Category: return

Love: Warm Attachment

 
 
Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.
(Zechariah 1:3 NIV)
 
Does anyone really fall in love in the winter? Spring with its bursting song and backdrop of flowers and budding trees seems like a more likely season to fall in love. Summer with its long, warm days beckons us to stay in love, enjoying the pleasures of each others’ company. Autumn grants us moments to linger on walks through the fallen leaves holding onto those we love and have loved. Winter drives us indoors, sometimes to the warmth of the hearth and the comfort of snuggling up in our beds, but the cold creeps in and our passions wane. We begin to feel lonely, and to wonder if there will ever again be anything to look forward to besides cold floors, and bleak landscapes.
It is easy to feel stuck in the winter. I don’t really want to get up to face another day. I make little routines to propel me forward, but I lack the motivation that I have during the other seasons of the year. Yet love is love the whole year through. The unfailing love of God never changes. His love is constant. He doesn’t need a special holiday like Valentine’s to demonstrate His love. He has already sent His love. (Romans 5:8) And if God did send us a Valentine’s card or those little candy hearts with messages on them I think they would say something like “Return to Me.”
(Excerpt from  Defining Moments: Overflowing with Living Words)
 
Defining Moments: Overflowing with Living Words is my debut devotional, which my husband lovingly afforded me to self-publish the winter of 2011.
Posted on by kelrohlf 4

Repent and Believe the Gospel

Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
(Joel 2:12-13 ESV)
 

We offer You our failures,
we offer You attempts;
The gifts not fully given,
The dreams not fully dreamt.

Give our stumblings direction,
give our visions wider view,
An offering of ashes,
An offering to You.
(Ashes, verse 2, Tom Conry)

 
 
 
As  the ashes were applied to my forehead, these words were declared over me:
 
“Repent and believe the gospel.”
 
I was jarred. I reeled with tears stinging my eyes. I followed the procession back to the pews, smarting from this direct address. Jesus spoke with piercing authority to my exposed heart.
 
“Do you believe the gospel?”
 
That was the question caught in my throat. Of course, I believe the gospel. But today, I wondered to what extent do I believe the gospel? Hard questions. Questions that will deliver me into the season of Lent.
 
Lent, like Advent, is a season of fasting punctuated by a feast. Lent culminates in the Paschal mystery, the resurrection of the Lamb. Advent gestates and leads us to the birth of Emmanuel: Jesus, the Lamb who came to take away the sin of the world. A scapegoat who will die outside the city, in order to reunite us with our Father.
 
When I returned home, the beginning of answer greets me in this quote, 
 
“Looking at myself in the mirror I see the ashes not as death,
but transformation in the fire of love.”
(Patricia Livingston, Turning Our Hearts to God)
 
The gospel is fiery, transforming love.
 
Will I open myself to the love that pours from His Word today?
 
 
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Posted on by kelrohlf 6