Second Chances

I believe in the gospel of second chances.

It took a lot of falls for us to learn to walk -- imagine how many bumps and bruises we're going to get leaning to love.

          I will bring 
          the blind
          by a way
          that they knew not;

          I will lead
          them in paths
          they have not known;

          I will make darkness
          light before them
          and crooked things
          straight.

(Isaiah 42:16)

Grown Up Love

Taking lessons in love from the world is like learning to drive from a drunk.

The problem we see among the worldly is that they seek for a love separated from consequence (an impossibility), believing they can eat of the forbidden fruit and yet somehow remain in paradise (they cannot).

I guess the wicked never stopped building their tower of Babel -- they are still seeking today a heaven without God.

The apostle Paul, speaking of charity, said

          When I was a child
          I spake as a child,
          I understood as a child,
          I thought as a child:

          But when I became a man
          I put away childish things.

(1 Cor. 13:11)

Without God’s gift of charity, we will continue to love at an 8th-grade-level.  (Not my best year.)

Christ is going to teach us a better way.

Holy Love

When we love as Christ, with pure love, people notice.  That kind of love stands out like a bright neon orange vest upon which all can read: CAUTION: CHRIST AT WORK. 

          By this
          shall all men know
          that ye are my disciples

          if ye have love
          one to another.

(John 13:35)

Because God is holy, His love must be so, too. 

This holy love certainly doesn't seem to come from this world.  It must transcend culture and time; be the same in Africa or America; the same for our first primeval parents as it is for you and me.  

“Charity never faileth” because it is grounded in the unchanging character and goodness of God.

Can the same be said of our love?