Sunday, August 20, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Since time began, we humans have been mystified by the miracle of love. Why should one man and one woman be drawn to each other in the bonds of a “till-death-do-us-part” love?

 

The wonder takes us back to Eden where we see Adam painfully aware of his loneliness and then meeting Eve as the one his heart yearned for. To find her was ecstasy; love was infinitely more than sex. It was something akin to God Himself who says He “is love” (1 John 4:8), yet in no sense is man the same as God. Says a wise writer, “Love is a precious gift which we receive from Jesus.” Love is not self-love—that’s its counterfeit, the perversion of all that’s beautiful and noble. Self-love is the pure evil of Spiritualism, learned from the fallen Lucifer.

 

The love of man/woman cannot be pure and therefore holy without being redeemed by the cross of the One who is the Giver of love, Jesus Himself. Love remains childish and selfish until one is forgiven and forgives. Both learn to kneel in His presence; both “grow up” while “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:13-15). They come to realize that their love for each other is “in Christ” (1:3), and therefore a love they both share for truth, for Jesus says “I am the truth” (John 14:6). We can’t truly sing “I Love You Truly” unless we also love truth! Then the law is our “delight” and it is impossible ever to be untrue; “fornication [can not] be once named among you” (Eph. 5:3). As God “hates divorce,” so do we (Mal. 2:16).

 

Therefore love is eternal, as Abraham Lincoln told Mary Todd (with all her faults and failings). It makes you captive forever. “Close your heart to every love but mine; hold no one in your arms but me. Love is powerful as death, ... strong as death itself” (S.S. 8:6). Love makes it easy to obey God’s commandment!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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