Love All Around Yesterday I emphasized that if we desire to mature in our love for God we will move through phases of that relationship/love. It takes an intentional effort on our part. That intention puts us in the places where God moves us through maturity. The first two phases, Devotion and Discipline, are heart and mind love. They are phases of developing certain character traits and practices. When we have been intentional about developing those, God brings us to a point of total surrender: Dedication. We are not able to become dedicated to God as much as God makes us able to be dedicated. But we still have to be intentional about developing our lives after that point. In particular, we have to be intentional about loving others. Read 1 John and you find a lot of love. In 4 chapters, love is referred to 46 times. The really interesting thing is that almost half of them are in chapter 4. 1 John 4 New Living Translation (NLT) 4 Dear friends, do not believe every...