God is LOVE and I love YOU!

We named our family adoption blog, "Because of Love," because it is by God's love and grace that we are adopting. You can read our "Because of Love," post here. On this journey, these words keep having more and more meaning for us. The church we attend, Vintage Faith is doing a series right now where we are basically taking a Theology 101 course. Please join us anytime. We go to the 9am service on Sundays, and we'd love to see you there. All are welcome! Our pastor, Dan Kimball, is so passionate about us being able to not only study God's Word on our own, but for each of us to be able to teach others what we believe as well. Yesterday, part of our study was on our definition of God, and making sure that it is biblical. The most important attribute of God is found in 1 John 4:8b, "God is LOVE." It's so simple and yet it's so profound. Love is accepting. Love is gentle and kind. Love forgives. Love is safe. Love is everlasting. Love is GOD.

On September 1st my sister's dear friend, Celestial Dove Cassman, was murdered by her boyfriend. She didn't get into an accident, she wasn't suffering from an illness, she wasn't elderly. It wasn't naturally "her time." Someone else decided her life would end. MURDERED. She was full of joy, love, and kindness. The world has lost a precious gift.You can see her memorial page here. I didn't know how to process this or how to feel about such tragedy. I didn't even cry. I didn't go the memorial, because I wanted to remain closed off to it. Then this morning, I felt it. I wept. I got into the shower and wailed. I sat with this woman and had lunch with her. I looked into her eyes. I loved her, because my sister loved her. And yet, I didn't know if she had a relationship with Jesus. I didn't share my love for the Lord with her, or tell her how my joy is found in Jesus. I didn't tell her that my Redeemer lives and there is always hope. If I believe what I claim to believe, that Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life and no one gets to the Father but through Him," John 14:6, then I should have done more. I'm not going to sit here with regret, but rather, move forward with hope and lots more love to give. Real love, that is not afraid of rejection. True love, that leaps, and is not afraid of the fall. So many times I've said, "people will know I'm a Christian by my love," which is true, but I sometimes use it as a cop out. I can't just be nice and fun and accepting. I need to share my heart. My heart is for Jesus. My heart is bursting with love for what Christ has done for us. If I claim to love YOU, then I want you to know this. I can't lose another friend to death, not knowing whether or not I had done my best to share God's love with that person. If I truly believe in salvation, then I would obviously want to save EVERYONE I come into contact with, or that would mean I just don't care enough about that person's life. I don't want to live a comfortable life, where everyone likes me because I'm so agreeable. I want to put myself out there and be uncomftable for Christ.  Our blog will still be about our adoption journey, but it will now also be about our journey of life with Christ.
"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19