The Source of Love

Twenty-five years ago, a couple began their life together as husband and wife.  As all new couples, they were full of hopes and dreams for their future.  They firmly believed that God had brought them together and desired to make their faith in Christ the center of their relationship.

They selected a verse for their wedding day to testify to the source of their love for each other: “We love because he first loved us.”  Both of these young people had experienced God’s love through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  They knew that their ability to love one another would be found in the love they had received from God.

From the start, they had been encouraged and challenged to pursue each other and to pursue Jesus.  He knew that following God’s plan for his life would help him be the best husband for his wife.  She knew that following God’s plan for her life would help her be the best wife for her husband.

As the years went by they found time and time again that the verse from their wedding day was still very true: “We love because he first loved us.”  But now, this love was being shared far beyond their own relationship.  God brought friends, neighbors, co-workers and children into their lives.  With each relationship, they were challenged to show the unconditional love that they had received through Christ.

They haven’t lived perfect lives.  They haven’t always shown God’s love.  They haven’t realized all their dreams.  But they have strived to live their lives on the foundation of God and His truth.

My wife, Kim, and I are so very grateful for all that God has done in our lives these past 25 years.  He has blessed us with five wonderful children and an incredible son-in-law.  He has given us the privilege of serving together both in raising a family and as partners in ministry.  More than anything, He has continued to teach us to rely fully upon Him for the love that we share.  And now,

I pray that you would receive the love of God through Jesus Christ.

“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.”  John 3:16

I pray that you would grow in understanding the full nature of this love.

“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:17-19

And I pray that you would share this love with those around you.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.”  1 John 4:7