Love Is The Difference Series

Love is the Difference

Grant van Boeschoten

October 7, 2007

1 Corinthians 13-8a Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love never fails.

Some impressions that Kids have on love:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love."

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth."

"Love is when someone hurts you, and you get so mad, but you don’t yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings."

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is okay."

"Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas -if you stop opening presents and listen."

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

"You really shouldn’t say ’I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Love is the Difference in your life. With Love, you can be the difference.

Love is the Difference between a friend and an acquaintance

Love is the Difference between thought and action.

Love is the Difference between good and evil.

Love is the Difference between Life and Death.

How good are you at loving? How much of your love comes from feelings and how much of your love is based on decisions and principles.

There are two kinds of love that we can have. There is the natural kind of love, which is simply love that comes naturally. It finds its motivation in feelings and emotions.

Then there is the God kind of love. This is the kind of love that makes a difference in the world. It doesn’t always come naturally to us, but with the God kind of love in us, we set ourselves up to win in life. This is a supernatural love that comes only from being connected to God.

Rick Warren in his book The Purpose Driven Life says, “Life is all about love!”

“Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants you to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like him, so love is the foundation of every command he has given us; ‘the whole Law can be summed up in this one command; ‘Love others as you love yourself” (123).

There is a saying by Arsene Housaye which states, “Tell me whom you love, and I will tell you what you are.”

I want to revise his quote and say it this way instead, “Tell me HOW you love, and I will tell you what you are.”

Because if you have got the God kind of love in you, then you are a Christian, you carry the spirit of God in you, because God is love.

How you love is the defining point of who you are.

The God kind of love sometimes can go up against what makes sense, it doesn’t allow for revenge and it forgives the people that you and I think should never be forgiven.

The God kind of love is such a powerful force that there is nothing on earth that can compete with it.

The Bible says that the God kind of Love keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:5 “Love is not irritable and keeps no record of wrongs.”

The God kind of love doesn’t carry a grudge or regurgitate old hurts.

That’s mother birds feed their young you know. They go and have a meal and fly back to the nest where all the little baby birds are waiting. Then momma bird regurgitates the food, which is basically the opposite of eating it. She forces the food out of her stomach, up her throat, through her beak and into the waiting beaks of little baby bird.

The natural kind of love does the same thing. Somebody hurts your feelings and its not just a little hurt, it’s a big hurt. It’s the kind of hurt that makes you sad, mad, angry and disappointed all at the same time. Your feelings are hurt, but the Bible says that you need to forgive or else God won’t forgive you.

So you forgive the person like God asks you to do. But if you have got the natural kind of love working in you, then the next time that you are upset or that you are in an argument with that person; you regurgitate that old hurt.