First Love

What is it about first love that is

 so captivating to watch.

Its fresh and full of hope

It longs for communication

Its is always looking at how to give

It cares about appearance

Its willing to wait

It grows stronger in struggles.

“Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.” Rev. 2:4-5

So how do we leave love?

 How does love grow cold? 

What does it mean to do the

 deeds you did at first?

If our affections are not abiding in Christ, we will be like sitting ducks for the enemy's attacks. His arrows go for the heart, and he is a good shot. It says that in the last day, the love of the many will wax cold. Can we see how the world has sold us a bill of goods, that counterfeits real love. 

The worlds foundation of love is 

FEELING. 

Ours is in the ONE 

who shows what true love is, 

and then places it in our hearts. 

What is the beginning 

and continuing 

of this 

never ending 

LOVE?

It is HIM.

And Jesus' charge to the church in Ephesus in Revelation is simply this...

BELIEVE and DO.

It was to be a REALATIONSHIP that relied on HIM, but they had reduced it to RULES to regulate, without love. 

How can you give love, when love has left? 

The slippy slope of BEING RIGHT, and DOING RIGHT will be revealed when test come. 

Some times we forget, how very simple it was in the beginning; 

Believe and DO, 

Trust and Obey. 

It may seem easier at first to look to rules, than to LET HIM RULE, in our hearts. One requires only knowledge, while the other requires a yielded heart. 

Captivating love,

 is maintained by 

cultivating

 our relationship 

with HIM. 

We will find that knowing this kind of love in our hearts, will carry us through craziness, and will preserve LOVE to face any difficulty.

A love that is rooted 

and established 

in Christ, 

will withstand 

all storms and struggles.

So many Christians are frozen in spiritual immaturity. They are easily offended, often distracted and without prayer or spiritual discipline. We think God is requiring of us simply to hang on, yet the Lord is looking for mature Christ-likeness to emerge within us. He feeds us with His Spirit and Word that we might have every resource we need to obtain 
His very life and character. He baptizes us in fire that He might create proven character within us. He is relentless with His goal, expecting we should be also.~Francis Frangipane

"Rouse thee, O believer, from thy low condition!  Cast away thy sloth, thy lethargy, thy coldness, or whatever interferes with thy chaste and pure love to Christ.  Make Him the source, the center, and the circumference of all they soul's range of delight.  Rest no longer satisfied with thy dwarfish attainments.  Aspire to a higher, a nobler, a fuller life.  Upward to heaven!  Nearer to God! ~Charles H. Spurgeon

“Let us with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” 

Heb. 10:23, 24

Pictured above:  Tim and Whitney Holloway, on their wedding day, November 24, 2012