God's Love

Yesterday at church we discussed three stages of love.
On a personal note - loved it liked it and hated it.

For a church discussion- Shane nailed it.

My take away and summary of Pastor Shane's message. May or may not be accurate.

1. Love Perceived:
- person in this stage knows there is love out there ( I am spkg specifically about God's love)
- this person knows there is more to relationship with God then religion and attending church; he or she may or may not continue with church. They may give up.
- I suppose this person can be believers or not

2. Love Received:
- person in this stage has received God's love
- I would think is saved; knows he or she is lost without God
- this person battles constantly between resting in the love and acceptance of God and striving and working for His approval ( and other's approval as well I assume)
- up and down
- moments of knowing but then moments of doubting
- fear doubt guilt comes to play here ( As a counselor I wonder the correlation between people who have been abused rejected addicted - who may linger longer in this stage)
- the religious traditional christian also lingers here for they dont know any different than doing what is right, tything regularly, attending church and memorizing for sake of knowledge

3. Love Believed:
- I dont have much to say about this; I admit I have not been in this stage ever .. Maybe briefly?
- in this stage- the person I assume has as scripture said " tasted and seen"
- no doubt ; can rest in knowing its all about Him and there is never any doubt to God's loveand acceptance
-  this person does not live perfectly but is perfectly loved - I guess that applies to all stages- except this person knows it; knows they are loved perfectly
- I would add that they know that they know that they know

Questions we were send home to think about

1. Do I believe in love?
2. Do I believe in God's love?
3. How do I know of God's love or How do I know its true?

I believe in love because I look at my heart for my children and know that is love.
I also feel the hurt when I am starving for human love and affection

I believe in God's love - why else would his son have died?
Do I fully embrace and understand the total incredibleness ( if thats a word) of His love? Nope.

Its easier for me to answer how do I know I havent received completely His love? Because I still doubt. I fear Him at times; I doubt I am good enough at times; I strive to please Him many times a week and I am consumed with guilt and I sometimes distance myself when I feel like I have let Him down or I believe I need to fix me before I should even vunteer to be of any service to Him

Still a work in progress - yup

Jacqueline