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Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Official Blog of Author & Speaker Frank Viola. Digging below the surface and moving beyond the shallows in today's Christianity.
Keep the Love On
Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Official Blog of Author & Speaker Frank Viola. Digging below the surface and moving beyond the shallows in today's Christianity.
This article has moved HERE.
The First Relationship
Thank you for this reminder Frank. I am humbled. I have not been following what our wonderful Lord has desired. 🙁
Hi Frank, thank you for a great post and I agree with everything you say.
I certainly struggle to take the high road. Time and time again my instinct is to head for the gutter, be consumed by jealousy and even try and undermine individuals in certain situations. However when I can remain present, focus on Jesus and allow Him to be in the center of the situation it becomes a game changer. Love fills the void and my reaction to the situation changes.
Hi –
This is the first time that I am reading your blog and found your article interesting as it is a good reminder of not only what Jesus instructs; however , with the added fruit of patience- we see over & over the outcome in our favor ( those who trust in The Lord)….
I like the way you are responding to your writers as this article can be a tough pill to swallow! Thank you for your insight – it must be that you’ve had to exercise this advice yourself:)
Cindy
Frank, you have no idea how much this means to me. Thank you
Frank, thanks for the message. Best one I’ve ‘heard’ in 20 years. I think I’ll skip church for another 20. 😉
Great reminder! Thanks Frank!! In my experience, vindication rarely comes or I am not made aware of vindication from such love. Nevertheless, as I give myself to learning from the indwelling Spirit of God how to love others the way Christ has loved me, I find that I am being transformed. Therefore, I am grateful for enemies, detractors, critics, gossips, liars and the like because they are being used to make me more like my Lord. Although it is never easy to deal with such people, the resulting fruit from the experience is always good. I wrote something about one such experience in a blog post a few months back.
Yes, it is living life on the higher plain. Good post. Thank you, dear brother.
Thanks for that great reminder!
Frank, you wrote that “trust is conditional and must be earned”. And 1 Cor 13:7 has love always trusting/believing all things. How do we reconcile this?
In John 2, it is said that Jesus trusted no man, for He knew what was in man. So I don’t see 1 Corinthians 13:7 speaking of trusting people who have a pattern of mistreating others. The context would seem to suggest that love always trusts in the Lord in all things, always hopes for the best, always rejoices in Him in all things. Since love never fails, we trust God’s Word on it. One can change “love/charity” in this passage with Jesus Christ and read it that way, for He embodies love. So it seems to me.
Ah, yes, thank you for the reminder!
I am saving this article. It will be much needed at times when my anger can get the best of me. I am also sharing because I know so many who need this message. I appreciate, in your examples, the fact that you include justice being served in the end and by the hands of the Lord. But sometimes we have to make peace with the fact that our eyes may never see that justice delivered. We must trust the Lord and know it will be done. Thank you!
Excellent and needed advice. I would add, though, that we walk in love because it’s what God calls us to, not in order to experience vindication in the end…because we may not.
Yep. Vindication sometimes comes on the other side of the veil.
Loved this! I especially loved how consistently you redirect our attempts to love towards our need to let Jesus love through us. So simple, yet such a lifelong process!