1 John 4:7-16

Isn't it amazing the difference one simple phone call can make? Tom Norvell talks about a phone call he received on his 57th birthday from an old friend and mentor and how special and important it was to him.

What are we known for? We must be known for our love!

"This is real love — not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God..."

"Dear friends, if God loved us that much we also should love each other. No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his...."

What is your fear keeping you from doing? Fear can keep us from many things, but mostly fear keeps us from life!

What are you asking Santa to bring you for Christmas? What we want and most need at Christmas are not the kinds of things that money can buy!

"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..."

"Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not...."

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love — not..."

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love..."

Jesus died in the place of Barabbas. More importantly, Jesus died for you and me. Byron Ware recalls a memory from fifty years ago that shaped his life, his love, his family, and his understanding of grace, Jesus dying in the place of Barabbas and us.

What if loneliness has an invitation for a great discovery about God? Max Lucado reminds us sometimes loneliness is an invitation from God to find his perfect love that can drive out fear and chase away our isolation and fill it with love and promise.

What if loneliness has an invitation for a great discovery about God? Max Lucado reminds us that discovering God's love for us in Jesus, his perfect love, helps us overcome our feelings of loneliness, impatience, and fear.

Are you willing to give up your ledger sheet and really love? Ron Rose reminds us about the true spirit of giving and that it isn't barter love or ledger sheet giving, but generous giving like we have received from God.

"Dear Beloved, You are the Father's child! You are precious! The Father adopted you into Our — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit's — family....."

We are still a family gathered to remember Jesus, even when we gather virtually! Demetrius Collins and Phil Ware lead us in virtual worship through words and music using YouTube videos to challenge us to explore deeper biblical messages in the Lord's Supper than we often allow ourselves to consider.

"This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

"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 of his Spirit."

"If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God."

"We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

"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 how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."

"Dear Precious One, Some words are simply more important than others. In the human vocabulary that We — Father, Son, and Spirit — use, one..."

"It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without his Father's permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the..."

"Do you want a house for your soul? Do you ask, "What is the purchase?" It is something less than proud human nature will like to give. It is without....."

"The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in the love of Christ, and the yielding of his affections to Christ in return. First, faith....."

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:12 -- No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:15 -- If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:16 -- And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:8 -- Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:12 -- No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

Inspirational e-card of 1 John 4:11 -- Love one Another.

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:7 -- Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Image of 1 John 4:10 - In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:13 -- We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Inspirational illustration of 1 John 4:9 -- 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.

Before Jesus, the word 'agape' didn't mean anything special. It was a sloppy word for 'love' pretty much like our English word 'love' as we use it today. Phil Ware reminds us where the word 'agape' really gets its meaning, in what God did for us in Jesus and that we must love God first if we are to love others properly.

What is every parent's instinct? God's sacrifice of Jesus should amaze, humble, and change us.

True disciples of the Lord haven't stopped going ever since Jesus commanded it! Phil Ware continues his series on "What is CORE" by focusing on Jesus' final and intentional last command to make disciples of all nations, and emphasizes the first process of doing that: GOING!

What words do you most long to hear from Jesus today? Phil Ware continues his series called Beyond Bread and Wine and focuses on the three sets of words we most long to hear.

No cost is too great, because he is priceless! Phil Ware talks about a trip to honor his son for graduating from grad school in computer programming and he says his son is priceless and no price is too high to pay to honor him, just like Jesus views us.

Sometimes we are glad when such a thing happens to us! Sarah Stirman shares a chilly church experience to make the point that a mom never minds becoming the other woman when the other woman is her daughter and she sees a daddy treating her like a lady.

What legacy are you leaving with the gifts you give this time of year? While gifts are fine, we need to be leaving behind a legacy of love notes for our spouse and children and grand children.

Which gets blessed more, the pup or the petter? Mike Barres reminds us that love, the blessing of human touch, is important to our pets and also to us and those who we love.

Do we let love drive out our fear, or are we still holding back? Phil Ware reminds us what we know, but often don't practice; our love must have no barriers.

The work and presence of the Holy Spirit give us the assurance that God has made us his children. Demetrius Collins and Phil Ware lead us in virtual worship through words and music using YouTube videos to celebrate the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives that ensures we belong to the family of God.

These analogies are so bad, they're like ... God's love exhausts all analogies and can only be defined by what he did in Jesus on the cross and in the manger.

"Dear Disciple, The foundation for everything you hold dear as a Christian and as My disciple is this one fundamental truth: I came as God, in human....."

Jesus' birth was the collision of the gloriously divine and mundanely human. It was God entering our world through the birth canal of a woman. Phil Ware shares some thoughts on what incarnation means as the collision of mortality and eternal, God in human flesh.

Can you communicate love across races, cultures, and language? God communicated his love in a way that people of every language can understand: he did it through Jesus' death on the Cross.

Old farmer wisdom strikes again? While heaven and hell, punishment and reward, may be motivation for our behavior, eventually God wants us to be motivated by love.

How can you communicate when you don't know the language? Our actions nearly always speak louder than our words, especially when people cannot understand our words!

How do we ever understand what the cross cost God? Phil Ware continues his series on Mary and her being a window to the heart of God.

I'm not sure I'm that trusting: are you? Patrick Odum talks about a strange occurrence involving trust, a New York ad agency worker, a homeless man, and an American Express Card, which reminds us that God trusts us.

Because God has so graciously loved us, we can live as Jesus' agents of love and kindness in our broken world. Demetrius Collins and Phil Ware lead us in a virtual, DIY, worship through words and music using YouTube videos to call us to recognize God's great love for us as something more like, feel, think, or say, it is always demonstrated.

Jesus reminds us that real love involves our tangible demonstration of that love in acts of kindness, help, and service. Demetrius Collins and Phil Ware lead us in a virtual, DIY, worship through words and music using YouTube videos to call us into the mission Jesus gave us to be his bodily presence sent into the world just as the Father sent him.

Have you felt the clean up of the Master's brush? A mom's work at writing Scripture on her daughter's wall leads to a great opportnity to learn about God's grace.

Who wide is the Cross of Christ and the love He showed us there? Ann Voskamp comes to a cross behind a country church and is reminded of the grace of Christ to not only save us but to also furnish us the basis of life.

Can you see how God loves you as you hold a child in your arms? We learn to love from God because as a baby, and even a full grown adult, we really don't know how to love.

How deep is His love? No matter how we understand God's love, it is deeper than we can imagine.

How do we get rid of it? We can try all sorts of things, but only Jesus can take our guilt away.

What is the greatest Valentine you have ever received? Quotations from Scripture about God's love for us in Jesus.

Grace is the mercy and love of God freely shared with us. Grace is also the style, the way in which God shares this mercy and love James Nored and Phil Ware remind us that not only is God's grace available in his love and mercy, it is also beautiful in the artistic style he brings us this beauty!

"Dear Beloved, The Father loves you so much that He sent Me to your world to show you His love. The goal of God's love is your salvation —..."

Core to following Jesus is becoming like God in offering love, first. Phil Ware continues his series on what is core and focuses on love and what it is and how Jesus and God demonstrate it.

Some things you have to believe or you have nothing worth believing in! Phil Ware continues his series on I AM, God's handwritten messages from heaven and focuses on the bottom line faith requirement -- Jesus is God come in human flesh.

Are we really letting our love light shine in a world filled with so much darkness? Byron Ware reminds us that in our world of darkness, now more than ever, we need to be a people who do put love into practice every day.

What's clouding your vision? Tom Norvell shares with us that fear keeps a protective covering over ourselves and keeps us from seeing and experiencing the beauty and wonder that God has for us in our world and in other people.