Notice on a slight format change:

Except for July 2012, these are mostly a collection of current devotional notes.

July 2012 is a re-write of old quiet times. My second child was born Nov 11, 1987 with multiple birth defects. I've been re-reading my QT notes from that time in my life, and have included them here. They cover the time before the birth and the few years immediately after the birth. They are tagged "historical." I added new insights and labeled them: ((TODAY, dd mmm yy)).

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Historical QT 2 Dec 1987, We are to be God's expression of love to a hurting world


1 John 4:12 (NIV) No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

NOTE: During our time of severe testing, when we felt deserted by God, what we really wanted was some tangible evidence that God still loved us and cared for us. We wanted to see God (in some way). But John writes that NOONE has ever seen God, our lonely tangible evidence is the love we have for one another. Through the love which God has placed in our hearts we see God. The Dilla's love and hospitality to us in our time of deep need was God's evidence to us that he cares. The Rader's, who are perfect strangers, love to us has reaffirmed to us that God truly does care for us. Praise God for the love you've put in the heart of believers.

((Today, 8 July 2012: We are too quick to provide a comment like, "you must be really special for God to work in your lives in such a way" or "God is sovereign and he has a great plan for your life." Those comments might even be true, but they do not comfort or provide solace in times of great pain, at least initially. What is needed is love expressed in deeds and shoulders ("weep with those who weep"), rather than Christian slogans. I'm much more sensitive to that today than I was before, and I suppose that is one reason God does take us through suffering. As Paul writes:
2 Cor 1:3-7 (NIV) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
))
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