Love One Another

"(16)This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his
life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
(17)If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in but has no
pity on him, how can the love of God be on him? (18)Dear children, let us not love
with words or tongue but with the actions and in truth. (19)This then is how
we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in
His presence (20)whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our
hearts and He knows everything.
(21)Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God
(22)and receive from Him anything we ask because we obey his commands
and do what pleases him. (23)And this is his command: to believe in the name
of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded
us. (24)Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.
And his is how we know that he lives in us: We know it
by the Spirit he gave us."

Yesterday I met Kelly DeWitt. We had lunch. We began our relationship as sisters in Christ. Let me tell you this: She is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. She invited me to her high school girls' bible study. We read the verses above (1 John 3:11-24). Kelly made it a point that "Love is commanded of us, not asked." A COMMAND. One straight from God, himself. Caroline, one of the girls, told us a quote she heard about love: "How can you love God who you cannot actually see if you cannot love the people of the world who you can see because they are tangible." I liked it, obviously because I can remember it and I also have it written down in my journal. If we believe in and love God, we can (and must with it being a command) love everyone else in the world. Yeah, people might be different or weird or they might have offended you or hurt your feelings... Get over it. Last fall at Midtown church in Columbia the preacher has a sermon series called Tranformation. He talked about our enemies and how the ultimate power against them is love follwed by forgiveness. You love because Christ died on a cross in the ultimate act of love dying for our sins... and our enemies sins. So if Christ has forgiven them why should we continue carrying negativity against them? We shouldnt. So forgive them. Get over it. Move on. LOVE.

Kelly also showed us the three promises of this passage:
1) Confidence in Christ (19-20)
2)Ask and Receive (22)
3)He Abides in Us, We in Him (24)

The Condition:
We Obey Him.
We forgive.
We know his power.
We love.
We Trust.