The month of December is around the corner! The jolly season will officially begin in a few days. But more than the idea of celebration and gift-giving, this is a season of Remembrance. A reminder to the world that 2,000 years ago, God begun the felicitations by giving us the gift of Christ Jesus. An act of love in its fullness. As we look forward to celebrating, may we remember to run with the message of love. Especially towards the world but also towards our brethren. God bless you.

THE LOVE MESSAGE
I like to think that Love is the bottom line of our very existence. God is the very substance of love and love is such that it needs to be passed on, to be expressed and so we were made. This is also seen in how God thought it not good for man to be alone and hence created woman. A lot of stories down the line man loses his ability to have direct communion with God as a result of sin. God creates an avenue to reestablish this direct communion when he declares that the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent (one of the earliest mentions of Jesus).

Eventually, the Messiah is born and he is called EMMANUEL because a major significance of his death is to make it possible for God to be with us and for man to have direct communion with God. Before his birth God finds a way to keep the people in check until his coming with only two rules: Love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. When the Saviour ascends to be with the Father, He commissions us to make disciples of all nations, not in condemnation but in Love.

WHAT IS LOVE?
1 Corinthians 13 immediately springs to mind but the truth is that if our love is to be set against this yardstick, most of us have not loved at all. It is a guideline to what love should actually mean to us. Unlike we have come to know love to be, ( a strong feeling of affection, according to the dictionary) love is actually not merely a warm fuzzy feeling that makes you giddy with happiness or gives you butterflies in your stomach.

Love is a decision. A conscious effort. It demands patience and kindness whether you feel like it or not because it is a conscious choice not dependent on feelings or circumstances. Love is a lot of effort. Love is utterly forgetting wrongdoings including those that hurt you to the core, love is not losing faith despite all, love is enduring every circumstance, love is being hopeful in spite of, love is not always having your way but compromising. Love is a lot of things that a mere feeling falls short of.

1 John 3:18 says,”…let us not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” so love goes beyond what you merely say you feel; it must be proved because the actual love is measured in how you prove it and the yardstick to prove it is 1 Corinthians 13.

THE LOVE OF GOD
I remember the first time I started to really grasp the love of God and how it was nothing but perfection. I had come to the realization that His love was never dependent on our love for him or how many things we did right because he loved us even before we could make the decision to love Him. He loved us despite knowing that as a result of will we may choose not to love him back. There was no sin in him but He belittled himself before his creation not only going as far as to become the son of man but to become servant to man and placed upon himself all that sin that we may be redeemed. Nothing was created except through him; including you but he laid down his life for you. I see no greater love than that and it was expressed at a time when man very comfortably wallowed in sin. When man in general had no clue of direct fellowship with God.

I believe that the first time I heard God very audibly without a hint of doubt was the day that He lovingly said to me “I am not the accuser”. It was in a moment of sin (like that moment on the cross when he showed his love to man in all its fullness) that I felt his love reach for me through the overwhelming feeling of sin.

THE PERFECTION OF HIS LOVE
According to the word, Love is even greater than faith and hope. I believe this is because in its fullness, you can actually trust love so it goes beyond merely having faith in something or someone. It is more complete than that. In fact, love is proof that your hope would not lead to disappointment (Romans 5:5) that is why there is no fear in perfect love. As human as we are however I do not believe that we are capable of love in its absolute perfection except by the help of the Holy Spirit. The bible calls the expression of love proof of the presence of life given by the Spirit of God. Love is proof of your resurrection with Christ. Love is an expression of the eternal life you have received because God is Love. Love is proof of God’s existence within us.

Our assurance is in the absolute power and strength of His love as rightly put in Romans 8: 31-39, nothing can separate you from the love of God because nothing can take away its absolute nature, not even death or life or angels or demons, no power in the sky above or earth below, nothing in allll creation, not even your worries about today or tomorrow, can separate you from the love of God. In his time of trouble, the psalmist rejoiced in God’s unfailing love because he understood the perfection of the love of God (Psalm 31: 1-7)

OUR LOVE TO HIM
We express our love for God in two ways: by obeying him and by loving others.
Obedience to God is proof of our love for Him and key to remaining in His love for us. While giving the people His commandments, God expressed that He lavishes unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love Him and obey His commands (Deuteronomy 5:10). Jesus repeated same in John 15:9-13 adding that they proved their love by loving others, not just as much as they loved themselves but as much as He loved them. In Hebrews 6:10, Paul tells the people that God will not forget how they have shown their love to Him(God) by caring for other believers.

HIS LOVE TO US
There are times I have imagined God as motherly. Thinking of Him making clothes out of animal skin to replace the leaves with which his children had shielded themselves on the day they disobeyed him or placing a protective mark upon Cain despite his terrible sin or giving Joshua the “be courageous” pep talk before he stepped in his role as leader. Sometimes I giggle at how he’d lament at the people of Israel and punish them out of love and then soothe them or of how sitting in all His majesty He would actually bend down to listen to me (according to the psalmist).

How He knows me inside out and knows my ways; keeps such absolute track of me that the very hairs on my head are accounted for and there is no possible place I could go to hide from Him.
God showed his love for us through the death of Christ. (Romans 5:6-8) The Love of God is revealed in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39) and was expressed at a time when the world was incapable of a direct relationship with Him. John 3: 16 uses “so” to express how massive His love was, saying” for God soooo loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. He didnt just love man. He loved man dearly.
How to feel His love? …The Holy Spirit fills our heart with His love. Ask the Holy spirit

CONCLUSION
Today, we begun by looking at the Meaning of love, the Expression of God’s love towards us and our love towards him. In the subsequent episodes, we will be considering the biblical standards to expressing Love towards others and the ultimate love message; the gospel. Thank you for joining us today and throughout this season may you remember: “God loves YOU!” You’ve always been the apple of His eye.

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