Twelve Stones - Lesson 9 - Love

Joshua 4:21-22, ‘…When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know…’

The Lord has taken us from captivity and allowed us to enter His Promised Land.
We have been in turn handed the awesome responsibility of walking differently of loving differently and teaching differently.
Have we forgotten where we came from?
Have we forgotten where we are going?
Let’s not forget our foundation and let’s certainly not forget to pass the torch to the next generation.

Some synonyms for the word Love:
Feel affection for, adore, worship, be in love with, be devoted to, care for, find irresistible and be keen on.

Here is a nice saying I found about love…

Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while she mops up the floor after her husband has walked across it in his barn boots. -Hoosier Farmer

And I believe we have all heard this one…

It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. -Tennyson

We hear a lot about love and charity.
We have heard most or all the verses we will be reading today.
I don’t believe we will hear any new commandments.

I believe we need to put away our misconceptions about what we thing these verses mean.
Forget about our wrong concepts of love.
Possibly that our parents have shown us.
Or didn’t show us.

Forget about what we see on TV or the movies as representing love.
Let’s open our heart to hear what the Lord tells us is true love.

Any opening thoughts?






Matthew 22:37-40, ‘Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

That is a commandment.
Not a suggestion and not just a quaint saying.

How can we practically put this into application?





Instead of allowing yourself to be so unhappy, just let your love grow as God wants it to grow; seek goodness in others, love more persons more; love them more impersonally, more unselfishly, without thought of return. The return, never fear, will take care of itself. –Drummond

Romans 13:9, ‘For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’

What if you have a hard time loving yourself?





Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes from selfishness to service and from solitude to kinship with all mankind. -Anonymous

James 2:8, ‘If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:’

So maybe we need to love our neighbor as the Lord loves us.

Once again can you give us some practical advice so we can apply this?





Love isn't like a reservoir. You'll never drain it dry. It's much more like a natural spring. The longer and the farther it flows, the stronger and the deeper and the clearer it becomes. -Cantor

John 15:12, ‘This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.’

How has the Lord loved you?

Is that how we are loving others?

So what are we going to do about it?





Love spends his all, and still hath store. -Bailey

John 13:35, ‘By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.’

We want others to look at us and say there is something different about that person.
It should be for this reason of love.

What are your comments here?





To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live forever. -Anonymous

1Thessalonians 3:12, ‘And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:’

Are some of our blessings being held back because of our lack of love?
Or because of misplaced love?
Or love we are funneling in the wrong direction?

Your thoughts…





Love is the only service that power cannot command and money cannot buy. -Anonymous

Romans 12:9, ‘Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.’

I think some times we love what we are not supposed to.
Not that we worship items of people.
But do we spend too much time with things we need not to be with.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder,
But I also believe we are forming too strong a relationship with things we ought not to be.

What can you share with us on what I just said?





Hebrews 13:1, ‘Let brotherly love continue.’

The following verses tell us how to love.

What advice will you give us to continue in love?
Or as may be the case with some of us, let us start in brotherly love.





1Peter 1:22, ‘Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:’

Sometimes we do things for others with the hope of getting what we want in return.
Then our hearts are not as pure as they need to be.

How do you suggest we keep our heart in check?





Human things must be known to be loved; but Divine things must be loved to be known. –Pascal

1John 4:7, ‘Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.’

He should flow through us.

For me, I know that the Lord loves my wife and children more than I ever could.
I pray that the lord would love them through me so I can see what His love is like.

What would you add to my comments?



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