About the Book: The Armor of Love

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30)."

The verse from Matthew 11 drew me to Jesus, who reshaped my life from anger, self-pity and bitterness to one of gentleness and humbleness--the healing attitudes we need in order to discover true biblical love. The Armor of Love describes my journey and points out the path we need to take to discover true love.

The journey was not easy, safe, or without heartaches and failures. But the Lord remained ever faithful and trustworthy as He turned my life around, brought my sinful habits to the surface so I could repent of them, and be renewed by the Holy Spirit.

A Holy Spirit empowered love is complete submission in humbleness, gentleness, and forgiveness (see Phil. 2:1-11; Matt. 11:28-30). A total inner character change based on the love principles of 1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5;22-23, which then is seen in our behavior.

There is a difference between the love we see expressed in the world and too often within our Christian circles. God is love and he is the only Source of genuine love. So, genuine love can only be expressed through a relationship of obedience and trust in God's enduring, forgiving love. All expressions outside of a true relationship with God will be selfish ones. Love is not a feeling, it is an act of the will given to others with forgivenss and endurance, with no qualifiers.

So often in our Christian circles we are taught a performance-based lifestyle of Christianity. However, Jesus did not teach that. He taught "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35)."

When we obey that commandment, then we will have the mind and attitude of Christ. In other words, if our outer walk does not demonstrate the inner development of the love principles and the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, patience, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, then our walk is more than likely coming from our selfish nature--only performance. We are not letting the light of Christ shine from within us.

The Armor of Love exposes us to the sins that prevent forgiving love: centering on spiritual gifts, pride, boasting, rudeness, envy, long-term anger, self-seeking pursuits, keeping a record of wrongs, and delighting in evil.

It also exposes us to the importance of costly grace over cheap grace; the difference between walking and living on the narrow road to life versus the wide road of destruction; centering on "who we are in Christ" instead of "what" we do; and the importance of offering the same amazing, loving, forgiving, grace to others that God, in his mercy gave us, even while we were yet sinners.

A reader will learn about:

The immeasurable inner power of the Holy Spirit and the practice of his fruit.
The Christian tendency to wear masks and live in denial as a person walks with God.
The teaching of a performance-based lifestyle rather than seeking a Christ-like inner Spirit.
The difference between loving kindness and just being nice or tolerant of each other.
The need for a practical awareness of both sinful and loving principles.
The need to discover whether we have head or heart knowledge of Christ and his love.
Our need to be much in prayer as we develop trust, protection, hope, perseverance, and a love that never fails.
And,our need for complete patience, trust and hope in God recognized by his holy justice and love.

I sincerely believe that if I needed to learn about love, there are probably many others who also need this learning. I believe that is why God commissioned me to write The Armor of Love. I pray that you, too, will wish to learn about God's gracious love.

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