Daily Inspiration

[cmc]

Happy Valentine's Day! A Valentine's Day Two-Part Message (Part TWO-Loving Others)

Jesus said, "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR as
yourself.” Matthew 22:39

Say to yourself: I’m willing to be counted as one that loves fully!

Is it really possible? It isn’t by chance that you are reading this. This
is a Divine appointment. You’ve chosen the narrow gate, and NOW it is
time. It has nothing to do with age. It has nothing to do with your past
history, for agreeing to love fully you bypass your biography and become
more. It has to do with a willingness to know God, to know and experience
God’s love, to know yourself, to honor your humanity, and to step out and
say, “I’m willing to be counted as one that loves fully.”

Saying that you are willing to love fully in your free will allows the
full love of God to come through you - all the time.

Each and every one of us is going to make a difference in this world.
Everything we do becomes a light that shines out to another soul. There
are a whole lot of people in this world who are waiting for you and me to
get our acts together.

Let’s accept the challenge of loving humanity—to know the love of God in
ourselves and extend it to all people everywhere.

Until we can unconditionally love ourselves, until we can have a
relationship with ourselves, it is impossible to have a TRUE relationship
with someone else. It will never be safe.

Are you safe with you?

In an inter-dependent relationship, we come together as two whole
people—not as two halves trying to make a whole. We come together, not
because we need to, but because we want to share something. The joy of a
relationship that is inter-dependent is that we come together to create
something which hasn’t been created before.

When we come together as two whole people, we’re no longer afraid because
we have ourselves and we don’t “need” the other person. We come together
as two whole people, and then we create something greater than ourselves.
Through our combined energy, we bring forth the presence of the Christ in
a dimension we have never experienced by ourselves. This is our purpose.

Jesus said, “When two or three are gathered together in My name, there am
I in the midst of them.”

We cannot know the power and the presence of Christ until we are willing
to love fully, beginning with ourselves, and then reaching out to others.

The person who desires happiness and fullness of life must learn how to
express love toward all if he or she is to be successful in obtaining
their desire. The only way we can truly benefit from the tremendous power
of love is to express it. A large percentage of our physical ills are due
to mental strain. This condition has, at its conception, the absence of
love, which is a state of fear.

I had a very good friend a few years back by the name of Rev. Bill
Fischer. When Bill was in ministerial school, he took a course on love.

The director of the prayer ministry was teaching the course and she told
every one of the students to love, unconditionally, every person in their
lives. She said if anyone had a problem with this they should see her.

Bill Fischer went to see her.

Bill told her, "There is one fellow student in my ministerial class I
cannot stand. There is nothing about this person that I like."

The director told him to "go back to class, and observe him objectively.
Find something about him you like, tell him what you like, and then come
back to see me."

In a few days Bill went back in to see the director and said, "I'm sorry,
I looked over this person's life, and there is absolutely nothing I can
stand about this person." The director said, Bill Fischer, you go back
there, take another day, look over every detail of this man's life and
find one thing that you like, THEN tell him about it." He went back the
following day. The director looked him directly in the eye and said,
"Okay, what did you like?"

Bill replied, "Well, I like his necktie."

The director said, "Go immediately and tell this man you like his
necktie."

So Bill went to the man told him. "I really like your tie." In that
moment, the man loosened his tie, took it off, and gave it to Bill.

Bill Fischer loved to tell that story because he and the man were close
friends through the rest of his life. That moment was the beginning of a
powerful, long-lasting, loving friendship.

Often, more than we realize, the lack of love in our lives is simply the
lack of expressed love. A person may feel ever so kindly toward people,
but then close himself or herself in, by not venturing to express any of
their good feelings. The desire for love is frequently the need to express
love toward others.

There is a legendary story about a brother and sister who were squabbling,
like brothers and sisters do, over some leftover pie. They each wanted a
bigger piece. Through his arguments, the brother finally won control of
the knife. About this time, a parent arrived. The parent said, "I don't
care who cuts the pie, but whoever does, has to give the other the right
to select which piece they want." The little boy then cut the pie into two
equal pieces.

In 1st John 4:17 we read: "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may
have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as he is, so are we in this
world." Let's break this scripture down: "herein is our love made
perfect." Love is already perfect. It is from God. We must have boldness
in the day of judgment. What is boldness? If love is already within us, it
would be easy to express that love, to bring our light into dark corners,
to always let love shine no matter what is going on outside of us.

When is the Day of Judgment? Today is our day of judgment – our personal
day of judgment. When we go to bed tonight, we are going to have to answer
the question, "How loving was I today? Is there any way I could have been
more loving?" Because, as Jesus Christ is, so are we in our own world. The
love we hold back is the only pain we experience. We do not manufacture
love. Like God, love is. All the love in the universe is basically Divine
love, just as all life is Divine and of God, the Creator. We merely have
to be ready and willing to express this Divine love in order for it to
show forth in our world. We must be wise enough to circulate it as freely
as we do our money. We must "spend" our love to increase the amount in
circulation.

If love had been lived as often as it has been defined, earth would be
Heaven.

There is a piece of poetry by Leigh Hunt called "About Ben Adhem." It
tells the tale of a good man who awoke one night and saw an angel writing
something in a golden book. Ben Adhem inquired what he was writing. The
reply was, "The names of those to love the Lord."

"Is mine one?" he said.

"No," said the angel.

"Then write me in as one who loves his fellow man."

The angel complied and vanished. The next night the angel returned and
showed Ben Adhem the names of those that God's love had blessed, and lo,
his own name led the rest.

We love God only to the degree that we express love in our own life.

"Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment
which you had from the beginning..... That we should love one another."
1st John 2:7; 3:11

I love you!

God Bless You! Happy Valentine's Day!
Christopher Ian Chenoweth


reprinted with permission

[IO Storm]

How beautiful cmc......

In 1st John 4:17 we read: "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may
have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as he is, so are we in this
world."


I was watching the sun go down the other evening and i was suddenly and powerfully overtaken by the thought..."For God so loved the world that He gave..."

The (love) behind the cross ...the meaning came to me in a way I had not thought of before.

I began to weep and thought not only of the unfathomable love my Father has for me; but for

the whole world...and how I want to be an instrument of that peace.