Love is....

So today I got to play Paramedic for awhile on the ambulance. It was a good day the person I worked with is familiar with Nazarene Acres and knows where I stand with God. She hasn't committed herself to God yet, but keep praying because she knows. So we take this patient to the ER and I see a nurse there that was dating a friend of mine as well. I asked her if she was still dating him and she said no. She wasn't ready for a relationship at the level he was. So I am thinking back when I worked with him last and his conversation he was having with her in front of me. He talked to her several times that day and each time he said "I love you" to her before he hung up. She was letting this guy stay with her at her apartment! Then not that that wasn't bad enough but then she says she isn't ready for a relationship like he wanted. COME ON MAN! Not only that but she claims to be a church going Christian!! I didn't say anything because I would have started preaching for sure! Think about this! The phrase I love you, has become so cheapened by societal standards alone, and now I am witness to a professing "Christian", who uses the term so loosely as well. So, how do we define love now? Society says it's any time someone is seeking physical pleasures from another. The Bible says it differently, THANK YOU JESUS! 1John4:16 says "God is love". Where is God in a relationship that involves premarital sex?!?! Where is God in a societal decree of "I love you"? Maybe these people have misconstrued the scripture in 1 John 4:8 where it says "But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." I can just hear it now "oh I know about God so I must love my boyfriend,,,,,,at least at the moment." AGAIN I SAY ....COME ON MAN!!! First of all God's love has nothing to do with sex out of wedlock, and secondly the love John is talking about in this verse is the love or caring for each other. Actually having genuine concern for others of the human race. See we can get a real description of affectionate love in 1 Corinthians 13, and verse 4 where it says "love is patient and kind," and verse 6 says "It is never glad about injustice but rejoices when truth wins out." I would say that it is a HUGE injustice when someone tells another an empty "I love you", when in a supposed "serious" relationship. How is it love when people in a relationship can't WAIT to have sex and sleep together? Where is the patience in that?! If God is love and these societal traits are against the teachings of God's word, then how is premarital sex really love? IT'S NOT, IT'S AN INJUSTICE!! which the word says love is no part of. Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to preach, but if you use the phrase "I love you", PLEASE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SAYING! Love is not cheap like society has made it. It is real and God given, so only use it when you can really mean it. You will find it makes life much easier.

Peace
Wayne

PS...maybe someday you can catch my sermon on this very topic....I think you would like it.