What is Agape Love? And are we loving others enough?

What is Agape (pronounced: agápē) Love? I asked the Lord the same thing after He told me that He was Agape Love. It was something that I wanted to understand on a deeper level. It was something that I had to understand. If God took enough time to tell me that He was this specific kind of love, it was beneficial for me to understand it, to understand the God who loves me more than I'll ever realize. Eventually, I came to see that this love can only come from our Heavenly Father. It's love beyond our understanding, but it's the love that God has for us.

According to some internet searches, I was right in my belief. Here's one definition that backed up what God was leading me to understand: Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for His children.

But is that enough? I think we must understand what love is to understand agape.

Love is deep affection for other people. It doesn't have to be sexual love, and it certainly isn't lust. Love means caring about someone, willing to do anything for that person, and making sure that they are being taken care of, that they aren't suffering.

But love is deeper than this. GOD is love. (1 John 4:8)

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God understands love like we could never understand it. I think a mother's love is close to God love because they gave birth to that child, and since God created us, it has to be a similar love. But, still, I believe the way God loves is much deeper. Why?

Because of John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God watched His Son die, so that we may live. Would you willingly give up your child? Even if it meant saving the world? I don't think I could do that. I don't think that I'd be able to sacrifice someone so precious to me, yet God did. 

So we see that because God loves us, He gave us the most precious gift in the world, eternal salvation through sacrificing His only Son.

But that's not the only gift that God has given us. He has given us His grace (unmerited favor) through His Son.  

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)

Remember, God is love. Because He is love, He turns curses to blessings! Which ties in to grace because through grace we get these blessings. (Deuteronomy 23:5) Also, read Deuteronomy 28 if you want to know the blessings you'll get just from loving God back and obeying His commandments! This will also give you an idea of the curses He's turned to blessings!

but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

See, this article isn't even long enough to describe just how much God loves us. Because when we try to break it down, it's impossible to count the ways that God (Agape Love) has shown us His love. What about when you were down and depressed, and He lifted you back up? Or when He gave you that job you were praying for? Or when He healed you? Or how about when you did absolutely nothing deserving of love, but He gave it to you anyway?

If God can love us unconditionally, no matter how many stupid mistakes we make, why can't we love others the same way? If this agape love is burning inside of us (It is because we've accepting God as savior.), then why can't we look at that person who hurt us and forgive them for doing whatever it was they did?

God is agape love. When we know God, we have His love inside of us. We have the ability to show God's love to others, but are we doing enough? We certainly aren't doing what He's doing, and we'll never be the kind of love God is, but we have enough of it inside of us to show others what true love really is. God.

God loved us enough to send His Son to earth with the whole purpose to die. Die. Can you imagine that being your only purpose for being alive? Could you imagine being the father or mother who knew that your child was doomed to die from the moment they were born, knowing that you could stop it, but you wouldn't? Because that would ruin everything. That would be the end of forgiveness, grace and mercy as you knew it, but God loved us enough to not to stop it. He loved us enough to watch His child DIE. He watched a part of Himself die just so that we, humans, could live. Is that the love running through you today? Of course it is, but what are we doing with this love?

I'm not saying it's easy because it's not. We let our emotions rule us, but when you think about all that God is, all that God does, shouldn't we at least try to love like our Father? Like the one who would do anything to show us that He does love us?

Agape love is deeper than the love we know, but we can tap into it. We have access to that love because God is love, and He's living within us. What more can we do today to show that love to others?

Victory is Ours for the Taking!

It's not big news when I say that Jesus died on the cross.  It's not big news when I tell you that in dying on the cross, He died to take away our sins and make a way straight to Him that isn't through sacrifice.  But when Jesus died, crying out, "It is finished," (John 19:30) what was He really saying?

I'm sure there are many different things that Jesus meant when He cried out these words.  He could've meant that His reason for being on Earth was done or that He knew it was His last moments.  What I think it means - well, one of the meanings of this phrase - was that He had given us victory.  That when it was finished, the victory, over situations in our life, battles, is ours. 

See, as a Christian, we are in constant battle with Satan's forces.  The devil will come against us faster than we can think.  He tells us lies, very convincing lies, brings us down, strikes us with fear and sickness, but we don't have to live that life.  Why?  Because the battle has already been won!  When Jesus died, He took care of that for us!

When God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us on the cross, He knew that with His death we would have victory.  So why are we still fighting these battles that have already been won?

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)

It's simple.  We're human, and we want to do things on our own.  We want the doctor to fix our aches or medicine to take away the depression.  But we have to learn to let that go.  Reach out and grab your victory.  It's there for the taking.  

God wants us to live a life of honor and glory in His Name.  That also means that we can use His Name to proclaim our victory because it gives GOD the honor He's so deserving of.  We have power in the Name of Jesus to overcome devils, make mountains move!  That means that our mountains, the things that cause us to stumble or completely stop us from having faith because they are weighing us down, will MOVE simply because we have victory through Jesus!

Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: (Zechariah 4:7)

Put your faith into that victory.  I know that it's hard, but if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed  (That's about the size of a poppy seed.), we can move mountains, casts trees into seas, and they will have to obey us because we are speaking this in the Name of Jesus.  (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6) 

That's not a lot of faith that is required of us if you think about it, but somehow, we make it into a lot.  We make our molehills mountains instead.  Step back, take a deep breath, and step over that molehill before it becomes a mountain.  Who art thou, O great mountain?   Who is this mountain to stop us?  In the Name of Jesus, it will be nothing but a plain - flat land for us to walk across instead of being stopped by a gigantic rock.  

Step into faith and cast away that mountain.  WE HAVE THE VICTORY!  CLAIM IT TODAY!


For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  (1 John 5:4)

It's a Relationship, not a religion!

Too often we focus on the religious aspect of church instead of a relationship with God.  We go to church, sit there and listen to the songs and preaching, and then leave, forgetting what the sermon was even about.  This isn’t what we need to be doing.  We need to develop a relationship with God instead of just being religious.

How often do you read your Bible?  Every day?  How much do you read a day if you do?  A few verses?  We need to get in the Word and stay in the Word!  It needs to be in and on our hearts, our lives.  We need to live in the love of God – forgetting the traditions of man.

Mark 7: 5-9, 13

Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.   For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.   And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition….Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

We cannot rely on men to make our lives better!  How much better to live in the love of God, to live a relationship with the almighty than to focus on our earthly and worldly lives?  What can that life bring us that God can’t abundantly give us?  Absolutely nothing – nothing but heartache and pain. 

This is what happens to us when the things of man are in our hearts: Mark 7: 21-23

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:  All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

These are what come out of hearts if God isn’t what’s occupying our hearts.  We need to push all of this aside and focus on what God wants for us to do.  He wants us to love Him, not just like Him on Sundays, to lay aside all earthly feelings, doings and focus on Him.     

We need to actively seek a relationship with God.  Talk to Him.  Love on Him and let Him love on us.  We need to wake up every morning, talking to God and knowing that without Him our life would be nothing.  We don’t want to live in what Mark 7: 21-23 says we will if we don’t have God in our lives or hearts.  We want to be blessed, and if we actively seek that relationship with God, we will. 

Deuteronomy 6:5

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

The other night, Eddie James came to visit our church.  He sang a song, Nazarite Cry, on his new CD Shift, which I strongly suggest buying.  When I heard it and as I was worshiping to it, I had this thought:  We need to love God as much as a lover loves.  We need to be a lover of God.

Here's that song:  I think it goes well with this devo.  Take some time to listen to it and let it soak in.  Focus on God and worship him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuh_pUUr6-0

Guest Post: I Was... (The Story of Amos)

In the Old Testament, there is the story of a prophet sent to warn the Israelites of God's anger about what they were doing.  The prophet's name was Amos, and his story is contained in the Biblical book by that name.  One part of this story struck me recently as I have been contemplating what it means to be a Prophet -- someone intent on sowing God Seed. 

First, read the passage in which Amos has been brought before Amaziah and is about to be cast out of the region for prophesying there.

                Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet,
                nor have I belonged to a company of prophets;
                I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.
                The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,
                Go, prophesy to my people Israel." 

                                                --Amos 7:14-15

What I love about this passage is that God didn't call the high priest or the people in the Temple.  Instead, he called a local businessman to proclaim His intentions.

I so remember a wonderful friend of mine shortly after I got immersed in God stuff.  Now we had been going to church since we were babies, but somehow we got taught that "God stuff" was for those who knew what they were reading.  It was "over our heads."  To be fair, a lot of the God stuff was really under our feet and in our hearts--it was the way we lived and treated others.  But reading the Bible? Understanding the Bible?   

That was for someone much more qualified than we were.

So she called one day when we were in our 20's and she said, "What're you doing?" To which I replied honestly, "Reading the Bible, and this part is fascinating."  She got very quiet and literally said, "Oh, we're not supposed to read the Bible like that. Don't you think we need someone else to explain it?"

Thankfully I didn't laugh out loud at her though I probably came very close, and in the ensuing many years, we have laughed together about that conversation many, many times.  Yet it still always kind of bothers me that we sometimes get the message that "God stuff"--understanding and wisdom--is for someone much more learned than we are.

That's why I love this passage.  In effect, Amos is saying, "Look, dude.  This isn't about me.  I didn't pick this calling on my heart, God put it there. I'm just following what He told me to do.  I was a shepherd and a tree mender.  Trust me, this whole prophet thing is way outside of what I ever thought I would be doing too.  But God called me, and here I am."

I feel like Amos a lot actually.  Who am I to be seeing insights in the Bible or in what others say?  Who am I to understand things that don't have solid, concrete, real-world, everybody-can-see-it qualities?

I don't know.  All I know is, like Amos, I was a simple housewife.  I was a high school teacher. I was just someone off the street, and then God called me and here I am.

If you've ever felt that way, know that you're not alone!  God doesn't call the qualified.  He qualifies the called, and just like Amos and me, you may well find yourself going, "Look, this isn't about me. It's about God.  He called me, and here I am."

And in all honesty, it's not such a bad place to be once you get used to saying, "I was..."

Copyright Staci Stallings, 2012

Staci Stallings, the author of this article, is a stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side. She is a #1 Best Selling Christian author and the founder of both Grace & Faith Author Connection and CrossReads--a site where Christian readers and authors can connect.

For Two Days ONLY Buy Staci's #1 Best Selling ebook Deep in the Heart for only 99 Cents!   Plus, check out dozens of other great Free and bargain Christian titles at the CrossReads March Madness Sale!   Click here to see all the titles available Including Deep in the Heart and Read Me Dead by Emerald Barnes, the author of this blog. :)

For Unto Us a Child Is Born...

<sup>Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the snow.  The smell of cookies baking in the oven.  The excitement of my nieces and nephews as they anxiously await Santa's arrival.  But, there is one thing that I think we tend to forget about the holiday season.  The true reason we celebrate.  Jesus.  

We celebrate the birth of the Man who was born and raised for one purpose.  To die for us.  Yet, we glorified Santa in His place.  

Sure, I know exactly why we celebrate Christmas, and I'm more than thankful that God saw fit to send His Son to die for me, and that Jesus would bear my sins in such a cruel, horrible manner.  

But on Christmas day, what is my focus?  

There used to be a time in my life where I would sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, but after I grew up, I kind of lost focus on that.  

I know, technically, the day we celebrate isn't His exact birthday, but we're supposed to be acknowledging it on that day.  And what do we do?  We focus on the presents, Santa, making the perfect holiday meal, impressing our family, etc.  And I'm just as guilty.  I get lost in the fun.  It's easy to do.

As it is said, "JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!"  Remember that when you wake up on Christmas morning.  Sing a chorus of Happy Birthday, and thank Him for bearing your sins.  

Merry Christmas, all!  May God Bless you and keep you safe during the holidays!

Luke 24: 7-20</sup>    

⁷ And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

¹⁵ So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. ¹⁷ Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. ¹⁸ And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.