Dennis R. Wiles

February 16, 2020

Love Is . . .

February 2020

February 2 - 25, 2020

Love is . . . Promised in “I Do”

Song of Songs 8:5-7

LOVE

What our world needs now is . . . Love!

Love is . . . Promised in “I Do”

Song of Songs 8:5-7

Friends

Who is this coming up from the wilderness

    leaning on her beloved?

She

Under the apple tree I roused you;

    there your mother conceived you,

    there she who was in labor gave you birth.

Place me like a seal over your heart,

    like a seal on your arm;

for love is as strong as death,

    its jealousy unyielding as the grave.

It burns like blazing fire,

    like a mighty flame.

Many waters cannot quench love;

    rivers cannot sweep it away.

If one were to give

    all the wealth of one’s house for love,

    it would be utterly scorned.

Marriage in America – trends and statistics

Marriage is God’s Idea

MARRIAGE: Erotic, passionate, romantic, deep, emotional, friendly, caring, unashamed, sturdy, eternal love ---- a glimpse into marital love!

Dennis R. Wiles

February 9, 2020

Love Is . . .

February 2020

January 5 – February 1, 2020

Love is . . . First for God!

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

LOVE

What our world needs now is . . . Love!

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

-Jesus

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

-Galatians 5:6

Love is . . . First for God!

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Learn the Truth about God.

Love the Lord God with your entire being.

Live a Godly life before others.

“A Superlative Path”

1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13.

Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Dennis R. Wiles

January 26, 2020

Communal Love

January 2020

January 5 – February 1, 2020

Gathered, Connected, Growing!

Colossians 1:24-29

Gathered, Connected, Growing!

Colossians 1:24-29

Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

GOD’S PEOPLE: The Church is the transformative community all Christians need!

GOD’S MESSAGE: God’s Word in its fullness is what we all need!

GOD’S GLORY: In Christ, God’s glory can be restored in us!

GOD’S DESIRE: Maturity in Christ --- together for His sake!

Dennis R. Wiles

January 19, 2020

Communal Love

January 2020

January 5 – February 1, 2020

Children of God

1 John 3:1-3

LOVE

What our world needs now is . . . Love!

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

-Jesus

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

-Galatians 5:6

Children of God

1 John 3:1-3

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

God loves us, we love Him, we love each other, and we love His world!

God’s love for us is transformational!

God’s love makes it possible for us to be reborn!

As God’s children, we are secure in His love for us.

As God’s children, we have a bright future!

As God’s children, we have the opportunity to live like it!