A series looking at love, one of the most important words in the Bible, that knits the bible together cover-to-cover.
| Video Message | Resources |
| Week 1: God Is Love | Monday Memo notes More about God’s Love this Week – Spend some time in 1st John this week, reading and mulling what it says about love: – 1 John 2.7-11 NRSVUE – 1 John 3.1-3 NRSVUE – 1 John 3.11-24 NRSVUE – 1 John 4.7-21 NRSVUE – Here’s a neat journaling exercise for the week. Because “God is love,” take the famous text about love in 1st Corinthians 13.1-8 and make it about God. So not “Love is patient, love is kind…” but “GOD is patient, GOD is kind…” You can rewrite or paraphrase all eight verses like this…It’s a really poignant way to get your head around what God’s love is really like. – Here are a few resources on God’s love: – A devotional with reflection questions entitled “Three Strikes – and You’re Still Loved”: Three Strikes and You Are…Still Loved – Some daily reflections from The Center for Action and Contemplation on God’s love: – Living in the Light of God’s Love – God’s Passionate Love – God’s Universal Love – A great selection of short quotes about God’s love from across church history, as well as verses about it: Infinite love, endless grace: Quotes about the depth of God’s love |
| Week 2: The Overflow | Monday Memo notes “The Overflow” This Week – Begin every day this week being intentional to connect with God, even if only for a few moments: a) remember that you are God’s beloved child and that God seeks your best at all times, even if that means to correct or change you, and then b) ask to be a channel for that divine love to others with whom you interact throughout the day. If you want to pray a verse as a focal point, try 1st Thessalonians 3.12: “And may the Lord make you increase and overflow in love for one another and for all, just as we overflow in love for you.” – Make a list: what are the ways that you best connect with God or feel close to God? How can you make a routine or rhythm from those things? How can you ask your family or friends to help you keep that rhythm? Return the favor to your family and close friends – ask them to tell you how they connect to God best so that you can help them pursue and prioritize those practices. – On Friday or Saturday, take some time to reflect on your week as you tried thoughtfully and intentionally to be “an overflow” of God’s love for you and through you to others. Talk to your small group about it. Journal a little about the experience. – And here are a few online resources on that key idea of staying close to God so that God’s love can flow through us to others…each is pretty short, a quick but meaningful read, and the last one is short prayer exercise that might prove very meaningful for you: – God’s Love Includes Imperfection – Living in the Flow – The Practice of Encountering Others – St. Paul’s United Methodist Church – Contemplation on the Love of God – IgnatianSpirituality.com – One more resource…you can listen to an entire sermon, broken up into eight short videos, from the renowned Henri Nouwen on being God’s beloved so that we can love others: Being the Beloved |
| Week 3: Fear, Death, and Darkness | Monday Memo notes |
| Week 4: Beloved Family | Monday Memo notes “A Family of Friends” and “Agape” This Week – Spend some time reflecting on the applicational questions or points in the sermon summary above, notably points 5 and 7 through 9. How can you take a step into KirkWood as a “family of friends,” or what idea do you have that would help us live that more? How can you live “agape” a little more day to day, and toward whom? – Here’s a week’s worth of short devotional, suitable for teens and adults, on Christian love: – New Commandment – Sharing and Caring – Rules of the Game – Complete and Perfect Love – Love Takes Work – Unrestrained Love – Love Remains – Here are some good, short articles on agape love: – The Nature of Agape Love – Dallas Willard – The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute – Agape Love: How to Love Unconditionally – Here are two short videos about agape love: – Agape – Love – Martin Luther King on “Agape,” a Form of Love at the Core of Nonviolent Resistance |
| Week 5: I Have, I See, I Give | Monday Memo notes Love in Deed and Truth this Week 1) Some good reflection questions for the week: – Where in your life or toward whom do you have a “touch and go” kind of love? – How can we be more active in, work harder at, or cultivate the practice of love? And toward whom? – What do you have to give others? Revisit point 7 in the sermon summary above. – Ask God to open your eyes to see the needs in the people you encounter this week, and then keep a log of what you see. – Every day this week, try to see a need and give yourself in love to meet it. It could be small, personal or tangible or material. Keep a list. 2. Here are some reflections that will keep you connected to the heart and action of Christian love this week…several will help you dive more deeply into writers/scholars/theologians mentioned in the sermon: Thomas Merton on Love Henri Nouwen: Love Deeply Breathing in Love, Breathing out Fear The Power of Love Philosopher Erich Fromm on the Art of Loving and What Is Keeping Us from Mastering It Kierkegaard, Freedom, and the Psychology of Love |
| Week 6: | Monday Memo notes |