{"id":7791,"date":"2023-11-28T11:53:44","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T16:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=7791"},"modified":"2023-11-28T11:59:52","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T16:59:52","slug":"in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/28\/in-love\/","title":{"rendered":"In Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/h6>\n
In the early morning in that in-between-time right before fully awake, I hear the familiar whisper of my heavenly father speaking\u2026<\/h6>\n
\u201cTurn around you\u2019re looking the wrong way\u2026I\u2019m trying to give you the promised land,<\/span>\u00a0but you are still living in the desert\u2026and you keep looking back to Egypt! There is nothing for you back there. It is a fantasy. It no longer exists\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/h6>\n
Ouch\u2026<\/h6>\n
Oh, Abba how well you see and know me.<\/h6>\n
Throughout my life I\u2019ve longed for the fairy tale\u2026the home with the white-picket-fence where loved ones gather for family dinners and birthdays and just day-days\u2026to be together. Laugh, cry, go through all the life-things, together. But I never achieved the fairy-tale, because it doesn\u2019t exist. The prince and the princess with a life of happily-ever-after. TV families like; Leave it to Beaver, My three sons, the Walton\u2019s, to name a few\u2026that\u2019s Hollywood feel-good, make-believe-stuff\u2026where in TV land, everything has a happy ending. At least back then it did.<\/h6>\n
Reality is a hard taskmaster\u2026but in all of life\u2019s struggles there are moments where life is good\u2026it\u2019s joyful and we find moments of contentment\u2026My mom would say, \u201cLife never runs smooth.\u201d<\/h6>\n
What I\u2019ve come to learn over the sixty-nine years I\u2019ve lived this life, is that we are all still just little kids trying to figure it all out. With experience, comes wisdom, at least it should. I suppose some never learn the lesson.<\/h6>\n
I was young once believe it or not\u2026I had silly little dreams but as life unfolded, I didn\u2019t have the how to, to accomplish, and looking back at now would have been completely different. Age gives you a certain perspective you don\u2019t have when you are young. \u201cHindsight is 20\/20 they say.\u201d Whoever they are.<\/h6>\n
I\u2019m not complaining though, because even with the \u201cstupid\u201d mistakes (unwise choices) I made they brought me to this amazing time in my life where I\u2019ve made life-long friends, great memories. I\u2019ve learned to leave the bad memories buried and forgiven. That\u2019s what Papa God told me one time. \u201cStop digging up dead things!\u201d It\u2019s a process.<\/h6>\n
But I find myself, if I\u2019m not alert to it, I dwell in the desert and try to figure out why things are the way they are. Dumb I know. Thus, the Spirit of Papa God, telling me to stop it.<\/h6>\n
I think about many things, and that may be part of my challenge\u2026but that\u2019s me, a thinker of deep things\u2026I guess that is the artist in me\u2026to create\u2026but sometimes those creations are not for the better\u2026thank goodness for Holy Spirit\u2026he tells us to think on good things, praiseworthy things.<\/h6>\n
This is who I am. I was once someone else, but Jesus changed all of that. I continue to be transformed into His likeness day by day, moment by moment, and for that I am grateful.<\/h6>\n
I am saying all of this to tell you\u2026Do not look back! There\u2019s nothing there for you. Live in the present! Live in His presence because in Him you\u2019ll have the Promised Land\u2026where milk and honey flow continuously. But if we look back, if we listen to the evil one, he will trap us in a place of despondency, regret, unhappiness, defeat, unforgiveness and death.<\/h6>\n
Turn around, live in the now!<\/h6>\n
You may ask, \u201cBut how do you do it?\u201d<\/h6>\n
Have you ever been in love? That euphoric feeling of all you think about, all you care about, all you talk about, and all you want is to be with that person. Well, it\u2019s kind of like that.<\/h6>\n
Fall so in love with Jesus that he is all that matters. When you do that, your heart is made new and all you want to do is love. Read His love letters. Get to know him better and better. Learn of him, see how he acted, what he\u2019d say, what he\u2019d do and follow His example.<\/h6>\n
Hate is an extremely damaging emotion. It doesn\u2019t just kill the spirit of the person you hate; it kills you. Just like eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil it kills you spiritually and damages your whole life. When Steven, one of the early disciples was being stoned to death, he said, \u201cForgive them father for they don\u2019t know what they are doing.\u201d He followed Jesus\u2019 example. Jesus stood up\u2026if Steven had not prayed, forgive them\u2026Oh my! (Someone gave me this insight the other day.) (Todd)<\/h6>\n
When Jesus was dying on the cross, He said, \u201cForgive them father, they don\u2019t know what they are doing.\u201d Had he not prayed that prayer, this is just a personal thought, God would have destroyed mankind right then, for what they were doing to his son, it hurt him to the depths of his soul that he had to turn his head\u2026but Jesus loved us so much, he gave up His life for us. You and me and for all generations to come. All he asks is that we ask him too, he doesn\u2019t force anyone.<\/h6>\n
A very good friend of mine (Amye Still) says this, \u201cHurting people, hurt people. Freed people, free people!\u201d<\/h6>\n
Simply ask Jesus to come into your life, your heart, and show you how to love him. I promise you he will Love you right back\u2026<\/h6>\n
Jesus loves you so, so much\u2026when you love him, it makes you love everyone even your worst enemies\u2026even those who hurt you, abused you, abandoned, betrayed you, crushed you. But with the love Jesus gives you, you can forgive. Not that you continue in those relationships. Sometimes you have to love people from a distance. You will be freed!<\/h6>\n
~Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill November 27 & 28, 2023<\/h6>\n
1 Corinthians 13 New Living Translation<\/em><\/strong><\/h6>\n
Love Is the Greatest<\/em><\/strong><\/h6>\n
13\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn\u2019t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God\u2019s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn\u2019t love others, I would be nothing.\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about\u00a0it; [<\/span>a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0but if I didn\u2019t love others, I would have gained nothing.<\/em><\/h6>\n
4\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.<\/em><\/h6>\n
8\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.<\/em><\/h6>\n
11\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect\u00a0clarity. [<\/span>c<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.<\/em><\/h6>\n
13\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Three things will last forever\u2014faith, hope, and love\u2014and the greatest of these is love.<\/em><\/h6>\n
Footnotes<\/em><\/strong><\/h6>\n
    \n
  1. \n
    13:3<\/a>\u00a0Some manuscripts read\u00a0sacrificed my body to be burned.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    13:8<\/a>\u00a0Or\u00a0in tongues.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \u00a0<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the early morning in that in-between-time right before fully awake, I hear the familiar whisper of my heavenly father speaking\u2026 \u201cTurn around you\u2019re looking the wrong way\u2026I\u2019m trying to give you the promised land,\u00a0but you are still living in the desert\u2026and you keep looking back to Egypt! There is nothing for you back there….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-21F","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7791"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7794,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7791\/revisions\/7794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}