"The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:5).

Until I learned about renewing my mind to God’s Word, I thought of love as an emotion. I didn’t know that my prime responsibility is to love God. Not just verbal love. I have learned that it is to be a heartfelt love that is shown by my believing God’s Word and acting on what God wants me to do. God pours out His love to me in His written Word and I have only to read each day to know how much He loves me.
     "God is love" (I John 4:8). "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7). When I opened the spiritual package known as the new birth I received God’s love along with all the other spiritual gifts. Yet, when I continued to read God’s Word, I found a perplexing verse. "Pursue love..." (I Corinthians 14:1). Another translation reads "Make love your great quest." Why am I commanded to seek something I already have?
     The answer lies within the same principle I learned in lesson one: Feed the Mind with God’s Word. Just as a one-time reading of the Bible does not help me with tomorrow’s battle, I need to feed my mind with God’s love and act on it. God desires me to express my love -– to show it forth. I can do this only if I put God’s Word into my mind over and over again. It's not a one-time deal.
     God wants me to walk in His love. This means that as I live each day, God wants me to shine with His love. He wants me to live love. Once again I am reminded that Satan battles against my doing this. The last thing he wants is for me to shine brightly with God’s love. Darkness is his evil intention for me.
     "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another" (Galatians 5:13-15). (From "Renewing Your Mind", Chapter 6, by Peter Wade, adapted by Hildy Matthews.)
    Affirmation: I fill my mind with God’s love. As I read God’s Word each day, I am amazed at His love for me. As I read daily His personal words for me, I live each day shining with God’s love and joy.

Insights from Every Chapter in the Bible
G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer of over 60 books from the first half of the 20th century. In each issue he gives a comment from one verse in every chapter of the Bible. We continue with Paul's letter to the Romans.

"... Because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts" (Romans 5:5).

These words lead us a step further in our understanding of the nature of Christian hope. Not only is it true that it triumphs because it knows and believes God. It is also true that it is not put to shame. That is, it is never overthrown or discredited in any way by the circumstances of tribulation through which we must pass in order to its realization. On the contrary, we rejoice in these very tribulations because we realize that they are parts of the working force which is ever operating toward the realization. The secret of this victorious hope is that the love of God hath been poured out in our hearts.
    Here the idea is not merely that God loves us, though necessarily that is involved. It is rather that He fills us with His love by the Spirit, so that we love what He loves, and as He loves. That self-emptying sacrificial love becomes the inspiration of all our thinking, of all our doing. And it is more than that. It is the power of all our service. It is not only patient love which endures; it is mighty love which accomplishes. It is the secret of that abounding toil which never tires until its object is achieved. Where there is such love filling and mastering the life, hope is never put to shame in the processes of tribulation, and it will be ultimately saved from shame as all the toils are vindicated in the glory of the results.

Hymns we no longer sing...

Here's another hymn I had not heard sung for decades until last week. A soloist on a Christian television broadcast which I was watching on the satellite tacked the chorus of this hymn on the end of the modern song she was singing. It fitted well, and I said to my wife that the hymn was from Sankey's hymn book. Sure enough, with music by Ira Sankey and words by Pastor W.O. Cushing (who wrote some 300 hymns after he was paralysed and lost his ability to speak at age 47), here's the whole hymn.

Under His wings I am safely abiding;
Though the night deepens and tempests are wild;
Still I can trust Him -- I know He will keep me;
He has redeemed me, and I am His child.

    Under His wings, under His wings,
    Who from His love can sever?
    Under His wings, my soul shall abide,
    Safely abide for ever.

Under His wings, what a refuge in sorrow!
How the heart yearningly turns to its rest!
Often when earth has no balm for my healing,
There I find comfort, and there I am blest.

Under His wings, oh, what precious enjoyment!
There will I hide till life's trials are o'er;
Sheltered, protected, no evil can harm me;
Resting in Jesus I'm safe evermore.
    (W.O. Cushing)

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