The FULLNESS of God's LOVE!

God's LOVE is SOOOOO AMAAAAAAAAZING!!!

I was just thanking God for His love for me and mostly thanking Him for this extremely precious gift He has given me: A God family.

WOW GOD!!! Thank you for giving me what I never even thought of! There's that verse that says 'God will give you more than you could ever ask or think', well that is totally what has happened to me! I never even THOUGHT that this could happen!!! That God's people could love like this!! And because I never knew of this concept/aspect of His love, I couldn't even ask God for it!! :) :) Praise God!! For giving me what I didn't even know to ask for!! :) :) :) :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

WOW!!

It's a totally amazing concept! I will try to explain it:

God has DESIGNED His LOVE, so that it can be spread and be uniting. Ok, so it's like a computer program. God's love is like a computer program, that when people who know God's love, or download His love, when they get that, then this weird natural thing can happen. You see, God has designed His love to be super compatible: when someone downloads it, they can easily share it with ANYONE else!!! God has created His love SUPER compatible with PC s, Macs, and whatever else!!! ANYONE can share and receive His love! And the AMAZING thing about this is that when two people who know God's love, come together they can naturally overflow and build each other up and edify or help each other because of GOD'S LOVE!!!

It is not their love, but HIS!!! And it's like GLUE for HIS PEOPLE!!!!!!!

Yo, Jesus made ONE SINGLE command to His people. What was it????!!

TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS HE LOVED US!!!!

Dude, that is serious business. Jesus really, really, really loved. I mean, you look at Him, and you see the definition of love. Seriously. And, I mean, God doesn't take love lightly. He defines it really seriously. I mean, it's not easy to love people all the time, y'know? But He does. When His people curse at Him, blame Him, hate Him, laugh and mock Him, He STILL loves them! I mean, love isn't just a feeling or emotion or a nicy-nicy lovely blissful thing! It is HARD CORE!!! Really INTENSE, yo!

Love is probably one of THE hardest things on the face of the earth to do, simply because it is the very nature of God, and it is SO pure, and AGAINST our human nature, and what we want in life. I mean, we all want love, but TO love, is what I'm talking about. To love someone even if they outright HATE you. Or to love someone when they embody EVERYTHING that you fear, hate, detest, abhor, and resent, that is serious business!

Now, don't take this wrong, I'm not saying to agree with, or accept bad things that other people do. I'm not saying to condone evil in others, or let people treat you bad, or walk all over you, but what I AM saying, is that God LOVES us even when we do bad things!

That doesn't make the bad things good, or right cause there are consequences for evil, but NOTHING can separate us from HIS LOOOVEE!!!!

And so God says to love like He loves. DUDE! That is serious business!

Anyway, so... GOD has actually literally PUT HIS LOVE IN US, when we accept and let Him in, and KNOW His love, we can cultivate it, and let it grow, and it WILL grow, and His Holy Spirit will counsel, and teach us how to help it grow. And when it does grow, we have this AMAZING thing to share!

I'll use an analogy: It's like everyone who knows God's love has these tentacles. And when two people who have these tentacles come together, and these tentacles touch and entwine, these two people can then give, and receive the amazing love, given to them from God, inside of them, and share it with each other! They can pray for each other, laugh together, cry together, encourage each other, build each other up, heal each other, and SO so so so sooooo much more!! And this love leaves LASTING imprints on each person they share it with because it is an EVERLASTING full, and FULFILLING love!

AMAZING!!!!!!!! WOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It really is God's Holy Spirit. Dude, God's love is like glue. I'm telling you! It is like the only thing that makes any relationship really last in its fullness. Y'know? Like, love is something that you have to learn to do, and you have to DECIDE to do. It doesn't have a mind of it's own, it is a conscious decision that people have to make. And God teaches love. He teaches how to love, and He IS love! He also freely gives His love away! He gives it to us.

OK, so the AWESOMEST thing about this whole love thing is that, the essence of the way that God DESIGNED love is so that it can be shared. And because God created everyone so different, His love can be shared and shown in SO MANY WAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The kind of love that has shocked-my-pants-off, is His love BETWEEN His people. The people that know His love, and these people sharing it.

Yeah, as the hippies would say, “Share the luuuuuv, man!” -Y'know, God's kind of love.

I have NEVER thought that God's love could be THIS strong, and shocking, and FULL, in my LIFE!!!!!!!!! I NEVER have experienced God's love THIS FULL before!!!

I mean, these days I've been going around praying and telling my housemates, my spiritual family, about how awesome this whole FULLNESS is! I'm totally freaking out about how FULL His love is! It is SO much more than just the love between person and God. I mean, that one-on-one love is great and all that, but the love that is His love, shared with person to person, and Him... a tri-action going on... that is what I'm talking about! YEEEEAH! BRING IT OOOWWNNN!!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Words cannot express HOW THANKFUL I am for the extension of His great love. The love that He has purposely given those that know Him, to SHARE!!! It truly is how He intended it, ya'll. HE DESIGNED His love to be shared, and 100% totally FUNCTIONAL between His people!!!!

* IMPORTANT NOTE *

Yo, if you haven't, you NEED to read my previous blog postings on what God views as functional, cause wow, that is a major brain shift, and a 'shocking-your-pants-off' revelation!!  Link to that blog post called: What I've/We've Been Learning!!

Yeah, so God's love is WAY more than what I've always thought it was, ya'll!

Maybe you can relate and identify with this: I have always learned and been taught that God's love is first between Him, and His Son, and His Spirit, and that He personally loves us, each person, – A LOT.

I knew that far. But that's it. I NEVER even really knew the SHOCKING reality, that God's love goes beyond that! That, yes, He loves me intensely, but HE ALSO planned it so that His people, who HAVE/KNOW His love... that THEY can SHARE IT!!! SOOOOOOOO strongly, and amazingly, and POWERFULLY!!!!!!!!!!

And yo, I can really be a witness, and say, that over the past few weeks, I have gotten to know God's love in the second most POWERFUL ways that I ever have.

Dude, half the love I know from God is between me and Him, and the other half, is still pretty new, and mysterious to me, is the love HE GIVES between His people!!!

Today, I can tell you that my bros and sisters in Christ were literally like soft bumper pads for me. I was going through some really tough inner stuff that God was revealing to me, and I knew, at this point, that I could trust, and share it with these certain select people, and so I did, and yo! They were the most lovely, warm, comforting, and THE most bestest helpers-through-God! They layed their hands on me, and prayed, and prophesied over me, and it felt like I was falling into loving arms of GOD'S chosen people!!! SO MUCH of His love was poured out on me THROUGH them at that one moment. ....and ....WOW........ yo, it was all God, but HE CHOOSES and DESIGNS it so that it is THROUGH HIS PEOPLE that He imparts His tender-loving-care to me, and us!

And yo, people, this is just a description of what happened today, ya'll. This kind of love has been constant – given from God to us – and shared amongst us... ya'll it has been from the very start of this internship, and has constantly been intensely growing and getting stronger between us at the house here. So, I mean, what I just described up there, was ONE MOMENT that I experienced TODAY. It was AWESOME and intense, but there are other times too ya'll. Some smaller, and others large and overpowering like the above. But all those little small moments add up, and it all just builds.

We all have to work on it too. There have been issues and problems, and yeah, there are even STILL problems that are going on between us all. Like, amongst us and individuals. I, personally, have already been hurt by some of the people here, and I also have to deal with some things that I really don't like about some people. But we have principles that we know, one of them being to talk to the person right away, if you have a problem with them. And so that is what I have to do... and so ... but THAT IS LOVE, ya'll. Working at things. Talking things through. And, yeah, we established, and had an awesome talk about how, at the ROOT of all of this, is HUMILITY.

Humility vs. Pride.

• Pride says, 'that person is doing that thing wrong', whereas humility says 'what am I doing wrong'.
• Pride says, 'I have that thing figured out' whereas humility says, 'I can always learn more'.
• Pride says, 'Are you following God?' whereas humility says, 'Am I following God?'

And yo, that is also love. Being humble is loving. And telling someone that they offend you, when they do _____, is also love. So... yeah...

“humility = vehicle for community', is a quote from Meghan and Lauren, two awesome sisters in Christ who lived together for a year and learned SO SO SO shockingly much about love, and TRUE community, that it will shock your pants off, yo.

Anyway, I'll stop typing on here, so that you can breath and take a break from all this reading!

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Luv,

SN

Pics!...

Lauren and Meghan, the two gals who shared about humility, and a LOT of community building stuff from living together for a year.

A 'prayer' tree that Justine, a previous intern made for our house.  'Troost' is the name of our street, and it means 'comfort' in Dutch. The Holy Spirit is the comforter, so we names our house, 'House of Troost'.  On the leaves of the tree, anyone can put their prayer requests, or verses.

Playing basketball with neighbours.

The neighbour family, and their cousin/nephew in the front middle.  We intentionally go to their house often, and they come over too, whenever, and we incorperate them into what we're doing, and we teach and show them about God A LOT! :) They are very receptive, and we love them.

My sistas in Christ! Rosalind, Meghan, and Krhistal.

The dude interns, my bros in Christ!  Tre, Morgan, and Tommy, on Morgan's 22nd b-day!

Jus chillin again on a couch - at Tracy House.

Taylor, a dude that God had us meet through a long story of prophetic 'treasure hunts' and stuff.  And who later came to our collective simple church gathering.  And Tommy - playing guitars.

AMAZING prayer at IHOP, International House of Prayer, Kansas City.  These young dudes, would really, really pray for each other, and have the Holy Spirit strongly impact other young men - something rare and foreign to me.  I was really amazed and thankful for that.