Oct.14.04: Light for the Day - "Gift of Love"

-- 1 John 4:11,12
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, 
we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, 
God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

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Some time ago, a friend of mine punished his three-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier over-reaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty.

He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses in the box. I filled it with my love. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her for forgiveness. My friend told me that he kept that gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as parents has been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

-- James Dobson

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-- John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

-- Matthew 22:35-40 (Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-27)
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Deut. 6:5)
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Lev. 19:18)
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

-- 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, 
but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, 
but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, 
love is kind. 
It does not envy, 
it does not boast, 
it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, 
it is not self-seeking, 
it is not easily angered, 
it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. 
But where there are prophecies, they will cease; 
where there are tongues, they will be stilled; 
where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 
But the greatest of these is love.

-- 1 John 4:11-19
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
13 We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. 
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.
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.
19 We love because He first loved us.

-- Romans 5:8 
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: 
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.