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Resources on Love

This month we are thinking about love. The wonder of God's love for us, ways that we can love our neighbors well, and looking at our own hearts to ask if we love God enough. Our prayer is that these resources will encourage you to draw ever closer to our loving Father.

Even if we don’t feel love for a person, is there a way to maintain a steady wish for their ultimate good?

When asked which ONE commandment was THE most important, Jesus responded with two: Love God and love your neighbor. With Frog Orr-Ewing from Heart and Mind Discipleship study program.

In this article, Michael Wilkins points out the astonishing nature of Jesus’ love and how it can inspire ours.

Tom Tarrants reminds us that Jesus calls His followers to make love their highest priority.

In this reflection, C.S. Lewis discusses whether being “in love” is the same as true love.

C.S. Lewis reminds us that even when our loving feelings for God fluctuate, we can still choose to love Him.

Only the love and grace of the gospel of Christ is real and powerful enough to melt intellectual objections to its reality.

Alister McGrath says we need to go deeper and experience more fully the wonder of the love and grace of God.

C.S. Lewis’s insights into love were intensely practical and can serve as a great encouragement to our efforts as we strive to “do” love. By Art Lindsley.

The highest priority God gives us in life is to love him wholeheartedly and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. But how do we do this?

How can believers in Christ do even greater things than Jesus did?

C.S. Lewis Institute Fellow LeAnne Martin shares a beautiful commentary on C.S. Lewis's poem that begins, "Love's as warm as tears".

C. S. Lewis loved poetry and wished he could be remembered most for his poems. They grab us in different ways than stories or prose. In each issue we feature a poem. William Cowper’s offering tilts our hearts toward obedience and joy.

The wonder of God's love.

An inspiring classic sermon from the pulpit of Hugh Latimer that we hope will be a blessing to you.

Recommended Books for Children

Marcus, a nine-year-old African-American boy living in Alabama in the sixties, learns the true meaning of valentines as he is faced with whether or not to forgive his classmates and others who have hurt him and his family. His wise grandmother tells him the true story of St. Valentine, who lived out his faith by loving others with the love of Christ and who was persecuted and put to death by the Roman government. An especially tender moment occurs when Marcus’s mother and he receive a handmade valentine from his father, who has been jailed because of his nonviolent protests in support of civil rights.

The story of a young priest whose love for his people went beyond his need for safety.

Candy hearts, flowers, boxes of chocolate, sure! But most of all, Valentine's Day is to say "I LOVE YOU," loud and clear. In this sweet tale, a little girl makes a special valentine for everyone. Ages 3-5

A wonderful way to get to know the little-known story behind the celebrated saint whose courage to obey God proved his love for his fellow man. Coloring Book size is 8.5 x 11 inches. Contains 16 high-quality coloring pages. Ages 3-5.

Recommended Books for Adults

Love has come to mean many things. It’s used to describe emotions. It’s the glue for relationships. It frames countless stories. The greatest of these stories opens before time began and echoes throughout eternity. It’s the story of God’s unrelenting, overwhelming love for His people. The truth of love is even more majestic, more staggering and more extraordinary than we can understand: God doesn’t just love us. He is love.

In The God Who Loves, Pastor John MacArthur argues against two polar views of God--the sentimental grandfather whose doting love ignores correction or punishment, or God as an angry tyrant who rules by threats. Both of these images paint a distorted picture and confuse the issue of understanding God's love. By looking specifically at the epistle of 1 John, and sharing stories of real people interacting with divine love, MacArthur fleshes out the doctrine of God's love to bring clarity and encouragement to believers.

This easily read and moving book is an introduction not only to the meaning of the parable, but to the heart of real Christianity. How did the Parable of the Prodigal Son, possibly Christs best-know parable, get its name? It could easily have been called the Parable of the Waiting Father. Jesus told the story to illustrate the joy which there is in heaven over one sinner who repents, and so he spoke of a wanderer. But to over-emphasize that aspect of the story would be a mistake. The joy in heaven is joy in the presence of the angels, not the angel’s joy. It is the joy of God as his amazing love welcomes the wanderer home.

Jonathan Edwards is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest intellects of his age. Even today, Edwards’s sermons and writings challenge the minds and inflame the hearts of Christians everywhere. The sermons included in Altogether Lovely reveal Jonathan Edwards’s deep affection for the glory and excellency of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was love personified---compassionate, honest, humble, powerful. How did he do it? And how can we learn to love as he did? Weaving Gospel stories with experiences from his own life, Miller explores how to be honest without judging, depend on God, let love be energized by faith, embrace the way of humility, and more.

How Do You Explain a Love That Has No Explanation? What will happen if you let it touch your heart? God loves you not because you are flawless, not because you are a perfect person, but just because you are. In Love Beyond Reason, John Ortberg reveals the God you’ve longed to encounter: a Father head-over-heels in love with you, his child, and intensely committed to your highest joy. Ortberg takes you to the very core of God’s being to discover a burning, passionate love that gives, and gives, and gives. He explores the life-changing ways this love has expressed itself through Jesus. And he shows how you, like Jesus, can love your mate, your family, your friends, and the world around you with the same practical, transforming love. Dispelling your fears and misconceptions of God, Love Beyond Reason brings you face-to-face with the Love that frees and empowers you to love.

With unusual clarity, Kreeft points out that the man or woman who begins to glimpse the God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Lover of our souls, will never be the same. He describes Scripture as God's love story and then tells why divine love is the answer to our deepest problems and the fulfillment of our deepest desires. Posing the hard questions about love that rankle the heart, Peter Kreeft never settles for easy answers. He exposes today's superficial attitudes about love to lead people to a deeper understanding of what it means to be loved by God, addressing these issues and many more: How can I really know God's love for me?; If God is love, why do bad things happen to good people.

In The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis explores the four kinds of human love in one of his most famous works of nonfiction. He identifies these kinds of love as affection, the most basic form; friendship, the rarest and perhaps most insightful; eros, passionate love; and charity, the love of God. With his characteristic warmth and lucidity, Lewis examines how love works in our lives and allows us to be closer to God. Paperback with French flaps and deckled page edges.

At first thought, understanding the doctrine of the love of God seems simple compared to trying to fathom other doctrines like that of the Trinity or predestination. Especially since the overwhelming majority of those who believe in God view Him as a loving being.

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