Not just throwing words around!!!

How many people have you told that you love today? How often in a day do you use the word love? Do you always mean it when you say it or do you just throw around the word love meaninglessly? If you're anything like me there has been times when you have used the L word when you really did not mean it.

As we think this week about love and how we relate to one another let's focus today on scriptures from Exodus 12: 1-13

The First Passover

¹ While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: ² “From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. ³ Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household. ⁴ If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood. Divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat. ⁵ The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no defects.

⁶ “Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. ⁷ They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal. ⁸ That same night they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without yeast. ⁹ Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water. The whole animal—including the head, legs, and internal organs—must be roasted over a fire. ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it until the next morning. Burn whatever is not eaten before morning.

¹¹ “These are your instructions for eating this meal: Be fully dressed, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in your hand. Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover. ¹² On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! ¹³ But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Yesterday we talked about loving one another and today we focus on what that love looks like. Often times we throw around words but our actions and feelings show that we really feel differently, and that's not love. But true love looks like the example that God set for the Hebrew people through the first passover. God loves his people so much that in this scripture he saves not some, but all of them the good and the bad.

This is the same love that Paul spoke of in yesterday's text from Romans. Love beyond human limitations, true selfless love. However we are also charged with being truthful to one another about our feelings and emotions. It's o.k. not to love or be in love with everyone, and at times it's better to just say I like you or think you're cool. The rest of the week we will focus on different types of or levels of attraction and relationships . We will look at how we enter into Christian relationships and what scripture has to say about them?

But for tonight just think about whom you say that you love? If you don't mean it the why do you say it? If you do mean it, do your actions reflect it?This is just food for thought for both of us?

Stay tunned the rest of the week is bound to be interesting.
Love Pastor J.