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The Gift of Love
“We love because he loved us
first.”
I John 4:19
Dear friends, let us love one another, because
love is from God, and everyone who loves has
been fathered by God and knows God. The
person who does not love does not know God
because God is love. By this the love of God is
revealed in us: that God has sent his one and
only Son into the world so that we may live
through him
I John 4:7-12
In this is love: not that we have loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our
sins. Dear friends, if God so loved us, then
we alsoought to love one another. No one
has seen God at any time. If we love
oneanother, God resides in us, and his
love is perfected in us.
I John 4:7-12
New Beginnings
For I am about to do something
new. See, I have already begun!
Do you not see it? I will make a
pathway through the
wilderness. I will create rivers in
the dry wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19
11 To
illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this
story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told
his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now
before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his
wealth between his sons.13 “A few days later this
younger son packed all his belongings and moved to
a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in
wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a
great famine swept over the land, and he began to
starve.
Luke 15:11-24
15 He
persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and
the man sent him into his fields to feed the
pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that
even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked
good to him. But no one gave him
anything.17 “When he finally came to his
senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the
hired servants have food enough to spare, and
here I am dying of hunger!
Luke 15:11-24
18 I
will go home to my father and say,
“Father, I have sinned against both heaven
and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of
being called your son. Please take me on as
a hired servant.”’20 “So he returned home
to his father.
Luke 15:11-24
And while he was still a long way off, his father
saw him coming. Filled with love and
compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him,
and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I
have sinned against both heaven and you, and
I am no longer worthy of being called your
son.’22 “But his father said to the servants,
‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and
put it on him.
Luke 15:11-24
Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his
feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been
fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,
24 for this son of mine was dead and has
now returned to life. He was lost, but now
he is found.’ So the party began.
Luke 15:11-24
Relationships Repaired
31 What
shall we say about such wonderful
things as these? If God is for us, who can ever
be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even
his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t
he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares
accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?
No one—for God himself has given us right
standing with himself.
Romans 8:31-39
34 Who
then will condemn us? No one—for
Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to
life for us, and he is sitting in the place of
honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Romans 8:31-39
35 Can
anything ever separate us from Christ’s
love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we
have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or
hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or
threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures
say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we
are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No,
despite all these things, overwhelming victory
is ours through Christ, who loved us.
Romans 8:31-39
38 And
I am convinced that nothing can ever
separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor
life, neither angels nor demons, neither our
fears for today nor our worries about
tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can
separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the
sky above or in the earth below—indeed,
nothing in all creation will ever be able to
separate us from the love of God that is
revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39