Hello friends and family.  It was good to see everyone last Sunday.  I was supposed to be out of town but due to my current health concerns I didn’t feel that would be a good idea.  I never like to miss being with you, so it was a comfort to be home.  I hope this week finds us all being a blessing, as we are blessed.

This Sunday I’m going back to my favorite subject, but from a different and I hope more meaningful perspective.  I don’t think there is another word in the English language that is so abused.  We love our spouses.  We love our families.  We love our friends.  We love our pets.  We love our stuff.  we love good food.  Some of us are even blessed that we could say we love our jobs.  Hopefully all of us here love Jesus.  What does that mean?  We use the term so loosely that it’s hard to tell.

I think that part of the word’s overuse is due to our tendency to illustrate by exaggeration, but in so doing we have robbed it of its meaning and power.  The Greek language in which most of the new testament was written used four different words where we have just one.  I hope that you’ll join me as we explore what love is together.  In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this thought from 1 John 4:10.

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.