Thoughts for Life: The Power of Love

The Power of Love

There's a law that cannot be broken,
A prescription to God's moral plan:
It's "Whatever the heart is in love with,
Soon its virtue is seen in the man."

All men naturally worship something,
They bow and consecrate their life;
And with the potency of affection,
Their gods reproduce their life.

(Google image, Jesus).
Always in a formative state,
Man's character lies not forlorn.
But it gravitates to the object
To which love is solely sworn.

Whatever is spiritual becomes physical,
The outer life begins in the heart;
The seed planted in the soul
Germinates to possess ev'ry part.

Whatever man loves, transforms him;
A metamorphosis of spiritual acclaim,
And by this moral attraction,
Man finds honor or disgrace and shame.

It's impossible to love Jesus,
And yet a worldling still become.
Or likewise give ones heart to the world,
And still bear a likeness to God's Son.

For whatever the man is becoming,
It's by the power of love that he's altered;
And whatever would thwart this love
Is sacrificed on the altar.

No wonder, then, the teaching of Christ:
To love God with all our being;
That, by this power of love,
God is reflected in all our living.

James H. Cagle- The Power of Love

Prayer-

Men too busy not to pray

Father, we know it's true that whatever we love will soon be visible in our behavior, our thoughts and our words.
The transforming spiritual influence of what we love, finds honor or disgrace and shame in our daily living.
The truth is, it's impossible to love Jesus, and yet embrace worldly ways, as then the likeness of Jesus won't be visible.
May we sacrifice on the altar any and all loves that are not centered in Jesus, so we will become reflections of His love and grace to others.
I pray this in His name. Amen.

Today's Bible verses-

(1 John 4:10)“This is what real love is– It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins.”

2 Thessalonians. 3:16 (NIV) “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.”1 John 4:18 (NIV) “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

(Eph. 2:4-10 MSG) "It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

(7-10) Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from the start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing."

Today's popular post:

Locked Into Love

Jean Oathout shares with us a message from the Message Bible today, that may help us better understand God's love for us:
"So what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? . . . "

Where is Your JOY?
(Debbie McEwen's post on why we

should choose the way to heaven!)

Today's quote-

~ Max Lucado- "Real love changes people. Didn’t God’s love change you? You know your love is real when you weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Do you want to know what love is?

God passes the test! And well he should--he drafted it! He rejoices with you; may you rejoice with others."

Listen to UpWords with Max Lucado at OnePlace.com

List of recent sermons of CFC ministers

CFC Potsdam church has a live service at 10 am Sunday's for shut-ins. If for some reason you can't make it to the church you usually attend, click on the above link, and still get fed!

Upcoming posts-

#133 Dangers in Prayer Warfare, 1-3

8th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

#134 Dangers in Prayer Warfare, 4-6

10th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

A Reason to Sing

12th- Saturday's post by Amy Peterson

#135 How to Bind Satan, Part 1

15th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel