TOUGH LOVE

Posted 3/1/2013

DEVOTIONAL SERIES ON THE LOVE OF GOD 02282013

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SCRIPTURE:  PHILIPPIANS 1:9-11;     

• 9 ¶ So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings
• 10 so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of:
• 11 bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

DEVOTIONAL   “TOUGH LOVE”

Many are familiar with the term ‘tough love’ and this devotional attempts to give a new meaning to the usual application. Paul was writing to the Christians in Corinth. “Corinth was known as an especially "wild” city and had a reputation for licentiousness. Paul was faced with a city that was used to coin one of the Greek words for "fornicate”, which was korinthiazomai! This reputation was based, in part, on the ancient Greek historian Strabo's report that there were 1,000 sacred prostitutes in the temple of Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth, which was a 1,886-foot hill that rises above the City of Corinth to the south.” (Archeological live cam) Paul challenged them to:

• 1. “Let your love flourish.”
• dictionary.reference.com/browse/flourish
• to be in a vigorous state; thrive: a period in which art flourished. 2. to be in its or in one's prime; be at the height of fame, excellence, influence, etc. 
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• 2...Love much and love well and love appropriately. Notice Jesus deserves all our love! We sing the hymn entitled, “My Jesus I love thee”, and the hymn presents the question, “Do I love my Jesus as much as he loves me”? Take time and think on this today. Commit to Lord you will love him more today.
• .
• 3. Let your love be sincere, intelligent, circumspect, and exemplary of a life that pleases Jesus. Do others see God in my life?
• 4. We are to be bountiful in fruits of the Spirit. (Definition of bountiful= Bountiful means plentiful, abundant or in large quantities. (adjective). When your harvest produces twice as much as it did last year,) 
• 5. Enlisting others to be involved with the Glory and praises of God. Each believer’s heart should be in the praise choir ticking for Jesus.
• 6. Let our prayer be “lead me to some soul today”. God wants you to be a soul hunter for Jesus. This is a responsibility of all believers. So ask God to use your talents today to touch someone with the love of Jesus today. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

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