{"id":754,"date":"2017-11-28T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T21:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/the-greatest-love-story-ever-told-2\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:12:08","slug":"the-greatest-love-story-ever-told-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=754","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Love Story Ever Told"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I love the way my friend, Melissa Ascarino Silvestro, Director of Adult and Family Life at my church, talks and leads those in faith formation to falling in love with Jesus. First it\u2019s getting acquainted with Him and His Church. It\u2019s all about a Love Story. Please allow me to give you her perspective of that love story. (I\u2019ve embellished her words with my words — just a little!)<\/p>\n

First you hear about this “guy” from a friend. She tells you she wants you to meet him because he\u2019d be perfect for you. You\u2019re hesitant about meeting another guy who could let you down and disappoint you. But, she goes on to tell you that the two of you have so much common with each other because he knows disappointment and rejection too. He is kind and generous and forgiving. You agree to meet him, but you\u2019re not quite sure so you remain cautious. The encounter is planned and the day comes when you get to meet him. He\u2019s everything that your friend said he would be. But you\u2019re not about to commit to someone you just met. Your friend encourages you to hang in there, find out more about him, and just spend some one-on-one time with him. You agree to another \u201cdate\u201d. This time, something starts happening inside you. You start to get some emotions you can\u2019t explain. You really, really like him\u2026..a lot. By now, you’ve met some of his family members — and they are warm and welcoming and you like hanging around them, too. But, you\u2019re just not a quick decision maker \u2013 especially when you think about a long term relationship. By now, you can\u2019t stop thinking about him because he seems to be everything you hoped for, dreamed for, and waited for. You spend even more time with him and when you do, you see that he\u2019s a friend that you can talk to about any and everything with. He \u201cgets you\u201d. He understands what you mean when you speak and he even knows what you\u2019re thinking before you speak. Then, the day comes when he asks if you\u2019ll be his forever and ever love, and there is no way you could say \u201cno\u201d \u2013 he has captured your mind, your heart and your soul. You say, \u201cYes \u2013 I believe in you. My life is in you. My hope is in you. You are my beloved and I am yours.\u201d Honestly, this is MY Love Story. Jesus is my everything — my hope for today and tomorrow. I assure you, that this could be your Love Story, too!<\/p>\n

Indeed, the greatest story ever told is that LOVE STORY \u2013 the story about God\u2019s Son who left the portals of heaven to become one of us, first, as a little baby, then grow up and set the pattern for loving and living and serving others, and then to ultimately, die for us so that our Love Story lives on forever. The Bible tells us to “give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever” Psalm 136:1. Twenty-five more times in the Psalm we are assured that God’s “steadfast love endures forever.” “Steadfast love” describes a love that is unconditional and unchanging, depending in no sense on us and in every sense on God.
\nSo as we enter into this most holy of seasons that describes that LOVE STORY to us over and over, how should we respond to such a Love Story? We can respond like the shepherds did on that first Christmas night, and like the Wise Men when they arrived at their home. They worshiped Him. We can enter into that amazing LOVE STORY as we contemplate Him, lean in closer to Him and bow our lives to Him in adoration for who He is and all He has done for us. We can fall in love with him again and determine to keep the \u201cflames of that first love we had for Him\u201d burning as brightly as the star that announced His coming over 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite authors, Max Lucado, also recommends this Love Story: “When we invite God into our world, he walks in. He brings a host of gifts: joy, patience, resilience. Anxieties come, but they don’t stick. Fears surface and then depart. Regrets land on the windshield, but then comes the wiper of prayer. The devil still hands me stones of guilt, but I turn and give them to Christ.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love the way my friend, Melissa Ascarino Silvestro, Director of Adult and Family Life at my church, talks and leads those in faith formation to falling in love with Jesus. First it\u2019s getting acquainted with Him and His Church. It\u2019s all about a Love Story. Please allow me to give you her perspective of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4339,4340,4341,3724,750,1475,751,753],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-falling-in-love-with-jesus","tag-give-thanks-to-the-lord","tag-gods-son","tag-greatest-love-story","tag-love-story","tag-max-lucado","tag-psalm-1361","tag-steadfast-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7584,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions\/7584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}