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Reflections on the Love of God. Pt2 





1.  Point of all this - Romantic love not from Hallmark, Hollywood, etc.
 a.  In fact they usually distort it
 b.  True love, even romantic love, not of this world
2.  Romantic love, and every other kind of true love, comes from God
 a.  Need to discard the idea that romantic love is worldly
 b.  Romantic love is of God too
3.  Christians are not frigid prudes that do not know what romance is
 a.  Christians are passionate people full of life from the giver of life
 b.  So remember this at anniversaries, birthdays, valentines, every day...
 c.  We serve a God full of passionate love
 d. Nothing is more godly that displaying God's passionate love to the one 
      whom your soul loves 
4.  Want to conclude with a story from the newspapers a few years ago


a.         Early in 2005, John Phipps got called to work early.  He boarded 
a train to work and went to sleep.  He was jerked awake and saw smashed bits 
of train all over the place and a mist falling on his face.  It dawned in him 
that he had just been in a bad train wreck.  He touched the back of his head 
and found it bloodied.  He was also bleeding below the waist.  He called out 
for help, but no one was there.  He reached out and felt a chair and saw his 
bloody handprint he left behind.  The realization hit him: he was going to die.  
Without thinking, he scrawled a message on the back of that chair with his own 
blood.  It read, "I (heart) Leslie."  There was more room, so he wrote, "I (heart) 
my kids."When rescuers arrived, they saw the message.  Fire Captain Robert Rosario 
said, "I have seen some gruesome things on this job, but that moved me."  Phipps 
was rescued and taken to the hospital.  Leslie Phipps said she does not remember 
how she first learned about the message, but a nurse gave the family a photo that 
appeared in the paper. "Hallmark is never going to top this," she said. "It's 
moving, it's thoughtful and it's chilling all at the same time."


b.  A dying man writing a message of love with blood is a moving one.  
 c.  But there is another moving love story written in blood.  
  - Jesus expressed his love for a lost world in blood.  
  - You see, due to sin, we were separated from God.  
  - But God didn't close the book on you.  
  - Jesus died to take away that sin (inv) God wants you to...








- Who was your first love?
- What is the greatest demonstration of love you have ever seen or experienced?


Explore (Eph 5:1-2; 5:21-6:4)

1.  Discuss how the Lord describes the love that he has for us.  What does this say about him?

2.  In what way(s) does Christ see beauty in his "bride?"  

3.  How does the love the Lord has for us compare to other versions of love we see in the world?  
Can even romantic love be godly?

4.  What is to be the foundation of the love we are to have for each other?  How does this inform 
the way Christians are to love their spouses?  Their parents?  Their brethren?  Others in general?  

5.  Read 1 Jn 4:7-8 and discuss the importance of true Christian love.


Apply

6.  What are some ways you demonstrate the love of Christ in your life?

7.  What are some ways you struggle with showing true Christian love?    

8.  What would it take for you to love more like Christ did?
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