Love; The word screams at you from all different angles of life.  More songs have been written on the subject of love than about any other topic.  It has inspired some of the best and worst poetry in the world; it has set on fire and broken countless hearts throughout human history.  We often times throw the word around, using it to describe an assortment of feelings and behaviors and many things described as love actually have nothing to do with it at all.  Yet, in a world were love has many meanings and uses how can someone searching for the true meaning find it?  What exactly does love look like?  What does it have to do with us and serving others?  Can true love really be found?  These are all question that we may have already asked ourselves but have not yet found the answers to.

                Love seems like a simple word yet why do we find it hard to understand?  A recent study showed that 5% said love is nothing but a momentary feeling, 8% said love is sex, 27% said love means commitment, and 62% said love is a feeling which comes from the heart and soul<?xml:namespace prefix = w ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" />.. (sdbahatt)...  In our modern society we are bombarded with many different meanings of the word love and often times we confuse love with sex, physical attributes, and feelings or emotions.  Unfortunately, none of these things are the definition of love.  Love, as we’re going to see, acts in the best interest of the beloved making it practical, a learning process, and a choice.  Love is “not just an, emotion as the world sees it, it is action.  While admittedly it does have emotion involved with it, it is not as unstable or changeable as emotions are.  Affections come and go; grow and fade, but love does not.  It is constant because it is more than an emotion; it is more of a constant state of selflessness that produces action.. (Higgins)...”  Love in other words is a verb because it produces action that comes from a state of selflessness and it is a deliberate choice you make.  To get to the core of the meaning we must turn to the bible.

                1 Corinthians 13 provides the world’s most beautiful ode to love.. (New King James Bible)...  Here we see an uncommon word for love; there are three Greek words that describe love, two of which are familiar to us.  One is Eros, which is used to refer to that part of love constituting a passionate, intense desire for something; it is often referred to as a sexual desire and not much else.  The other is Philos, which suggested the appreciation and affection found in a friendship or in family members.. (Moseley)...  Unfortunately, neither of the two words comes close to grasping more fully God’s love so the word chosen to describe the kind of love that produces action is agape.  Agape describes a love that is based on deliberate choice of the one who loves rather than the worthiness of the one who is loved.  For you see “God’s love is very different from us.  let me offer a practical definition of God’s kind of love as it works itself out in human lives:  love is a commitment of the will and a joy of the spirit that expresses itself in the choice to act in the best interest of the beloved.”.. (Carlson)..

                Let us now take a look at what agape is like based on the bible:  Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love is not jealous or proud, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Love is not irritable, Doesn't keep score when it has been wronged, It is never glad about injustices, but Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.. (The Message; New Living Translation)...  In other word’s “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything.  The bottom line in this biblical definition of love is commitment.  Love is not fickle; it is mot mere sentimentality; it’s not subjective; its more than a nice feeling.  Love is concrete and practical because it is rooted and grounded in the character of God.”.. (Carlson)..

How was love demonstrated to us through our Creator? This question can simply be answered by the One who created love and is love.  The bible says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life... (New Living Transaltion)..” Here God demonstrated His love in this manner; it is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  Jesus is the love that came down from heaven to not only teach love but He lived it everyday of His earthly life.  He taught that the first step into loving we must first “‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your passion, all your soul, and all your mind.”.. (The Message; New Living Translation)..  Then the second is “Love your neighbor as yourself.”.. (New Living Transaltion)..  The third He taught is one of the toughest to do for anyone and that is:  “I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best - the sun to warm and the rain to nourish - to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”.. (The Message; New Living Translation).. 

                God’s love did not end with Jesus teaching about love but it was His love for humanity that was so great that it shook the starts and changed the course of human history.  It is the love that brought Him to come down from heaven to dwelling with us to being crucified and dying a painful death.  Imagine this:  you are being accused of faulty crime so they take to be beaten brutally that you cant even recognized yourselves, and now you are sentence to death as if your disfiguration isn’t enough.  Personally i would probably have hatred and rage that fills every fiber of my being as I take a good look at the people who have accused me.  Why then did one man and our Lord Jesus Christ shook the stars and changed our perspective on love?  Because as He felt the rejection, hate, and nails being driven in His hands, He cried out to our Heavenly Father and said, “Forgive them Father for they do not know what they do.”.. (New King James Bible)..<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />....

                Scientist like scholars has said that no man alive could have endured the excruciating pain that Jesus suffered in His last hours here on earth.  They don’t understand how He did it, but the bible continues to tell us that it was agape; loving unconditionally, not giving up.. (Carm)...  It was His love for you and me that drove Him to continue staying strong while lash after lash stroke Him.  It was His love for ALL humanity that kept Him carrying the cross after He had already fallen three times and a mile left to go.  It is love that made Him give up His life in exchange that we may spend eternity in Heaven and drove Him to say the words, “It is finished” while hanging on the cross.  “Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”.. (New Living Transaltion)......

The cross was the ultimate display of love but God had demonstrated His love before He sent His Son to earth.  It goes all the way back before the foundation of the earth.  The earth we live in now wasn’t made to be empty but it had a purpose.  The purpose was for us to dwell in it and enjoy the creation that has been made for us.  Everything you see now; the breathtaking sunset, isn’t there just to be there but it was made for you and me.  To stand in awe and look at the beauty of God’s hand.  Unfortunately, it was our disobedience that caused brokenness between us and God; that brokenness is called sin.  But even after the fall of humanity He still showed His love and kindness towards us.  We see throughout the entire bible; from redeeming the Israelites of slavery in Egypt to the death of Jesus Christ for our sins and resurrection.  We see it displayed in nature and in other people; His love is everywhere.  The cross marked a breathtaking point of what love is, how it looks, and where we can go to find it, but it did not end there for Jesus still continues to live among us through the Holy Spirit.....

So, now, I challenge you to loose this life, loose this world, and “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your passion, all your soul, and all your mind.”  In other words, with everything you’ve got and let Him be Lord of your life.  I encourage you to love those around you, including your enemies, because God has shown His love and forgiveness towards you.  “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.  Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear.”.. (New Living Transaltion)..  Let agape devour everything you are for it is love that is complete.....

"Agape is total love, the love that devours those that experience it. Whoever knows and experiences Agape sees that nothing else in this world is of any importance, only loving. ".. (Coelho)......

Being a Christian isn't just a religion or title it is having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  That is basically what Christian means.  Once you have that relationship there is nothing in this world that can take it away from you.  And it is more amizing than the treasures of this old world. 

I use to have a great life without God, to tell you the truth, i had friends i use to make people laugh, but i use to always feel like something or someone was missing in my life, i use to feel such loneliness and emptiness in my interior, u know.  In fact i use to get everything i wanted but in the end i would always feel alone and so empty.  So one day i said this is enought i am going out there and find water for this dry heart of mine.  So one day i went with my aunt and she was listening to Christian rock and i was like wow this music sounds really good, she told me i could keep the cd so i did,  i would always listen to it (it was Jeremy Camp)  Then i started to feel good in the inside but yet my soul was still dry and thirsty, so i started to listen to some sermons on tv and i liked them and then on August of 2006 i finally gave my life to Jesus, on that day i said, "Lord this is all of me, i don't want to keep on living like this, like a dead person just wondering in this world, i am sick of this, i am sick of feeling empty, come into this heart of mine, i want You to feel it up with joy, peace, love, life, blessing, protection,... Please help me, save me cause i need you." 

From that day on, I feel like a totally different person, i see life in a whole new perspective, and i just love life, i love people and i just feel like my soul is always full of breath and water and love, joy, peace, and i am no longer a dead person wondering about with no purpose, I am just so greatful because He has been there for me, and even though there has been hard times i know that He hasn't abbonden me because He is there to rescue me in time.  The best part is that i know i will never feel alone.