Tag: love

Love is a doing, not a feeling

Soon it will be Valentine’s Day and the shops will be filled with red heart cards, chocolate gifts and flowers for us to give to our nearest and dearest.

But even if you write the whole thing off as a commerical con, most of us understand that the principle behind Valentine’s Day holds true – if you love someone you want to give them things. You want to do stuff for them.

Think of your closest relationship – whether it is romantic or familial – if that person tells you that they love you but never acts on that feeling, how loved would you feel?

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Filed under: About God, Jody Bennett, Popular culture, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , , ,

What does ‘Jesus loves you’ mean?

Most of us have heard the phrase “Jesus loves you”. It sounds ‘nice’, non-judgemental and kind, but what does it actually mean? If God loves everyone, no matter how you behave or what you believe then does it matter how we behave or what we believe? “Jesus loves you” is a phrase that does not actually appear in the Bible and, although it is true and seemingly simple to understand, the word “love” has been so diluted and redefined by our culture that saying “Jesus loves you” is often either meaningless to people or misunderstood.

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Why is it so hard to receive?

Christmas article for 2016

Christmas is the time for presents, of giving and receiving. Children, especially, think that’s actually the definition of Christmas! We may fully expect that our spouses, family and friends give us something at this time of year. But what about other people, unexpectedly?

What if our neighbour, who we hardly know, gives us a lovely Christmas hamper? What if an acquaintance gifts us a really expensive item that they know we need? What if a perfect stranger in the supermarket queue offers us the few dollars that we are short?Continue reading

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That which connects us all

 

Recently I watched the movie Collateral Beauty, starring Will Smith as a man dealing with the death of his young daughter. Two years have elapsed and Smith’s character Howard Inlet is still not coping very well, his marriage is over and he is reduced to writing hate mail to Time, Death and Love.

As Howard explains right at the beginning of the movie, “Now these three things connect every single human being on earth. We long for love. We wish we had more time. And we fear death.”Continue reading

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A letter from God to those feeling unloved

Dear Child, I heard when you said today
That your life has no purpose or worth,
And I cried because it’s had meaning
Since before the foundations of earth.

I knit you together in the depth of the womb
And I’ve numbered the hairs on your head.
I’ve cherished each smile, I’ve caught every tear
I’ve heard all the words that you’ve said.Continue reading

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Things I have learnt about God – mercy.

Mercy is not really a word used in modern language – except maybe in the US South as an exclamation, “Have mercy!” It is not a concept we bandy about in conversation, although I imagine most people generally know that it is similar to the legal idea of clemency – getting off or getting a lighter sentence when you deserve punishment.

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