God Is Love

March 11, 2025 / 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. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No 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 4:7-12 NIV

God’s love renews and restores us

Our relationship with God is an inside out relationship

We need to know and understand God’s love for us and that there is nothing we can think, say or do that will change God’s unconditional love

As we receive and understand God’s love, we are equipped to go out and give love to others in our daily life and interactions

May God’s love and peace be with you and flow through you

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“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?“

Romans 8:31-35 NIV

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither 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 in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado)

Humility In Relationships

February 23, 2025 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”^[a]

1 Peter 5:5 NIV

Father God, You invite us into a peaceful relationship with You where we can be fully known and loved

You also invite us to pursue peace with others around us

Please help us to appraoch our relationships with humility, grace and wisdom

Grant us knowledge to recognize when we should speak and when we should listen as we pursue peace

In Jesus name, Amen

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“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, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Philippians 2:1-4 NIV

(This photo was taken at the High Falls in Tettegouche State Park in northern Minnesota)

Love That Can Change The World

January 30, 2025 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

1 John 4:7-12 NIV

Jesus came down from heaven and sacrificed Himself on the Cross

He did it for you…He did it because He loves you and wants a relationship with you!

Give thanks to Him, chose to love God and love others

This is what God wants us to do.

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“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Colossians 3:12-14 NIV

(This photo was taken at the Nakalele Blowhole on the island of Maui, Hawaii)

Savior…Sacrifice…Salvation

January 15, 2025 / 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.
⁶We 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

“He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”^[e]

²³When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” ²⁵For “you were like sheep going astray,”^[f] but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.“

1 Peter 2:22-25 NIV

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“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8 NIV

(This photo was taken along the North Shore of Lake Superior)

Commitment

December 27, 2024 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“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

Father God, we want to seek You with all our heart

You are in everything…so let our thoughts and actions match our words

Help us draw closer to You

Guide our decisions and inspire us with new dreams

We want to honor You with all that we are and all that we do

In Jesus name, Amen

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

Isaiah 26:3 NIV

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

The Greatest Love For All People

December 24, 2024 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may 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, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV

There is no issue or circumstances too big for God

No matter what, God’s love is greater than anything or anyone

He offers this love to everyone, everywhere

He did this by sending His one and only Son

Tonight we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Savior and Lord

Merry Christmas to all people!

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“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Luke 2:10-11 NIV

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

Love Conquers All

December 23, 2024 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

1 Peter 4:8 NIV

The actions of love can and will conquer all things in life

How do we know this is true?

Because of scripture

“…because, God is love.”

1 John 4:8 NIV

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“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

(This photo was taken while traveling in South Dakota)

Advent Reflections – Love

December 22, 2024 / mcalcagno / 2 Comments

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

Jesus stated the most important commandments are to love God and love one another – Matthew 22:37-40

So, what is love?

Love is action…it is not what the world defines as a feeling

The apostle Paul describes it for us in 1 Corinthians 13

It is about our character and what we do when it comes to relationships

So, when Jesus states it is the most important commandment…we should think about how do we love God? How do we love one another?

Love is for God to define and to give and He makes it available to all of us by how He has acted towards us

It is up to us to accept His love and to share it with Him and others

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1 John 4:7-12 NIV

(This photo was taken at the Nakalele Blowhole on the island of Maui, Hawaii)

Joy Because God Loves You

December 17, 2024 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

1 John 4:7-12 NIV

Reckless Love by Cory Asbury ~ Bethel Music

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“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8 NIV

(This photo was taken near Arches National Park in Utah)

Is He Worthy?

November 2, 2024 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“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. 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

As we travel on the journey of faith, we will encounter questions and doubts along the way

That is natural and it is ok

We need to remember that the one simple truth of faith is that Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself to save us and reconcile us to God because He loves us

His love for us will conquer every battle in our lives

He is worthy of our thanks and praise

Thank you God, for your Son Jesus Christ!

Is He Worthy? by Chris Tomlin

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