First Love. Part 1.

“What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more…” These lyrics from “Haddaway” (yes, that’s a little 80s trivia for ya!)  are so catchy and for most of us we can sing it at any given moment. But as you read this lyrics we feel as though this is how love ought to be.. no hurt. Everything is rosey and seems like every moment is written out of a fairy tale. Love doesn’t look like a fairytale! Really!? So, the the girls in the room have this “fairy tale” love story going through our minds and have become hopeless romantics. Love doesn’t look like this in reality.  Our world has twisted and skewed the definition of love. Made it romantic and perverted.  The perfect definition of love can only be found in the arms of our Father in heaven.

You would think that we will be talking about romantic love in this series… but we’re NOT! We will be talking through what it really means to love others as Christ would love them.  When in conflict or “life-changing” events arise, we need to make a choice to love FIRST. When “break ups” happen, and we want to throw the boy out the window! First love… not romantically, but in an agape God love kind of way. When we hear the news of parents getting a divorce… first love! When we get cut off in traffic by an impatient little punk!! First love.

How do you respond to others in your life? Are your words filled with so much sarcasm that your friends can’t tell if your serious or not? Is your heart filled to the top with selfishness that if a stranger came into your life, you wouldn’t give them the time of day!?

First Love. God’s love was at the very beginning. The creation of the world was a motivation of His love toward us. It was His love for us he made a way to deal with the penalty of our sin. It was His love that put Jesus on the cross. It was His love for us that defines who I am and why I was created.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV)

He first loved. Love is found in Him. He is the beginning of it. His heart is where love begins. Not in the heart of man, nor in the heart of another. Love begins with Him. He first loved.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10 NIV

So convicting! This truth is taking root in my soul and creating a collision of faith!