Love of Christ

The Power Of Love

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Colossians 3:13-14 NIV

When you have fear, choose to overcome it with love

When you are struggling, choose to keep going with love

When you don’t know what to do, serve others with acts of love

You may ask, ‘how do I do that?’

Start by reading 1 Corinthians 13…it explains fully what love looks like…love is action

Jesus Christ is our greatest example of God’s love for us

If we believe that He is the Son of God and we confess our sins

We will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and that will help us to know what love is

And guide us to do our best to show the love of Christ to others

May each of us be filled with God’s love for us and be encouraged to share His love

DSC_1529 publish

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

1 Peter 4:8-10 NIV

(This photo was taken at a park near Dillon, Colorado)

Like-Minded Love

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Philippians 2:1-4 NIV

DSC_0841 publish

“We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

1 John 4:19-21 NIV

(This photo was taken near Glacier National Park in Montana)

The Love Of God

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”

Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV

God’s love is unconditional

We can’t earn it

We don’t deserve it

He chooses to give it to us

Not because of what we do or don’t do

He chooses to give us His love becasue of who He is

Our Creator, our Savior and our guide for life

Thanks be to God!

DSC01215 publish

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 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.”

1 John 4:16-19 NIV

(This photo was taken on a lake in central Minnesota)

God’s Love Changes Lives

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“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.”

1 John 4:7-11 NIV

God’s love is the most powerful thing in the world

Nothing can compare to it

No matter where you are, no matter what has happened or is happening in your life

God’s love can change what you believe is impossible

Trust Him, seek His Word, believe, confess your sins and surrender you ways for His way

Nothing is impossible with God

DSC_0661 publish

“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

1 John 4:12 NIV

(This photo was taken in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming)

Nothing Can Separate Us

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“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.“

1 John 4:7-9 NIV

There is nothing on earth in your life that is more powerful than the love of God…nothing

There is no situation, life circumstances, no relationship or struggle that can separate us from God’s love

DSC_0142_1 publish

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:37-39 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)

God Is Love

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“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.”

1 John 4:8 NIV

“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.”

1 John 4:11 NIV

GOD is Love

God IS Love

God is LOVE

DSC_0176 (2) publish

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 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. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

1 John 4:16-21 NIV

(This photo was taken in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado)

Commitment

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

John 15:4 NIV

Father God, I want to seek You with all my heart

You are my everything…

Let my thoughts and actions match my words

Help me draw closer to You

Guide my decisions and inspire me with new dreams

I want to honor You with all that I am and all that I do

In Jesus name, Amen

DSC_0135-1 publish

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

John 15:7 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)

Healed By His Love

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

1 Peter 2:24 NIV

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”

1 Peter 2:1 NIV

DSC_0135 (2) publish

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)

God’s Promises…

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:9 NIV

“You will keep in perfect peace
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    because they trust in you.”

Isaiah 26:3 NIV

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

John 15:7 NIV

DSC_0135-1 publish

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

John 3:16-17 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)

He Did It All For You

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah 53:5-6 NIV

Jesus

He came…He lived and He died

And He did it all for You

End Of The Beginning by David Phelps

DSC_0125 (2) publish

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

John 3:16-17 NIV

(This photo was taken in the Black Hills in western South Dakota)