John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. John stated, God is love (1 John 4:8). John talked about Jesus' love for others (John 11:5) and all mankind. It is not a coincidence that John was called upon by the Lord to write the Book of Revelation. God is illustrating through the writer John that love is creative energy, blood to ink, and love is eternal-minded.
Love does not have an ending.
Stories flow out to the world from the inside of a soul. Love is the channel of inspiration. Love is the nature of God and a life-essence quality that only comes from God. God breathes it. God alone is the source of all life and love and beauty in creativity and language. Love is God's energy (energeo), but it is also infused with hope that never fades.
Love is a vision. Keep it holy.
Love is not our vision-it's God's vision. Therefore, it cannot be separate from holiness. Human relationship, particularly that between a man and a woman requires the Lord Himself to remove enmity. Enmity is hatred; it is murder where our hearts are concerned. In order to have a secure walk back to the Garden of Eden, a couple must be ushered through both life and the Bible with the True Christ as guide, the central figure of that relationship story. There is no other way to keep any eternal union.
A good husband/wife marriage starts with individual love letters from God, written back to God. His Word will not return to Him void of that for which He sent it. It is operative. The love letter from God is the Bible, paid for in Christ's blood. The letters written back to God are life-story commitments to live that Word out through our souls, being Christ-like to each other.
The primary commandment for a Christian is this: Love. Love is the God-Factor, the God-Quality, without which we die.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
The second commandment is LIKE IT:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37-39
If you want Life in your relationships, put God in the midst of them. We cannot love each other in a marriage unless and until we are married (committed in love) to God first. Relationship isn't designed to work without both the husband and the wife loving God above self, and above each other.
Previous to Jesus giving the primary commandment above, the conversation was one of human marriage. Christ Jesus answers the question of relationship in Heaven by explaining the "resurrected state" where both men and women are "like angels" (Matt 22: 30).
Do you look at the one God has given you like an angel?
How do you communicate?
What words do you choose?
God asked John to write to the angel of the churches (Rev 1:11, 19; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7,12, 14; 10:4; 14:13; 19:9). Do you write love letters back to the Lord?
Before we know how to talk to our husband or wife, we have to know how to talk to God.
Only He has the sort of language that can reach the human heart.
The Holy Spirit is Teacher.
Read His Word and journal. Write your story. Share your testimony. Open up your soul. See if your life isn't already written inside the Holy Word of God. See if your marriage isn't a reflection of Christ and His chosen. See if your heart doesn't bleed red ink. The Lord is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Our hearts are in His hands. We are to live out a life of faith similar to the biblical characters who overcome. He has given us authority to write and speak and love after the pattern of Him! Go, and tell! Two by two, He sends them. Live a blessed life, in soul harmony, eternally minded, void of all strife in marriage. Besides God Himself, you are the main characters in your saga. The Bible is your manual for living out God's will. Marriage is ministry.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened,
and I will cause you to rest.
[I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation
and blessed quiet) for your souls.
For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing,
but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and
My burden is light and easy to be borne.
God is love.
In Matthew 11:28-30 (AMPC) above, Jesus tells us what true relationship is: holy ease, in that order. One of the best gifts to give your loved one this Valentine's Day is time spent with God. The presence of God shores up your relationships, infusing them with His grace.
May God bless your marriage.
Read, together, the Love Letter He wrote to you with the ink of His Son's blood. Don't waste it. Live, and love one another as Christ has loved you.
Use Promo Code LOVE during the month of February and get 30% off Dawn Dyson's marital curriculum: What God Joins Together. This study guides married or engaged couples through God's perfect plan for marriage. Click the photo below.
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.