I am constantly praying John 13:35, \u201cBy this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,\u201d over my life and over the life of the church. But recently I felt the Lord nudge me to check out the verse before it. And John 13:34 says, \u201ca new commandment i give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.\u201d It was like the words on the page took life and meaning in a whole new way, and I sat there stunned. The kindness of the Lord had so deeply convicted me. \u201cA new commandment\u201d. \u201cTo love one another as I have loved you\u201d. It\u2019s not just a good idea, but it\u2019s something that Jesus has charged us with. As believers, loving one another is our calling! This is the testimony that we as believers are not just invited to partake in, but we are commanded to. We are to love one another in the church family radically and sacrificially, and by doing so, the world would KNOW that we are His disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loving one another seems super simple in concept, but so often we let disputes or differences get in the way of fully valuing the person in front of us. I see relationships torn apart simply because they are unwilling to find common ground and seek understanding. In this election season, don\u2019t let political differences get in the way of simply loving. You don\u2019t need to get your point across and you don\u2019t always need to have your way. If you find yourself feeling stretched thin, ask the Lord for grace to see this season through well\u2013to respond and move forward with the heart of God. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity to go out of your way to put your differences aside and lean into the heart of God!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My prayer for this season is that the Lord would keep our hearts soft to one another. In the midst of political and cultural upheaval, \u201clet grace abound\u201d as you seek to see people for who they are and not what they do or believe.\u00a0As a church may we be marked by the love of God. May our community recognize us as unique and beautiful because we are the ones that are able to put our differences aside to laugh and love and feast together. Would Jesus be the one thing that holds us all together. And would people look at us and say, \u201cI don\u2019t understand that. It\u2019s strange, because they\u2019re so different, but they function as family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the type of church Jesus longs for. It\u2019s the type of church we long for too \u2014 we just haven\u2019t fully realized it yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am constantly praying John 13:35, \u201cBy this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,\u201d over\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":543,"featured_media":50491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":60,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[88,89,90,91,92,93],"class_list":["post-52450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement","tag-encouragement","tag-exhortation","tag-grace","tag-john","tag-new-commandment","tag-relationship",""],"blockli_fields":{"post_type":"","post_action":"","post_type_icon":"","background_image":""},"bb_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"app_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"comments_count":"2","content_native":[{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
I am constantly praying John 13:35, \u201cBy this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,\u201d over my life and over the life of the church. But recently I felt the Lord nudge me to check out the verse before it. And John 13:34 says, \u201ca new commandment i give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.\u201d It was like the words on the page took life and meaning in a whole new way, and I sat there stunned. The kindness of the Lord had so deeply convicted me. \u201cA new commandment\u201d. \u201cTo love one another as I have loved you\u201d. It\u2019s not just a good idea, but it\u2019s something that Jesus has charged us with. As believers, loving one another is our calling! This is the testimony that we as believers are not just invited to partake in, but we are commanded to. We are to love one another in the church family radically and sacrificially, and by doing so, the world would KNOW that we are His disciples.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"I am constantly praying John 13:35, \u201cBy this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,\u201d over my life and over the life of the church. But recently I felt the Lord nudge me to check out the verse before it. And John 13:34 says, \u201ca new commandment i give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.\u201d It was like the words on the page took life and meaning in a whole new way, and I sat there stunned. The kindness of the Lord had so deeply convicted me. \u201cA new commandment\u201d. \u201cTo love one another as I have loved you\u201d. It\u2019s not just a good idea, but it\u2019s something that Jesus has charged us with. As believers, loving one another is our calling! This is the testimony that we as believers are not just invited to partake in, but we are commanded to. We are to love one another in the church family radically and sacrificially, and by doing so, the world would KNOW that we are His disciples."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
Loving one another seems super simple in concept, but so often we let disputes or differences get in the way of fully valuing the person in front of us. I see relationships torn apart simply because they are unwilling to find common ground and seek understanding. In this election season, don\u2019t let political differences get in the way of simply loving. You don\u2019t need to get your point across and you don\u2019t always need to have your way. If you find yourself feeling stretched thin, ask the Lord for grace to see this season through well--to respond and move forward with the heart of God. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity to go out of your way to put your differences aside and lean into the heart of God! <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Loving one another seems super simple in concept, but so often we let disputes or differences get in the way of fully valuing the person in front of us. I see relationships torn apart simply because they are unwilling to find common ground and seek understanding. In this election season, don\u2019t let political differences get in the way of simply loving. You don\u2019t need to get your point across and you don\u2019t always need to have your way. If you find yourself feeling stretched thin, ask the Lord for grace to see this season through well--to respond and move forward with the heart of God. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity to go out of your way to put your differences aside and lean into the heart of God! "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
My prayer for this season is that the Lord would keep our hearts soft to one another. In the midst of political and cultural upheaval, \u201clet grace abound\u201d as you seek to see people for who they are and not what they do or believe. As a church may we be marked by the love of God. May our community recognize us as unique and beautiful because we are the ones that are able to put our differences aside to laugh and love and feast together. Would Jesus be the one thing that holds us all together. And would people look at us and say, \u201cI don't understand that. It\u2019s strange, because they're so different, but they function as family.\u201d <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"My prayer for this season is that the Lord would keep our hearts soft to one another. In the midst of political and cultural upheaval, \u201clet grace abound\u201d as you seek to see people for who they are and not what they do or believe. As a church may we be marked by the love of God. May our community recognize us as unique and beautiful because we are the ones that are able to put our differences aside to laugh and love and feast together. Would Jesus be the one thing that holds us all together. And would people look at us and say, \u201cI don't understand that. It\u2019s strange, because they're so different, but they function as family.\u201d "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
This is the type of church Jesus longs for. It\u2019s the type of church we long for too \u2014 we just haven\u2019t fully realized it yet.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"This is the type of church Jesus longs for. It\u2019s the type of church we long for too \u2014 we just haven\u2019t fully realized it yet."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}}],"app_access":{"can_access":true,"restrict_message":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/543"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}