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Category: love

Beautiful Love

Beautiful Love


P4140034 mini rose b&w, originally uploaded by Lizi Beth.


Wonderful, so wonderful
Is your unfailing love
Your cross has spoken mercy over me
No eye has seen no ear has heard
No heart could fully know
How glorious, how beautiful you are.

Beautiful one I love you
Beautiful one I adore
Beautiful one my soul must sing.

Powerful so powerful
Your glory fills the skies
Your mighty works displayed for all to see
The beauty of your majesty
Awakes my heart to see
How marvelous how wonderful you are.

Beautiful one I love you
Beautiful one I adore
Beautiful one my soul must sing.

You opened my eyes to your wonders anew
You captured my heart with this love
Because nothing on Earth is as beautiful as you are.

– Jeremy Camp, Beautiful One

What A Wonderful World

What A Wonderful World

I see trees of green…….. red roses too
I see ’em bloom….. for me and for you
And I think to myself…. what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue ….. clouds of white
Bright blessed days …. dark sacred nights
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful world.

The colors of a rainbow….. so pretty .. in the sky
Are also on the faces ….. of people .. going by
I see friends shaking hands ….. sayin’ .. how do you do
They’re really sayin’ …… I love you.

I hear babies cry…… I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more ….. than I’ll never know
And I think to myself ….. what a wonderful world

The colors of a rainbow…..so pretty ..in the sky
Are there on the faces…..of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands ….. sayin’ .. how do you do
They’re really sayin’ … I ….love….you.

I hear babies cry…… I watch them grow
You know they’re gonna learn
A whole lot more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself ……. what a wonderful world.

–Louis Armstrong , What A Wonderful World

Love: Condemnation & Grace

Love: Condemnation & Grace

When your partner feels sure that she can never be condemned by you for who she is, that no judgement can hurt her, God’s grace has seeped into the fabric of your relationship – stopping the subtle and unhealthy marital pattern of your partner continually casting about for your approval.
– Drs. Les and Leslie Parrot, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, pg 84

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, …
– Romans 8:1-3

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. … There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, …the one who fears is not perfected in love.
We love because He first loved us.
– I John 4:10-12,18-19

"Good" Friday: a day of darkness

"Good" Friday: a day of darkness


Death Valley Natn’l Park, Easter 2006

… you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
but with precious blood,
as of a lamb
unblemished
and spotless,
the blood of Christ.
– I Peter 1:18-19

As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.
– Isaiah 53:11-12

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium
and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him.
And they stripped Him, and put a scarlet robe on Him.
And after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
And they spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head.
And after thay has mocked Him, they took His robe off and put His garments on Him,
and led Him away to crucify Him.
And about the ninth hour
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?” that is,
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?“
– Matthew 27:27-31,46

Awakening Beauty

Awakening Beauty

Sleeping Beauty by Jesse Wilcox Smith

The Prince sees Beauty, and is amazed.
He gazes, enthralled by her loveliness.
Now he must decide, will he continue to gaze upon her, watching her slumber? Or will he disturb her repose, awakening her, that he might know, in a fuller and more awake sense, the one whom he has adored from a distance?

A waltz when she walks in the room
She pulls back the hair from her face
She turns to the window to sway in the moonlight
Even her shadow has grace
A waltz for the girl out of reach
She lifts her hands up to the sky
She moves with the music
The song is her lover
The melody’s making her cry
So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

A waltz for the chance I should take
But how will I know where to start?
She’s spinning between constellations and dreams
Her rhythm is my beating heart

So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

I can’t keep on watching forever
I give up this view just to tell her

When I close my eyes I can see
The spotlights are bright on you and me
We’ve got the floor
And you’re in my arms
How could I ask for more?

So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

I can’t keep on watching forever
And I’m givin’ up this view just to tell her
– josh groban, “So She Dances” from Awake

Becoming (best?) Friends

Becoming (best?) Friends

So true! If you had asked me 5 months ago if I had any “romantic prospects”, you would have received an emphatic “no”. Chances are, you probably did! But …such is God, Our God forever and ever; He will guide us until death (Psalm 48:14). It seems as if God loves to surprise me; life with Him never gets stale, and I am enjoying every moment.

There was a definite process by which one made people into friends.
It involved talking to them and listening to them for hours at a time.
-Rebecca West

John and I are on our way to becoming very good friends, perhaps even life-long companions. Yes, this involves hours of talking, hours of listening, and multiple hours of conversations. Hours of talking tend to take up a lot of time (!), but I wouldn’t want to spend those hours in any other way …

Loving Each Other

Loving Each Other


Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

-Romans 12:9-13

I Corinthians 12:4-8a

I Corinthians 12:4-8a

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

The God of Everything

The God of Everything

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
For His lovingkindess is everlasting.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
To Him who alone does great wonders,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
To Him who made the heavens with skill,
…
To Him who spread out the earth above the waters,
…
To Him who made the great lights,
…
The sun to rule by day,
…
The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the God of heaven,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

-Psalm 136:1-9, 28


SONNET 116

SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

– william shakespeare