I get so tired of hearing modern Christian leaders saying, "Love is not a feeling, it's a choice". Love is no more a choice then faith is a choice! One cannot choose to love any more than one can choose to believe. Love is the most misunderstood word in the English language and the most misrepresented human emotion on the face of this earth.
What I see missing in the church today is genuine Spirit-Filled, God given love. Real Love! As I watch students picketing (in the name of Christ) on college campuses against homosexuality, I see hate and rage in their eyes. As I listen to those who follow "The Way of the Master" street evangelism techniques, I see pride in their eyes and hear arrogance and hatred in their voices - as if they are somehow better then those whose eyes are still blind. It is an ugly thing.
This will begin a series of posts on what love looks like (Real Love) from the pen of Thomas Watson. As you read ask the Lord to show you if any of these fruits of genuine God given love grow in the garden of your heart:
1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God. "When I awake, I am still with thee" (Psalm cxxxix. 18). The thoughts are as travellers in the mind. David’s thoughts kept heaven-road. I am still with Thee. God is the treasure, and where the treasure is, there is the heart. By this we may test our love to God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think on God? Have our thoughts got wings? Are they fled aloft? Do we contemplate Christ and glory? Oh, how far are they from being lovers of God, who scarcely ever think of God! "God is not in all his thoughts" (Psalm x. 4). A sinner crowds God out of his thoughts. He never thinks of God, unless with horror, as the prisoner thinks of the judge.
2. The next fruit of love is desire of communion. Love desires familiarity and intercourse. "My heart and flesh crieth out for the living God" (Psalm lxxxiv. 2). King David being de-barred the house of God where was the tabernacle, the visible token of His presence, he breathes after God, and in a holy pathos of desire cries out for the living God. Lovers would be conversing together. If we love God we prize His ordinances, because there we meet with God. He speaks to us in His Word. and we speak to Him in prayer. By this let us examine our love to God. Do we desire intimacy of communion with God? Lovers cannot be long away from each other. Such as love God have a holy affection, they know not how to be from Him. They can bear the want of anything but God’s presence. They can do without health and friends, they can be happy without a full table, but they cannot be happy without God. "Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the grave" (Psalm cxliii. 7). Lovers have their fainting-fits. David was ready to faint away and die, when he had not a sight of God. They who love God cannot be con-tented with having ordinances, unless they may enjoy God in them; that were to lick the glass, and not the honey.
What I see missing in the church today is genuine Spirit-Filled, God given love. Real Love! As I watch students picketing (in the name of Christ) on college campuses against homosexuality, I see hate and rage in their eyes. As I listen to those who follow "The Way of the Master" street evangelism techniques, I see pride in their eyes and hear arrogance and hatred in their voices - as if they are somehow better then those whose eyes are still blind. It is an ugly thing.
This will begin a series of posts on what love looks like (Real Love) from the pen of Thomas Watson. As you read ask the Lord to show you if any of these fruits of genuine God given love grow in the garden of your heart:
1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God. "When I awake, I am still with thee" (Psalm cxxxix. 18). The thoughts are as travellers in the mind. David’s thoughts kept heaven-road. I am still with Thee. God is the treasure, and where the treasure is, there is the heart. By this we may test our love to God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think on God? Have our thoughts got wings? Are they fled aloft? Do we contemplate Christ and glory? Oh, how far are they from being lovers of God, who scarcely ever think of God! "God is not in all his thoughts" (Psalm x. 4). A sinner crowds God out of his thoughts. He never thinks of God, unless with horror, as the prisoner thinks of the judge.
2. The next fruit of love is desire of communion. Love desires familiarity and intercourse. "My heart and flesh crieth out for the living God" (Psalm lxxxiv. 2). King David being de-barred the house of God where was the tabernacle, the visible token of His presence, he breathes after God, and in a holy pathos of desire cries out for the living God. Lovers would be conversing together. If we love God we prize His ordinances, because there we meet with God. He speaks to us in His Word. and we speak to Him in prayer. By this let us examine our love to God. Do we desire intimacy of communion with God? Lovers cannot be long away from each other. Such as love God have a holy affection, they know not how to be from Him. They can bear the want of anything but God’s presence. They can do without health and friends, they can be happy without a full table, but they cannot be happy without God. "Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the grave" (Psalm cxliii. 7). Lovers have their fainting-fits. David was ready to faint away and die, when he had not a sight of God. They who love God cannot be con-tented with having ordinances, unless they may enjoy God in them; that were to lick the glass, and not the honey.
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