Loving and being loved are essential to our full humanity.
We all need to be part of a loving and accepting group of people, whether it is our family, a particularly close circle of friends, or a larger group that is united around a common purpose.
We need to belong.
A child who is not loved adequately is likely to develop severe emotional and behavioral problems.
An adult who does not give and receive enough love on a regular basis is more likely to seek solace in destructive imitations of love, such as extra-marital sex, drug and alcohol abuse, spending too much money, overeating, and even over work.
Family love and marital love cannot be created on demand.
Some of us come from families where love is rare, and some of us aren't married, or are in an unsatisfactory marriage. We may not be able to change those circumstances, but we can bring more opportunities for loving exchanges into our lives.
I believe that God is the source of all love, that he is loving each one of us all of the time.
God's love is something that we can experience directly, but he also loves us through other people. And, we can love God directly, but we are also supposed to love him through other people.
God loves everyone, and those who know this and live in his love can be found scattered all over the planet, in all sorts of places.
But in a genuinely Christian church you will find a concentration of people who are actively receiving and giving away God's love, because the Christian church was founded on God's love for each one of us. Its purpose is to share that love.
A Christian church that is rooted in the amazing and unchanging love that God has for us will welcome others with sincerity and humility.
(Beware of the forced smile, the too-eager handshake. If you find that, you're in the wrong place.)
A truly Christian community is worth searching for. There you will receive God's love through the people and through the church services, and your life will be enriched. It is deeply satisfying to belong to a group of loving, caring people. It is what we were made for.
There is no better love than the love of God. Where the love of God is shared, people become a close, loving community. It is a wonderful community to be part of.
Read on . . .