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The Secret of a Lasting Love

Posted on May 17, 2013 by otobefree

Written by Jimmie Burroughs

According to statistics about half of all marriages end up in divorce. That is just part of the picture of marriage: While five out of ten marriages end, three out of ten marriages remain in effect because of the children or finances and not for love. That leaves only two marriages out of ten that have found any semblance of the secret of a lasting love. So what is the secret of a lasting love? It involves:

· Understanding what love is

· The source love

· What makes love work

What is love?

In the English language, there is but one word for love. It is used to describe all types of things from sexual love to the love of things and activities, as well as people. The Greek language is now considered a dead language; it was, however, many years ago, the original language of the New Testament of the Bible. There are three Greek words for love, two of which are used in the New Testament. The word Eros, for sexual love, is not found in the New Testament, but the other two are Agape and phileo. Agape is God’s love; it is, therefore, a supernatural love . . . A perfect love. Phileo is a human love. Human love isn’t perfect, nor does it always last. Only God’s love can be considered a perfect, lasting love.

The source of lasting love

God is the only source of perfect, lasting love. The Bible describes God as love. A union with God is also a union with His love. Human love can sometimes reach considerable depths, but it can never match God’s love in its depth nor its durability as well as its perseverance. The remarkable thing is that God’s perfect, lasting love is available to all who will receive it. God invites you to have a relationship with Him and experience His love in your life. His love in your life will affect every other relationship that you have. I have prepared a step by step guide to teach you how to have a relationship with God. If you are interested, click here.

How does God’s love work in our life?

Once we have a relationship with God, He and His love take up residence in our spirit. To understand how His love works, you need to understand how God designed you. There is only one God, but he expresses His presence in three distinct personalities: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God also designed His human creation in three distinct entities: body, soul, and spirit. In order for God’s love to be effective in your life, you need to understand how those three entities that makes up your existence, function, as well as how they relate to God’s love.

Needless to say that we must first desire God’s love to reign in our life. The Bible teaches that the way this happens is when we walk in the Spirit, Galatians 5. What that means is that we surrender control of our life over to the Spirit of God who resides within. As a result, God’s love not only shines into our lives but also shines out to others. That is why that God’s love in your life has a significant impact in the lives of others and your relationship with them.

I said above that it is also necessary to understand how the body, soul and spirit are all involved in effectively expressing God’s love.

Let’s start with the body

The body is our physical existence. The Bible teaches that Jesus showed His love toward us by dying for us, Romans 5:8. Perfect love shows itself to others by physical actions. How we speak to others, how we treat them, and deal with them either shows our love or our disdain. It is crucial to understand that the physical can be limited in its effectiveness to perform. This also includes our effectiveness to love. If we are stressed, tired or run down, we are far more unlikely to express love. This can be especially damaging to a marriage. Three things can enhance your effectiveness to love:

· Rest

· Balanced diet

· Exercise

Rest is extremely beneficial to the effectiveness of love. God designed the human body to take a day’s rest each week. In the Bible, this is referred to as The Sabbath. If you fail to take a day’s rest each week, you are in effect breaking one of the 10 commandments. The importance of the day of rest commandment is that it is listed among those that say: Thy Shalt not kill; Thy shalt not commit adultery; Thy Shalt not steal. The proper rest is extremely valuable. If you are trying to burn the candle at both ends, you may not be as bright as you think you are. You certainly are not going to be at your best at love.

A balanced diet may not seem to be significant to effective love, but, in fact, it is. A body that is weak and sick or suffering from malnutrition isn’t up to reflecting God’s perfect love. An easy way to improve your diet is by including more fruit and vegetables and eating less red meat. Add more super foods to your diet like beans, greens, tomatoes, eggs and salmon. Your diet may still not be perfect, but what I’m suggesting can make some significant improvements with just a little effort and you don’t have to eat bland tasting food; you can eat things that taste terrific. With a little discipline and taking care about eating between meals, you can also reduce your weight and maintain a healthy weight.

Most of us don’t like to exercise, but exercise is essential for strength and vigorous health and enhances our ability to love. When most people think of exercise they think of a regimented session of lifting weights or doing setups or pushups. Those are excellent exercises, but if that’s more than you want to commit to, try walking around the neighborhood. Walking is one of the best exercises we can do, and it can be a pleasant experience. Start walking and design your own pace. If you can only walk a short distance and need rest, then do so. In time, you will build up your strength and be able to walk further.

The soul

The soul is the center of our awareness and determination. It is made up of three parts also:

· Mind

· Will

· Emotions

It has often been said that our mind becomes what we put into it. If we fill it with negative thoughts, then we become a negative person. We determine what put into our mind. It’s true that negative thoughts sometimes come into our mind uninvited, but we don’t have to allow them to linger. As someone said, “Birds fly over our heads, but we don’t have to allow them to build a nest on our head.” You can strengthen your mind and thinking patterns by what you read and what you see and enhance your ability to love. The Bible gives a formula for building a healthy thought pattern: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these. (Philippians 4:8)

You must will to do things. There is nothing wrong in having a strong will as long as it is the will to do the right things. It is through the will that we determine to love or to hate. It requires a determination to love and show your love to others. Finding ways to show your love to others and willing to do so is part of the secret of a lasting love.

We all are emotional beings. The emotions are made up of a bunch of God given drives which include the anger drive as well as the hate drive, along with the love drive and many others. All the emotional drives are given for a purpose but are often misused. For example, the sex drive was given to be a needed part of marital love as well as procreation, but it’s misused when it becomes an enticement to commit adultery or live in fornication. Another example is the hunger drive; it is needed to maintain a healthy life, but it can be misused by eating too much of the wrong kinds of food, or by gluttony. It is the love drive that is our concern here. We possess the drive, and it is up to us as how much we express it. The more we express it the easier it becomes, and the stronger it grows.

The spirit

When we form a union or a relationship with God, He takes up residence within our spirit. We live in a world filled with unrest and violence. But at the center of our being we have a calm cushion awaiting us. The world offers no peace, rest or calm, only God can give those things, and He stands prepared to supply our every need. We who know Him can turn to Him as often as we want. He is within, so near and so available to us. He is our source of love, joy and peace and provides the ongoing strength that we need to face any issue in life. He loves us with an everlasting love, and He is the source and the secret of a lasting love.

Conclusion

I have written to you from my own experience in love, and from 44 years experience of marriage to the same lovely woman until her death a few years ago, and from what I’ve learned from God’s Word. I know that it works. You also can experience God’s everlasting love in your life if you choose. It will change your entire approach to life. God’s presence in our life is the fulfillment of that which each person strives for and many never find, and that is the longing of the heart. Right within us we have the very source of love, joy and peace, and the strength, to face all that life throws at us, and it comes for the God who created the universe. It is my prayer, and my hope that you too will discover the secret of lasting love. Learn how you can have a relationship with God.

About the author: Jimmie Burroughs is a author, motivational speaker, and child of God who has been involved in teaching Christian Personal Development for more than 30 years. There are hundreds of articles to help you on this website, Website Contents , in your person growth. If I can help you personally, please send your concerns via: Contact me.

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An Investment More Precious than Gold or Silver and it’s Free…

Posted on April 4, 2013 by otobefree

Written by Jimmie Burroughs with helps from every student.com.

The infinite value of eternal life is free to all who will receive it. It’s easy to go through life and avoid the most valuable things, focusing instead on things which are temporal and fleeting away. The apostle Paul said: “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ.” Philippians 3:8, New Living Translation (©2007)

It is astounding at what lengths people will go to today to make more money, and to get more things hoping that they will satisfy the longings of their soul only to discover that they won’t. So they continue to search for that one thing or things that will fill the void in their heart, many times missing it entirely, and eventually dying with neither satisfaction nor hope. A relationship with God is the only thing that will quench our soul’s longing. Jesus Christ said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” Until we come to know God, we are hungry and thirsty in life. We try to “eat” and “drink” all kinds of things to satisfy our hunger and thirst, but yet they remain.-[1]

It isn’t my intention to try and intimidate anyone, but the truth is that dying without Christ is a scary thing anyway you couch it. The most urgent question of all in life is: “If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity.” The Bible is clear that it will be either heaven or hell. I’ve known Jesus as my savior for more than 60 years, and not one time has there been any regret for that decision. There is no peace on earth that compares to knowing that you’re right with God and that you are prepared for eternity.

It literally shakes me to the core to read or hear of someone dying who apparently never made arrangements for the moment they stand face to face with God. It is so easy to speculate on the reality of God and heaven or hell. Actually, there are only two alternatives: Either there is a God or there isn’t. Eternity is too long to be wrong on which option you choose. There have always been skeptics concerning the reality of an all powerful, all knowing God. In order to explain our existence, the theory of evolution was invented which attempts to explain the existence of everything. May I say that it takes far more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in God. Because evolution is so radical if there was a third alternative, no one would believe in evolution at all. But since there are only two alternatives, you must select one of the two. If you choose God and it turns out there is no God, you have nothing to lose. If you choose evolution and it turns out there is a God, then you are lost for all eternity.

What does it mean to be lost? It means that a person is separated from God. If a person dies in that condition, it means that they are separated from God and His love forever, through all eternity. Why is a person separated from God in the first place? Sin, our sin separates us from God. Sin bears a penalty, which is death, and is eternal separation from God. But God in His love offers a remedy for sin. He came to earth and died on the cross in the form of Jesus Christ, therefore, paying the penalty for sin, and redeeming all who would accept his offer of redemption. If we choose God’s redemption, we receive the gift of eternal life in heaven. If we reject God’s redemption, it results in eternal separation from God, and eternity in hell.

You may think what I’ve said is convincing, and that you will think about it and possibly accept Jesus on another day. Don’t! Today is the only accepted time. What if I wait until tomorrow? Wouldn’t it also be the acceptable time. Yes, but there is no guarantee that tomorrow will ever come, so today is the only acceptable time, right now this instance is the only guarantee that we have to secure our eternal destiny.

What must I do?

How to Know God Personally and have a relationship with Him

What must I do to know God? The following will explain to you how you can personally begin a relationship with God, right now.

Having a relationship with God is not what some would think. It is not a matter of devoting yourself to some religious dogma. Nor is it by trying to be good so God will accept you. No it isn’t anything we can do of ourselves. God has provided all we need to have a relationship with him; he explains it all in his word the Bible. Just follow each step below and you can have a relationship with God beginning right now.

Step # One: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”¹ We all belong to God; he created each of us. God has an everlasting love for us and wants us to spend eternity with him in his heaven…

Only thru Jesus and him alone can we come to know God and have a personal relationship with him. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life and no man cometh to the Father but by me.” John 14:6

What keeps you from accepting Jesus today? …

Step # Two: All of us have sinned and our sin has separated us from God.

We sense that void in our heart because of the sin that separates us from God. As much as we want that feeling to go away and let us live in peace, it will not till we have Jesus to fill the void… The Bible says that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

The consequences of sin are death. Death – the spiritual death which separates from God. Our personal efforts to get close to God will fail because Only one way has been designated by God and that is through his son, Jesus Christ.

The diagram to the left shows the gap that exists between people and God. No matter how hard we try to reach God on our own it will always fall short. Had there been another way other than the death of his son, God would have taken it. We may try hard to be the right kind of person in life. But the problem is that our good efforts are not good enough to pay the penalty of sin and to bridge the gap that exists between us and God.

There is only one way to bridge this gulf between God and us…

Step # Three: Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Only through Jesus can we know and experience a relationship with God and receive his plan for our life.

God did not have to send his son to die for us, by justice we deserve to pay the penalty for our own sin. But because God loves us, and he provided redemption for us. There is no one needs to die and be separated from God forever, nevertheless the choice is ours; God will not force us to receive his pardon and eternal life.

There is no other method of atonement for sin other than the cross of Christ. Jesus took our sins on himself. “In that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus paid the penalty for our sin in full.”For Christ also died for sins…the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God.”… We are not saved because of the goodness we have done, but by his sacrifice. Now that he paid it all, all that remains is for us to accept it and acknowledge him as our savior.

Now all that remains is to believe in him. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)

The full gospel of Jesus is than he died and he rose from the dead. Here was no other way that he could secure eternal life for each of us other than dying on the cross and rising from the grave. Only the Son of God had the power

to do that, therefore we can know that he was God in the flesh. That is why Jesus could declare, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one can come to the Father except through me.”

It is impossible for us to ever reach God other than by the cross of Christ. It is his cross that bridges that gap that separates us. You can have a relationship with God today if you are willing to accept Jesus as your savior. The frequent It is saying of that great preacher Adrian Rogers was, Come to Jesus.” Why don’t you come to him now? He wants to love you and at the end of life on earth he wants to take you to be in heaven where he is.

Just having knowledge of God and saying you believe in God is not enough. Jesus said “Ye believe in God believe in me also…” In order to have a relationship with God we must trust in his son.

There is no need to wait, you can begin your relationship with God right now. Jesus is listening for your voice and is ready to come into your life. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.”

If you want to begin a relationship with God now, you can.

The decision is solely yours. There is no coercion. But if you have a desire to have a relationship with God and receive his forgiveness and promise of eternal life, you can do that right now today. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door [of your heart] and knock. He who hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him [or her].”¹⁹ If this is your desire but don’t know how to word your request, this may help:

“Jesus, I believe you died for my sins and rose from the grave. I want to turn from my life of sin and receive your forgiveness. Please come into my life right now and forgive me. Thank you for saving me. Amen.”

When God comes into a person’s life it is permanent. Jesus Christ said, “I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.” -[2]

You have made an extremely wise decision to receive Jesus. Would you like to receive some help in your new found relationship Jesus? If so, click the link below to confirm that you have prayed the prayer above and received Jesus as your savior, and I will send you some material which you will find to be very helpful I believe:

I just asked Jesus into my life (some helpful information follows)…