St. John Studies

As Dr. Chapman writes about words of affirmation in Chapter 2, he turns to the Bible to get example after example of God’s affirming words.

Then he gives example after example of Jesus’ affirming words.

You do know why, don’t you?

It is the crux of the message of his book, why he puts words of affirmation as an early chapter.

We have God’s word with us 24/7, 365 and the Bible is an affirming book; nevertheless I hear people who are doubters and unbelievers say “I don’t want to believe in God.  God is so strict and judgmental.  I am having fun right now and if I declare that I believe in Him, His rules will have to be followed. His rules are no fun.”

These are the words of people who don’t understand the promises of God.

Dr. Chapman uses the words of the prophet Isaiah [48: 19] to make his point that God has good plans for those who believe “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”

Christians who experience this promise of peace are Christians who believe, Christians who are interested in growth, Christians who are interested in maturing.

There is a tale of a Christian missionary who one day said to another Christian “I’m tired of working with mature people!”  His companion [a little surprised] said “Would you rather be working with immature people?”  The missionary replied, “No my preference is to work with maturing people.”

The result of following God is a peace that supersedes any thrill the doubter and unbeliever has.

It is founded on belief, belief in the affirming words of the Bible.

I have known many “professing Christians” over the years.  These folks like the label of Christian attached to their names but they suffer from what physicians or psychologists call arrested development.  Patients who suffer from physical growth or mental growth that has stopped have entered a state of arrested development.

Christians who don’t open their Bibles or avail themselves of many other ways of learning about God are in arrested development.

If we would explore our Bibles and let the Spirit of God work through the Word of God, He will take possession of our hearts and minds.  The problems that we have will be replaced by opportunities to serve others and glorify God and enjoy a new life of more peace, more peace than we ever could imagine.

I have a friend who took exception to a comment I made on his blog the other day; I did not take offense.  He just took the metaphor I used of the Christian “is a fish [no pun intended] that has to swim against the stream”.  He wanted to change it.   My context was that we have to fight the powerful stream of cultural values to live a Christian life.  He said that he would rather think of the Christian as “flowing with the stream of the Holy Spirit.”

What’s he talking about?

He’s talking about tapping into the Holy Spirit power source that is available for all of us, flowing with that stream of power and growing, delighting and enjoying doing the will of God.  His will becomes our will.  Our greatest freedom is the freedom to experience all the wonderful things that God has planned for us.

If we just make the effort to grow and mature.

If we just truly believe His affirming words.

Have you ever cried uncontrollably, a cry that comes from deep inside, that verges on out-of-control wailing?

Have you ever been so devastated by some circumstance in life that you hit the floor and did not feel like you were ever going to get up?

Have you ever been hurt so bad that you did not think your heart would ever heal from the wound?

Most of you are probably thinking right now ……nooooo….[and why is he bringing up this uncomfortable stuff?].

Because Dr. Chapman is 100% correct when he says that “God will love you when everyone else walks away.”  He was telling the story of Pastor Reuben’s conversion moment.

Why am I bringing this up?

I am putting these dramatic episodes before you because so many people fear these episodes.   However don’t we need to have this attitude of “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” [James 1: 2-3]

Yes, but it is hard when you are in the midst of pain.

It is in these episodes that God proves Himself to you.  Men and women will walk away from you but God will not.

At my church we have a leader who is making an effort to startup United Methodist Men after a long hiatus.   I was talking to another man who approached some men about participating, and he said it was like he had the plague when he brought up the subject of UMM.  They basically said “No, we don’t want anything to do with that.”

Women are often attacked for putting up a false front but that is so silly; both genders like to present a façade to the world.  Women don’t have anything on men.

The male façade: “I am in control;”  “I can do this all by myself;”  “I know where I am going” etc. etc.

Really?

None of us is really in control.  We can’t do much in this world all by ourselves and if we would admit it, we are lost quite often [literally and figuratively].

But we don’t want to admit it.  It is embarrassing.

Men don’t want to admit that we have been absent from the church.  We have not provided leadership as a group.  We don’t want to admit that fellowship and relationship with other men is important.

You see women have all that relationship stuff figured out.

They know that God can work in relationships.  Men think we can do it alone.  In fact, just yesterday I was looking at health information [you know, one of those internet lists] about why men die younger than women.  One major cause was men do not know how to relate to others and this “lone wolf” mentality can cause men to die earlier than needed.

Social support is a good thing.  Spending time with like-minded folks can result in good times and bonds which are needed.

Can people walk away and cause you to cry, devastate you, and break your heart?

You bet they can [that stuff at the beginning all happened to me].

God was the first one to wipe my tears, God was the first one to pick me up off the floor and God over the years has mended my heart and you know what?

People helped too, good Christian people.

Was it all embarrassing?  Yes it was, but it made me a stronger person.  Will it be good for the men of the church to reemerge as a positive force at St. John?  Yes it will.

We will all learn that we can have more control if we work together, we can do a lot more if we work together, and we are all lost from time to time and it is ok to admit it.

The lesson from “God Speaks Your Love Language” is clear.  Human relationships reflect the nature of God and if we can understand human relationships better, we can better understand divine love.

You have to say yes to others.  You have to join in sometimes.  You have to drop the façade…and find God.

Romans 12:6

“We all have different gifts, according to the grace given us.  If a man’s gift is prophesy, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

Loving is all about giving.

But loving is all about receiving too.

Chapter Two is about words of affirmation.

[Reveal!]  My number three score is words of affirmation.  My profile score breakdown is 10, 9, 8, 2 and 1.  You can see that most of my points in my profile are in the top three languages and my number 8 is words of affirmation.  That’s a lot of points—27% out of the total.

What does that mean?  It means that I respond well to people telling me good things about myself.  The profile says:  “Actions don’t always speak louder than words. If this is your love language, unsolicited compliments mean the world to you. Hearing the words, ‘I love you,’ are important – hearing the reasons behind that love sends your spirits skyward. Insults can leave you shattered and are not easily forgotten. Kind, encouraging, and positive words are truly life-giving.”

Ok, I think this is right about me.

Does this mean that I am good at affirming others?  No it does not.  It just means that I like hearing those words from others.

In Chapter Two, we encounter Pastor Reuben, who loves preaching and his message is right on target with Dr. Chapman’s book.  His message is all about love.  He has affirmed his congregation and it has grown from 30 to 2,000.

This has come easy for him because his main love language gift is affirmation.  However, it is so true to life when his wife says that when he uses his words of affirmation on her “His words sound empty.”

What’s the problem?  This wife would rather the pastor run the vacuum, wash the dishes and do the laundry than tell her how much he loves her.

He has a gift of affirming and maybe he likes to be affirmed.  Dr. Chapman says when he went to Pastor Reuben’s worship service, the congregation shouted encouraging words during his sermon.  I guess even pastors like an affirming AMEN! once in a while.

Pastor Reuben needs to stop and think about his wife and see that she is different from his congregation.

Like a lot of us, he assumes that all people need to be affirmed.

Not so.

Some people don’t respond well to this type of love language, in fact it can even backfire.  It is well known in social psychology that there are people who will try to manipulate others with their words.  One of the most common ways to manipulate others is to tell them affirming words.  If you use affirming words to get something from someone else, the dark side of language use can occur.  People don’t want to be coerced into doing something.  Many would rather just have a clear request and skip the affirming talk.  That type of person refers to affirming words as “being buttered up.”

As I read Chapter Two about Pastor Reuben and his wife Patsy, the focus was on Reuben but I also thought about Patsy.  Maybe Reuben was using the wrong love language on Patsy but my hope is that Patsy knows to use words of affirmation on Reuben.

You see, people who like to receive words of affirmation don’t overanalyze the words they receive from others.   The just take them and like them.

I know.

Twenty-seven percent of my points are in “words of affirmation”.

http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/

If you have not taken the love language profile, it is time to do it.  The link is above.

Other suggestions:

Dr. Chapman has a free newsletter call The Five Love Languages “Practically Speaking.”  All you have to do it go to the upper right side of the profile page [above] and you can have his free newsletter delivered to you email box.  You may want to look into it.  It is rather “practical” and the price is right.

Questions from Chapter 1

1.Think of times when you had problems communicating with someone else.  What did that feel like?   Think of times when you “connected” with someone else.  What did that feel like?

2.Assuming you have taken your love language profile, what do you think about the results?  Do you think the results are valid?  Why or why not?

3.Read 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and now that you understand you own love language, notice how it pertains to your own love language profile results.

A Little Note:

I cried.  I know it sounds corny, but I cried.  Believe it or not, tv touches me sometimes.  This week the tv got to me in an unusual place.  I was watching CBS News at 5:30 and they did a 2 minute piece on freshman college basketball player Lauren Hill.  Lauren was recruited to the Mount St. Joseph College Basketball team but she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor before she had a chance to play her first game.  The school scheduled an early game so she could play one game before she died.  She played in that special game [full auditorium] and she scored 2 points, the first points of the game.  Lauren was very sick when she played that game and this past week she died of the tumor.

That was sad and one would think I would cry there but no, the tears came at the end of the story.

LeBron James sent her a tweet after he found out that she had died.  Lauren was gone but I guess he felt she would get the tweet anyhow.  Here is what it said.

“Lauren, can u please tell my Grandma I said hello.  Don’t be afraid, she knows you cause we spoke about u plenty of times.”

Lauren’s death, a big basketball star taking the time to do this;  I cried.

Battalogeo is not a word you use every day.  One reason we don’t use it is that it is Greek.

However it may be something that you experience every day.  You do it or you hear other people do it.

It means vain repetitions and empty phrases.

Jesus was very concerned with battalogeo.  In His day, there were people who lead the Jewish religious communities who used battalogeo quite often:  Pharisees.  You know about them.  They wanted everyone to know they were  praying  often,  making their prayer a public, a theatrical performance.  John Stott says the Pharisees liked to make a big deal of everything, even giving a donation, marching trumpeters in front of themselves, on the way to donating and prayer.   But when the prayers happened, they seemed lacking.  They seemed rote.  They seemed repetitious.  They seemed to be babbling [battalogeo].

Jesus had a problem with prayer that was less than heartfelt, words without meaning.

In my experience with other religions, I have often wondered about the Hindu who chants.  It seems like a mindless repetition of sound as the chanter descends into a mindless state.  [They would argue that meditation is not mindless].

I have wondered about the Catholic rosary as the devout Catholic tells of the beads and the telling becomes automatic.

I have heard some pastors pray over and over and they use the same phrases in every prayer in every circumstance and they pray quickly, especially over food.  Are they hungry?

I have heard some church members pray the Lord’s Prayer and they have done it many times.  Have they done it so many times that it is battalogeo?  Are they thinking about the important words of the prayer that Jesus taught us?

Let’s shift gears.

We are studying a book about love, expressing love to people and having people express love to us.  We are reading about expressing love for our Lord and our Lord expressing love to us.

Have you ever told someone you love them and it was mindless?

I thought so.  You have.

Some would say even a mindless “I love you” is ok.  Some people have told me they never get an “I love you” from anyone, at any time.

Mindless is better than nothing.

But is it?

What is the value of mindless babbling?

Matthew 6: 7-8:  do not be like them [pagans], for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

Mean “I love you” as you affirm others, give your undivided attention, surprise with a gift, perform an act of service or offer a warm hug.

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

You need love.  The person receiving your “language” needs love.

God needs to hear your love.

You need to experience His.

*thoughts for this post inspired by one of my favorite writers, John Stott

“People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”  This quote is from “Funny Girl” a musical that was popular in the 60’s and the song “People Who Need People” was a hit for Barbra Streisand.

Are people who need people lucky?

There is a lot of research information to support this.

People in relationships experience support from others and that allows them to explore their world.  They have less fear and concern and are confident that their loved ones will be there for them if they are needed.  People in relationships feel understood by others; they are not constantly seeking affirmation.   In times of trouble, people in relationships know who to turn to; in times of celebration, they know who to turn to.  Close relationships allow for an exchange of ideas that can be good, especially if those ideas lead to mental growth and a more open, stimulated mind.  Being in relationships with others can help us identify with others as we can experience our identity in belonging to a group.   Also, happiness “rubs off” from others.  People who have relationships with happy people benefit because others’ happiness is contagious.  I guess the reverse is also true.

The list goes on and on.  Some advice I have received from others:

When I retired, I had so much advice given to me about transitioning from the work world to “retirement life.”  You have to have a network to replace your work network.  You need relationships even more after retirement.

As I got older, I had people tell me to stay married.  Married men really do better later on in life with a marriage partner.  You need that spouse to stay happy.

Do activities with your men friends, go to a ballgame, play a round of golf, work on a car together.   Guys won’t just sit and talk and relate to you.  They will work on a project with you and as you do the work, the talk happens.  The relationship grows.

Does this information sound correct to you?   Do you think the advice is good?

It is all based on the idea that “people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”

But Dr. Chapman goes further than that.

He says “the love languages observed in human relationships are a reflection of divine love.”  Further he states “God speaks all five love languages fluently and that people tend to be attracted to God most deeply when they sense that God is speaking their primary love language.”

I am sensitive to pulling quotations out of context but I am going to do just that.  Recently I was teaching a Sunday School class and I was referencing the Koran or Quran, the holy book of Islam.  I was trying to draw a contrast between the Islamic conception of god and Christian conception of God.  In Surah 171, the Koran says “God is but one God; utterly remote is He.”  I realize that I have quoted just a few words from a large book and those few words don’t represent the whole Koran but in my Bible, Jesus allows us to be a bit closer than this I think.  In fact, He desires a relationship with us.  My Bible is the story of God’s efforts to pursue a relationship with man after man’s fall in the Garden of Eden.

This culminates in passages from the Bible like John 14: 23-26, when Jesus says:  “If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them. But anyone who doesn’t love me, won’t obey me. What they have heard me say doesn’t really come from me, but from the Father who sent me.  I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you.”  Further efforts at relating are in Revelation 3:20:  “Listen! I am standing and knocking at your door. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will eat together.”

These don’t seem to be the actions of a distant, remote God.

These seem to be statements from a God that wants to get to know you better, a God who wants to have a relationship with you.

In the context of “God Speaks Your Love Language” maybe we need to change Barbra’s lyrics to “people who need God are the luckiest people in the world.”

Let’s say you have done what I asked you to do.  Let’s say you have gone to

http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/

You now have knowledge of your love language.

But you are a spouse with a spouse who does not want to learn anything new.  You are a single person who has some challenging relationships but none of your “challenges” wants to take the profile.  You have a child or a teen who acts out from time to time and you want to try to fill their love tank but they think that taking a “love profile” is stupid.

What do you have when you complete your profile?

Self-awareness.  You know what you need in order to have a positive love response from another [what Dr. Chapman calls the fuel for your “love tank”].  What good does that do if you have no one responding to you the way you need for them to respond?

One thing that is certain is that all of us are different and you can’t force another person to take a profile, much less change.

Dr. Chapman suggests that you try to answer the following three questions [let’s use an unwilling spouse as an example]:  How does this person most often express love to others?  This means you will have to observe them over a period of time.  They may not be speaking your love language but they may be speaking a love language that is evident if you make an effort to notice it.    What does this person complain about the most?  This can be a great indicator about what they are lacking in their life.  “We never go anywhere” may indicate quality time.  “My shoulders hurt” may indicate a need for physical touch.  “You never help me with the vacuuming” may indicate a need for acts of service.

Another approach is the five-week approach.  Quoting from Dr. Chapman:  “The first week, you focus on one of the five love languages and seek to speak it every day and observe the response of your spouse. On Saturday and Sunday, you relax. The second week—Monday through Friday—you focus on another of the love languages and continue with a different language each of the five weeks. On the week you are speaking your spouse’s primary love language, you are likely to see a difference in their countenance and the way they respond to you. It will be obvious that this is their primary love language.”

It is much easier to implement change if the people you want to work with are “on board” but that is sadly not always the case.

Many people seek help alone.  They are trying to improve communication with another person/s but others are not willing to work.

Never underestimate the effort by one person to change.

I have seen this in my life.

Don’t buy into the cliché that it “takes two to tango.”  One very loving person can shake up patterned communication in a relationship if they are dedicated to making the change.

What do you have when you take the love languages quiz?

Maybe information that will be the first step to improving your relationships with others and eventually God.

“To give and receive, an interchange.”

Dr. Chapman talks a lot in the intro of his book about man’s capacity to love.  This is a great starting point but I want to discuss what underlies love.

A person can have a lot of love in their heart but it does them no good at all until they are willing to give it away

Dr. Chapman uses the love that parents and grandparents have for their children and grandchildren.  That’s a great example because most parents and grandparents want the best for their young family members.  They want them to have good lives and they want them to be happy.  Parents and grandparents give to young people selflessly.

But what about someone who has no children or grandchildren?

Do they have love?

Of course they do but the love they have does them little good unless they give it away.

I said it again, “give it away.”

There is a basic element of risk in the giving of love to others.  The risk is will we get it back—reciprocation.

Some of you know I have a long-term relationship with my spouse [39 years].  The relationship had to start somewhere and it started with “I like this girl”.  At that early point, I had no idea if it would blossom into something greater, but eventually I felt it did.

One night I knew.

We were sitting in a car outside her house and the date was almost over.  I felt I could possibly love this girl but I was not 100% sure.  We happened to be talking about a sensitive subject for me.  We were sharing feelings.  I can’t remember the topic but for some strange reason, I got emotional.

In front of a girl I like and possibly loved.

Panic ensued.

She saw the tears.  The night drew to a close and then I had to go to school the next day.  I could hear it now.  “Carter cried on his date.”  “Carter is a real cry baby.”  “Carter can’t keep it all together.”

All of this because my girlfriend could not keep a secret.

I felt I had left myself vulnerable the previous night.

First day and no teasing.

Second day and no teasing.

Third day and no teasing.

Then it hit me.  She had kept my secret.

I had exposed my emotions to this girl and she had been true to me.

Then I began to see her as special.  We had a bond.

What I gave to her was not really love but I did give something away.  I gave away some information about myself that was private and she kept it between us.  It was an indication that she was trustworthy and loyal to our relationship.

Reciprocation works like that.

You have the capacity to give love and you take a chance.  You say words that show love and affirmation, you share quality time with another person, you give special gifts, you do work that is extraordinary or you give someone a physical touch.

You speak a love language to someone you love.

Will you get love language back?  When you truly love someone, you give your love away.  You don’t worry about getting love back.  You are not keeping records.  If you are, I question the real agenda you have in expressing your love language.

We know that God loves unconditionally which means no agenda.

Can we do that?

If we can, it reflects the divine capacity which is in all of us.

1 John 4:21  “Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

I would imagine that God would look down on us and be happy because we have taken His love and passed it on to another.

His selfless agenda.

http://www.5lovelanguages.com/resource/god-speaks-your-love-language/

It is important to know your own love language from the start of this study.  Go to the url above [God speaks your love language resource] and click on the profiles link at the top.  That will take you to a love language test that you can take.  It took me about 20 minutes.  When you are finished, you can see the results or you can have them mailed to your email box.  This is very important to do as soon as you can.

It is significant that Dr. Chapman begins his book with the story of Susan and Regina.

Let’s examine why.

Both women have come to him for counseling help and both women have suffered terrible setbacks in life.

One woman chooses to “count it all joy” and move on with her life, seeing her setbacks [father’s suicide, brother killed in war and husband left for another woman] as nudges from God that mean something but she is not sure what.  She is sure of one thing:  God loves her.  She knows it.   She has put all her “eggs in that basket.”

The other woman has reacted differently to her problems, seeing her setbacks as devastating.  In fact, she is embarking on her fourth marriage and she is not confident that it will work out.  She seems to be a Christian.  She mentions her mother’s admonition “my mother keeps telling me that God loves me and has a plan for my life.  Right now, I don’t feel God’s love, and I think I must have missed his plan.  I’m not even sure there is a God.”

One woman sees life’s ups and downs as part of God’s plan and she is onboard for what God has in store for her.

One woman sees life’s problems as problems.  God could not be in those problems.  The fact that I have problems is a sign that God does not love me.

Dr. Chapman is setting us up.

He states that he can provide the knowledge about love languages but he cannot make people act on that knowledge.   “We know what we have to do but we don’t have the will to do it.”

What will happen to us if he gives us the knowledge and we don’t provide the will?

Nothing.

Actually, I want to go ahead and say this.  You probably won’t have the will to make the changes necessary to use the love language that he will recommend to you.

But God will give you what you need to make the change.

What do you have to do?

Pray for Him to change you.

Afraid to do that?

Sure you are.

Why?

Because you are afraid to change.

You are afraid He will ask you to do something that is different, and He will.

Dr. Chapman tells of the husband who finds out his wife’s need for a particular change in his love language and his response: “I’ll tell you right now, if it’s going to take my washing dishes, vacuuming floors and doing laundry for her to feel loved, you can forget that.”

He has been asked to change and he refuses.

He had the knowledge but no will to change.

Dr. Chapman goes further by saying that people “who choose not to love are never happy people.”

Is it hard for Regina to love rough circumstances in her life?  Sure it is.  But does she have to give up on God?  Does she need to doubt His existence?

She has a need for love in her life but she has forgotten the most important love that any person can have…the love of God.

Her parents are not there to love her.  Her sister is not there to love her.  The three men she was divorced from are not there to love her and I hope the 4^th man she is about to marry will fill up that hole in her heart, but he probably won’t.

Only God can do that.

God speaks to us in our love language and we need to understand that language.  We can’t get the messages if we have shut down the communication between ourselves and our savior.

What’s your choice?

Light….

Dark…..

http://www.5lovelanguages.com/resource/god-speaks-your-love-language/

It is important to know your own love language from the start of this study.  Go to the url above [God speaks your love language resource] and click on the profiles link at the top.  That will take you to a love language test that you can take.  It took me about 20 minutes.  When you are finished, you can see the results or you can have them mailed to your email box.  This is very important to do as soon as you can.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.  We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us His spirit.”  1 John 4: 7-13

John son of Zebedee lays it all out for us to read in his Gospel.

Could it be more clear?

We are about to embark on a ten week study of God’s love language.

Some may question why concentrate on love so much?

1.well,  read 1 John above again…

2.in today’s world, when the “worldly” news is dominated by people who express so much hate, don’t we need to know more about love?

3.don’t you need to be loved more?  Most of us do.

How important is it to be close to others?

Since my last degree in college was about interpersonal relationships, I had several seminars on close relationships.   Yes folks, even social scientists confirm what John says and you know…we all need more love.

Researchers have studied people who are dying in hospices and hospitals and the tough question “What matters the most to you in your life?” was asked.  A full 90 per cent of these terminally ill patients put close relationships at the top of their list.  A fifty-year old mother of three children who was dying of cancer put it best: “You need not wait until you are in my condition to know nothing in life is as important as loving relationships.”    Another researcher concludes that close relationships may be the single most important source of life satisfaction and emotional well-being, across different ages and cultures.*

Every day I will be posting an entry on this blog and the vast majority of the posts will be about God Speaks Your Love Language.

If something I write appeals to you, comment and I will respond.

If something I write makes you angry, comment and I will respond.

If something I write makes you think, comment and I will respond.

You don’t have to comment.  You can just read along, but my goal is to make us all think and for the next ten weeks, we will all be thinking about love.

Maybe this blog will be good for you; I can guarantee that writing it will be good for me.

Let me close my first entry on God Speaks You Love Language with this:

1 John 4: 16b

“God is love.  Whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in Him.”

*Looking Out:  Looking In   Ronald Adler and Russell Proctor