We read through some 1 John verses in the morning, interspersed with moments of prayer about learning how to love God better. I'm always amazed at how cool it is to just read and pray with a group of friends. Simple, but powerful.
We also talked about the love spectrum, where Care Bear warm fuzzy love is on the left and St. Paul-I'll-die-for-you-Jesus love on the right. If your concept of loving God is working up good feelings towards God all the time, or your Christian behavior is limited to sitting in a church service once a week, then you're a warm fuzzy lover. On the other hand, if you believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son, who gives you forgiveness of sin and eternal life, and you fully surrender yourself to him out of thankfulness, living a life just like he lived, that's true love.
John's main idea is that true knowledge and love for God isn't some special knowledge or an emotional experience. It's a lifestyle. It makes me think of James who said (I'm paraphrasing, here) "You can tell me you believe in God all you want; I'll show you I believe by how I live."
By the end of the day, yesterday, there were quite of few of us committed to upgrading our love of God somehow this week.
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UPGRADE!!!
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