God and all HIS goodness reamins in the place of brokenness

Joh 13:35 By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another.

Yes, by love, but how do we get such a love that will separate us from all the counterfeit in the world.
is it by deciding to love?

We know the theory, but where is the reality?

This love is the Love the Holy Spirit pours into our heart. it is the love that starts with Gratitude to our Saviour and our God. It is the new thing that God needs to do in our life.
And unless we are humbled and broken and go to HIM we cannot receive anything.
But God wants to do this in our life's much much more than we want to. So we can boldly go and ask HIM.

Rom 5:5 And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us. Rom 5:6 For we yet being without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Rom 5:7 For one will with difficulty die for a righteous one, yet perhaps one would even dare to die for a good one. Rom 5:8 But God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Rom 5:10 For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Rom 5:11 And not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.

In the Valley of the River

The day, I the forgiven sinner came
Washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb
The day the eyes were opened,
In repentant tears,
Never to be the same;
Knowing my unworthiness,
Small in my own eyes,
I wanted nothing more,
But to just faithfully abide.
"Lord you have done more
Much more than what I deserve",
Was my humble cry;
"Nothing more do I want
Nothing more do I ask
But to redeem the rest of my days
By a faithful obedient heart."
And Grace from high
Flowed down in torrents
Down to the valley of despair
Washing away the filth of defeat;
Shame and sorrow washed away
Bringing joy unspeakable;
And today the river still flows
And the watered plains abound
Life seems so natural
And the past seems a distant dream.
But I fear the water would stop,
Up above in the holy mountain
Where sandals have to be untied,
Like the dam the beaver builds
By the labour of his own hands,
By the filth from a heart full of pride.
O may I remain in the Valley
On the path of the downward stream
Never forgetting even once
If not for that crystal stream,
From my saviours pierced side,
All the green that you now see,
On which was once a desolate land,
Once again barren it would be.

1Co 4:6 And these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, so that no one of you may be puffed up against one another. 1Co 4:7 For who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Whom and what do we believe!?

We get forwards of moving stories. Recently I got a mail which spoke of one who gave his everything for his son and another who gave everything for his country. But it so happened that part of the first story was more of a fabrication. But before I had tested it for myself, I had unwittingly forwarded it.
But I want to share some tested true stories ...
Crazy as it sounds there are stories of ordinary men and women who loved and gave everything for their enemies, let alone friends and country. (Try getting "In the Face of Surrender" by Richard Wumbrand. It has over 200 short stories.)
Stories unheard of in the history of mankind till about 2000 years back and from then on, in every generation, there have been a few who followed HIM.
But this story alas is clothed in the garb of those who live a lie and preach a different Christ.

If only you would believe, you would go to the living Christ and get all the doubts sorted out once and for all.

Like the story I heard recently ...

God is Not a Liar

Two young bothers
Saw the setting sun
Told the older to the younger
"The sun has moved along."
"But daddy said",
Replied the younger one
"That the sun stands still
While the earth moves on."
"I will have nothing of that",
was the elder's retort,
"I believe what I see
And doubt every other thought."
"As for me", the younger said,
"I will stick with daddy's word,
Though I cannot understand,
Though I do not see,
I know I can trust my Father,
I know He will not lie to me."

So my dear friends
You may not a murderer be
Nor a wretched criminal
Marching to the gallows tree;
But this will surely be asked of you
This you will have to answer
"Every time I spoke to you
Send someone to help
Every time I tried to reason
You only hardened your heart
The sin that condemns you the most
The one that truly grieves
Is not when you deliberately erred
Or the ones within,
... hidden by your deeds
But when you called Me a liar
When you did not believe."

1Co 15:13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised. 1Co 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is worthless, and your faith is also worthless. 1Co 15:15 And we are also found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified of God that He raised Christ; whom He did not raise if the dead are not raised. 1Co 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ is not raised. 1Co 15:17 And if Christ is not raised, your faith is foolish; you are yet in your sins. 1Co 15:18 Then also those that fell asleep in Christ were lost. 1Co 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 1Co 15:20 But now Christ has risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruit of those who slept.

If only you would believe, you would go to the living Christ and get all the doubts sorted out once and for all.