1st John 3.11-24

"11For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
12-13We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don't be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
14-15The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don't go together.
16-17This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
18-20My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us. "

-The Message

I really love reading the bible. It's kinda crazy. I used to hate it. I used to never want to do it. And then once I came back and made a blog which held me accountable, the desire to learn more about Jesus and what we're supposed to do as his children, the blessings he has for us as his children, it's just ALL so amazing!

I like this passage in 1st John. It's about love again, big surprise (it IS the Love Month after all). But love has so many faces. Loving God, loving people, loving your family, loving your spouse, loving life... I could go on...

I've already gone into a big love topic in past blogs so I won't again, if you want to hear more about love, just continue to read down the blog, but I will point out a few things that spoke to me about these verses today.

I love how it says "God's reality". That's pretty awesome. That's the REAL reality. Everything else is just a sham, a facade, a blurry and distorted image of what human kind has been led to think reality should be, what life should be, how it should be lived. That's how we know that it's not really reality when different cultures all over the world have different practices or methods of even marriage or age in which they begin to work, etc etc... the entire world's perception of reality is not the same thus it's not really reality, is it? But God stands true, he stands real. He never changes. You could go to India or Africa and find Christians loving the same God you are with the same principals you live by, and I love that. It makes you feel like you're part of something huge, something bigger than just YOUR life or YOUR problems... And that's the reality of it!

That's good stuff.

Lord,
Thank you for today. I ask for physical healing in my muscles and my neck from all my hard work lately, in the name of Jesus. Please be with Tracey today as she has to still get to work without me today, and I ask that Sarah be a blessing to her and their ability to get things done. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, Jesus. Please be with me today as I'm taking care of Sofia. I just proclaim that today will be a delightful day without many baby tears or disobedience from Mekaih. I speak your love over today, Jesus. Holy Spirit, you're welcome into my heart and all it's hidden places to reside and rearrange the furniture to how YOU see fit. I love you so much.

amen.