Love

Journal Entry: Written June 2008

Love is a battlefield.
I know that may sound cheesy; seeing as that is a line in an old song, but these few words are far from cheesy. They are a reality that go far beyond my understanding. I have been thinking a great deal about spiritual warfare and the battle that we constantly live in, whether realized or not.

I recently read a book "Waking the Dead" which gives great visual and incite to what this battle we are fighting looks like. This along with studying love in the Bible has lead me to those words which I no longer would consider cheesy... Love is a battlefield. Because love wins. love conquers. Jesus is Love. he lived love, he taught love, he breathed love. And this love beats Satan... always.

And Satan is angry. he will do anything to destroy, confuse, upset, uproot, undo and rattle anyone and everyone whether oblivious to the battle or fighting full-throttle. This enemy is brutal, but it cannot win. Not when love is our weapon.

Jesus says "take heart, I have overcome the world!"
My eyes have been opened to an ever present brutal battle. Something so huge that "Taking heart" seems like "ok G-D this is ridiculously hard, taxing, deathly, and unending! Take heart?!"
But then I could see it, taste it, touch it, feel it, breathe it.

Love

And I know...
Love wins. and so our weapon in this battle is love. The love Jesus modeled threw his life, the love Satan cannot kill, the love plainly penned in 1Corr. 13. TO fight with love? how could you not win? When love never gives up, cares for others more than self, doesn't want what it doesn't have, dose not strut or boast, dose not force itself on others, dose not revel when others grovel, is not rude or crude, takes pleasure in truth, perseveres, trusts G-D always, and keeps going until the end. "love NEVER fails"

As I was brewing Folgers this morning, I was overwhelmed with a scene from Harry Potter. In the book there is an intense battle taking place. In this chapter Dumbledore the wizard is fighting the villain Voldemorte. When Voldemorte is losing and cannot win he decides if he posses the boy whom holds Dumbledore's heart, than he wouldn't lose. However, when he enters the boys body he is in agony! HE is consumed by excruciating pain, caused by the love Harry's body holds. HE cannot live in him because of this love. The reason for the love in Harry is life laid down so that he might live. In the story Harry's parents sacrifice their life to save their son, forever binding him in the protection and power of their love. In the same it was with Christ. HE was murdered so that we might live. His blood covered us in forgiveness but above all... Love.
Therefore in this battle the enemy cannot win. I have realized that by arming ourselves in love, marching on our knees in prayer, and living out our hearts threw action...
we can show the world the face of Jesus, and in his book...
the battle is already won.

Love is a battlefield.

Are you ready to fight?