Love God, Love People, No Fear

2 John 5-6 5 "And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."1 John 3:23-24 "And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

Loving God first and with all our heart, causes us to love people because we want His best for them. A friend recently reminded me about something that I had thought about many times-the impersonal touch of blogging, IM, texting,etc. Ain't technology great. It's wonderful to be able to "talk" with someone you want to talk with at any moment via any of these methods, and there are many times when these choices are needed. But I would say that those same methods, tools, have also caused all types of relationships to suffer rather than to flourish. Having a relationship in person, that personal touch, "communicating" in conversation, common interest, adventure, that physical touch can not be replaced by any of these tools. The expression of Love or Care or Concern that you see in someone's eyes can't be conveyed in a cold email or IM or Text. You can't hug someone via any of these methods either. The human touch is so important. And yes you can't see or hear the hurt or pain in someone else either and this too is part of life, part of relationship with anyone, real world things that we have to work through. So anyway, people are the most important things in our life next to Jesus. Loving people is the most important thing we can do. Please don't hide behind these tools, but allow people to see you, experience you, the wonderful, strong, passionate, gentle, warrior/warrior princess, hero, and loving person you really are, after God's own heart.