You can also check out all 8 volumes in the God’s Constant Presence series here. 

Happy reading! And may we all invite God’s constant presence to be with us as we journey with Him through this crazy thing called life. 

Love, Love, and More Love

Posted on by Dorci

A Faith Strong Enough to Love

Posted on by Dorci


“The only thing that counts is
faith expressing itself through love.”
Galatians 5:6b

The proof of our growing faith in God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit is our love, our love for God first, and through Him our love for one another, our love for our neighbor, and even our love for our enemies.

 

 

As we cultivate a deeper relationship with God we’ll know Him more, growing in faith and changing into the image of Christ, having His heart and mind, seeing with His eyes of grace and mercy, and loving others the way He does. 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34

Our love for one another in the family of God is a given, or at least it should be. Jesus said the outward display of love we have for one another would be proof to the world that we are followers of Christ. 

But that can get a little tricky sometimes, right? We’re still human and sometimes we can grate on each other’s nerves, say things that are hurtful, treat one another thoughtlessly. But obeying the command to love one another shows our faith in the Lord. It shows a faith that trusts Him and entrusts others to Him, a faith that forgives and loves at all times.
 

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply (intently, fervently, enthusiastically, without ceasing), from a pure heart.
1 Peter 1:22

Over time, as we grow in faith, our love for one another will grow, too. We’ll genuinely love others with a deeply affectionate and compassionate heart.  

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:39

Our love for our neighbor might be a little more difficult. Of course our closest neighbor is our family. Sometimes that’s easy, and sometimes family can be, well, challenging. It can take great faith to love them.

But a neighbor is anyone God puts in our path. Maybe we don’t know them. Maybe they’re not believers. Still, God calls us to love them, to show them the love of Jesus, and that may sometimes take even more faith. We have to be able to trust God to take care of us while we take care of someone else. But as we grow in Him, our faith is stronger and we know the Lord will always be with us and will always provide for us. 

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you,
do not demand it back.”
Luke 6:27-30

Now that’s a tough one. Loving our enemies takes a great amount of faith. 

But a maturing faith will change who we are. We’ll walk less in our own prideful, self-serving flesh and more in the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. Our behavior won’t be dictated by how others treat us, but by our understanding of God’s endless love for us, and the great faith and love we have in Him. 

A faith that is perfected – matured – is a faith that expresses itself through love no matter what because we know God’s love is not dependent on us. He loves at all times because that’s His nature.  We remember that God loved us while we were yet sinners by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins. It’s a love that desires others, no matter who they are, to see and come to know the love of God through His Son. 

“Because of the increase of wickedness,
the love of most will grow cold,
but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Matthew 24:12-13

 

It’s too easy to get caught up in the world’s hatred. We must refuse to, and fix our eyes and hearts on the One who is able, day by day, to save us from a hardened heart, and allow Him to continually fill us with His love, and then go out into the world and share it with others, trusting Him to change hearts as He changed ours.  

 

Dear Heavenly Father, help us grow and walk in faith that expresses itself in love. May we bring you honor and glory by living as witnesses of your great grace and mercy so that others will see you in us, and put their faith in Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior, turning one more heart to a life of your love. Please give us wisdom for those who are hard to love. Show us how best to love them, and may we always start with prayer. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

 

“Love is patient
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth. 
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love never fails.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

 

The Light of the World

Posted on by Dorci

 

Darkness filled the earth. It had been 400 years since God had spoken, the last time through the prophet Malachi. 

“‘Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,’
Says the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 3:1

Generations had come and gone since then and the silence persisted; the darkness remained. People came and went, having no idea when, or perhaps even if, God would speak again. 

Then one night, as some lonely shepherds in a field kept watch over their sheep, the light of the glory of God pierced the darkness. An angel stood before them with this announcement:

“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” 
Luke 2:10-11

And before they could catch their breath, a host of angels appeared before them, too, praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest, 
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke 2:14



God had broken the silence. His Word, the Messenger of the covenant (spoken of in Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27) was born among them, and with Him an everlasting hope.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16

God’s love shone into the world that unsuspecting night. He’d come! The long-awaited Savior, born as a humble babe in a manger, sent that all who believed in Him would be born anew, filling each heart with a never-ending peace and joy, and the promised light of His presence shining in and through us, forever piercing the darkness. 

 

 

 

 

 

Choices

Posted on by Dorci

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”
1 John 2:15

In some ways this command seems to be getting easier to follow all the time. Still, there can be a lot to love in this world. Why wouldn’t God want us to love it? 

You might have heard that while in English we use the one word – love – to talk about all kinds of love, there are many Greek words for love –

phileō – a friendship love
philostorgos – a familial love 
‛âgab – a sensual love 
eros – a romantic love
philarguria – a love of money

And that’s not even an exhaustive list. 

The word used for love in the command above is agapaō – to love much, or dearly, to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing, to have a preference for, to prize it above other things, to be unwilling to abandon it or do without it. 

It’s the same word Jesus used when asked “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love (agapaō) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love (agapaō) your neighbor as yourself.’” 
Matthew 22:36-39

Jesus then goes on to say “‘All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”
Matthew 22:40

The commandments in the Old Testament were given to show people how they were to love. The first four commandments pertained to their love of God, starting with the command to “have no other gods before me,” and then moved on to how they were to love others – “honor your father and mother, you shall not murder…” and others. 

Christ reiterates, and makes possible in and through us as the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, what the commandments said – that if we love God first, love for others will flow from that. 

It’s even the same word Jesus used when He said “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”  
Matthew 5:44

But when we agapaō the world, when our mind is focused on and busy with all the world has to offer (name your worldly passion), if we prefer those things, cling to those things, put those things first in our lives over and above God and above showing love to others, then we’ve gotten it all out of order. 

It will cause us to put off spending time with our Father, growing our relationship with Him by abiding in Him through prayer and the reading of His precious Word. 

And if we don’t remain in His love through abiding, we won’t have the love we need to fulfill the second commandment Jesus gives to love others and all that would entail. 

I have very nearly perfected procrastination. I can find a million things to do before I sit down to read or pray, or do whatever God is calling me to do. And I look back and regret that countless times. 

But I don’t want to just “phileō” God, to love Him as a friend on par with the rest of the world, as Peter confessed in John 21 when Jesus asked him twice if he “agapaō” Him, and both times Peter confessed that he only “phileō” Him.

Then Jesus asked him a third time if he even “phileō” Him, if he even loved Him as a friend. Peter was grieved because he could not yet say that he “agapaō” Him, that he loved Him unconditionally, that he was ready to put Christ above all things, or that he was unwilling to abandon Him for the sake of the world. 

But once Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he “agapaō” Christ, even being willing to endure persecution in order to tell others the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the way to being crucified upside down. 

I don’t think God doesn’t want us to enjoy the things He’s given us in this world He created, He just wants to remind us to keep it in its place, to remember that He needs to be who we love above all things, that when we have a choice, and we will have choices, our only real choice is Him because without Him we have nothing. 

I pray that whatever God is calling you and me to do, we will not put it off because we’re busy doing other things.  A whole lifetime can pass while we do other things, but in the end only one thing will matter –  how we loved the Lord and lived our lives in Him. 

In His agape,

 

 

Heavenly Father, we confess that we’ve chosen other things before you and we humbly and sincerely ask for your forgiveness. Help us to agapaō you, to walk in your Spirit every minute of the day and night, always putting you first, doing what you call us to do, glorifying you with our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.