Wired for love! Written by Dr. Caroline Leaf Have you ever thought about what it means, really means, to be made in Gods image as it says in Genesis 1:26? This is something I have spent much time meditating on over the years, especially when I was still in clinical practice. I would have patients coming to me with lots of baggage, which included all kinds of evaluations and assessments of all their learning problems and emotional issues. Although I have a healthy respect for the diagnostic tools they had gone through and that I had been trained to administer, I felt we had to dig below the surface of the issues to separate out the real person from the person they had become. Only then would I really know how to help my patient. And so I pursued a line of research that would show me that God made us PERFECT in His image and that the negatives in our life come from voluntary choices we make, reactions to events and circumstances and things that can happen to us that we have no control over (Ecclesiastes 7:29; James 1-3: Philippians 4:4). But despite all this, we still were originally created in the perfect image of a perfect God - and this is the core of who we are. It also becomes the departure point from which we deal with who we have become. I found this to be the case as well in my scientific research - that we are designed brain and body to only think good thoughts and be in health (3 John 2) and that toxic thinking ravages the brain body in the same way sickness ravages the brain and body. In Science this is called the optimism bias. God made everything and science is a name for describing how the universe and humans and animals and plants and the forces of nature work. So using science to understand God more is also a way of increasing our admiration for this mighty God we serve. Instead of thinking of yourself as a poor old sinner saved by grace; rather think of yourself as a magnificent creation of God who has made some bad choices or experienced some knocks in life and who, through the grace of Jesus Christ, can choose to appropriate his grace and receive forgiveness and cleansing. This wonderful choice actually rewires the brain back to its original state each time we acknowledge him. This is where science and grace meet. You see - we are wired for love! And as we practice His Presence daily we step into our natural design, which is one of love and perfection. GOD WANTS US WIRED FOR LOVE 1) Love is the GREATEST of all commandments! Matt 22:37-40 37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. NKJV Matt 22:40 40 All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others. TLB Rom 13:8 8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. NKJV Gal 5:14 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. NKJV 2) Love is a commandment so love can operate in spite of FEELINGS. John 15:12 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (NKJ) John 15:17 17 I demand that you love each other, (TLB) John 13:34-35 34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. NIV 3) Love is God and God is love. I Jn 4:8 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (NKJ) 4) Love is a SEED. Gal 5:22 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love . . . NKJV Gal 5:22 22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love . . . TLB 5) Love is a CHOICE so set you mind & heart on love. Col 3:14 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (NKJ) Col 3:14 14 And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity. Deut 30:19 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you that today I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Oh, that you would choose life; that you and your children might live! TLB 6) Love is the ACTIVATOR of faith, strong faith = great blessings! Gal 5:6 6 . . . faith which worketh by love. (KJV) Worketh = energeo ^1754^, to put forth power, be operative, to work (its usual meaning), is rendered by the verb to work effectually, or to be effectual. (Vines Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words) Gal 5:6 6 . . .faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love. AMP è Faith is energized, made powerful and effective by love! 7) Love is a matter of ACTION. 1 John 3:18 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. NKJV 1 John 3:18 18 Little children, let us stop just saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions. TLB 8) Love is a key to the POWER of God. Eph 3:16-20 16 May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality]. 17 May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, 18 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [Gods devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; 19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]! 20 Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams] — AMP è The height of our love for God will never exceed the depth of our love for one another. è When we preach atonement, it is atonement planned by love, provided by love, given by love, finished by love, necessitated because of love. When we preach the resurrection of Christ, we are preaching the miracle of love. When we preach the return of Christ, we are preaching the fulfillment of love. (Billy Graham)
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 01:46:55 +0000
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