How's the Journey? I pray that you are progressing, growing, forgiving, discovering who you are in Christ, finding freedom, and embracing that it's time for you to be happy! I care about your journey, because I care about you. You are valuable! You are amazing! I BELIEVE IN YOU!

Let me ask you a question: How's your love life? I'm not just talking romantically, I'm speaking in terms of loving yourself, friendships, family, and most importantly, GOD!

I believe the foundation of Love is knowing who loved first. Growing up and the more I matured, I came into the understanding that Jesus really DOES love me! Knowing that God loves you, makes it easier to love yourself. Knowing that God loves you also makes it easier to love others. He says to love your neighbor AS yourself, but how can I love my neighbor as myself, if i don't even love myself? Loving yourself starts with loving God. If you really love yourself, then you'll love God more than you love yourself. Jesus says in Luke 14:26, "Who ever doesn't hate his father or mother, even their own life, is not worthy to be my disciple." I know what you're probably thinking, wait...hate?? Hate by greek definition in the New Testament means "to love less." It means loving God more than we love ourselves and the people around us. Remember, it makes it easier for us to loves ourselves as well as others. God loved FIRST. GOD LOVED. "For God so LOVED," Past tense. He loved before we could try to make him us, he loved us before we could try to perform and earn his love. One of biggest lies of religion is that after we're saved, we have to do more just so God will continue to love us and love us more. It's too late to even try to earn his love, HE LOVES YOU NOW!

1 John 1:19 says "we love him BECAUSE he FIRST loved us." Jesus says if you love me, keep my commandments. To keep means to obey. Obedience isn't our proof of love to God, he knows our hearts, rather, it is our expression of love to God. Obedience to God isn't out of obligation or religious duties, but out of pure Love. He's not slave master that forces us to obey him, but through love he grants us the opportunity to repent of our sins and have a radical relationship with him. God's love and our love for him is our motivation to obey him!

Jesus introduces a new commandment: John 13:14 says "love one another AS I have loved you!" It was not a rule, it was a commandment. There's a difference between rules and commandments. With rules, you have to obey them just because, but with commandments there are benefits and commandments of God will always point down the path where there's LIFE! Rules are put in place to keep you safe, but commandments are given to keep you ALIVE!

THE SAME LOVE -"AS i have loved you." "AS" is the most important word. You won't know HOW to love others until you know HOW God loves you! 1 John 4:7 says "He that loves is born of God." Born of God means i now have God's nature and God is Love. That means I become LOVE! Love is his DNA AND HE's my father and i have his DNA, that means i am love. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:2 "if i do all these things and have not love, I AM nothing!" Love is the identity of the believer! Love is what gives us substance and makes us significant! LOVE!

Are you ready? Let's take another step! Repeat after me: Jesus loves me! He loves me, He loves me, He loves me! I will seek to know how he loves me so that I know how to truly love myself and others. His love for me isn't reflected by those who have wronged me, walked out on me, or were never there for me. Knowing he loves me empowers me to love or love again! Jesus, you love me, and I love you! Overwhelm me with the reality of you Love!

Check out next week's blog as we take another step on "The Journey!"