Love, Mercy And Grace

Chapter 9

By
The Man Who Saw God Face To Face
Raphael Okechukwu Nweze

Meaning Of True Love
         Even the meaning of love is being misunderstood. What many consider to be love is ‘likeness’. A person you like simply means that the person is good and acceptable to you. You admire the person, and are friends with him. That is not love. Love simply means to provide for others, to care for them, to attend to them first, to sacrifice what you have for their own good, to solve their own problems, etc. But in this act of love, people are lacking. They shy away from opportunities that demand Divine Love and Mercy from them. By so doing, they make themselves hypocrites.

How To Love Others
         You love others by:

1. Thinking good of them.
2. Caring for them.
3. Respecting them.
4. Considering their opinions.
5. Attending to their needs.
6. Extending your money and wealth to them.
7. Providing for their future.
8. Preventing accidents, harm and danger.
9. Praying for them.
10. Not doing things that would inconvenience them.
11. Correcting those who are misbehaving.
12. Not gossiping about them.
13. Being polite.
14. Being friendly.
15. Ensuring, encouraging and defending the brotherhood of mankind.
16. Teaching others about God.
17. Testifying of what God does for you.
18. Encouraging righteousness.
19. Praying for them.

Ultimate Love
         Mankind has defined Love in many terms and contexts, and none has defined it right! Love is the knowledge and realization of the other person as yourself. Love is universal delight and happiness. Love your neighbours as yourself is not a proverb. It is a statement of fact.
         There was a girl whose name is N... On several occasions, when I saw her, what I saw in her was not herself, but myself. The myself I saw in her was a bright and glorious spirit.
         One day, a church leader asked his Council of Ministers, “What is love?” I was the first to answer.
         “Love,” I said, “is being able to see yourself in the others (realizing and knowing others as your selves).”
         “Yes!” replied the church leader, and he asked the audience to give a round of applause.

How To Show Mercy
         You show mercy to others by.

1. Helping those in need.
2. Rescuing those in trouble.
3. Feeding the hungry.
4. Clothing the naked.
5. Sheltering the homeless.
6. Giving drink to the thirsty.
7. Consoling the sad ones.
8. Cheering up those who are mourning.
9. Forgiving and forgetting.
10. Visiting those in prison.
11. Caring for the sick.
12. Assisting the helpless ones.
13. Soothing the crying baby.
14. Welcoming the stranger.
15. Etc.

How To Be Gracious To Others
         You extend grace to others by:

1. Rending your love, mercy and services free.
2. Doing so without expecting rewards, thanks, praises, or refund.
3. Doing so without being persuaded or forced.

Ultimate Love, Mercy And Grace
         You express ultimate love, mercy and grace by:

1. Doing all the above as free will service.
2. Doing all the above as service offerings to God.
3. Doing all the above because of God.
4. Remembering God while doing your everyday work and routine.
5. Doing them in the name of God.

         When you do the above five things, you become full of the Holy Spirit, your services become God working in you and through you, and the things you touch receive deposits of holy potencies of the Holy Spirit. That is why handkerchiefs taken from St Paul was able to heal the sick.

Love Is A yardstick
         Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Let love precede, determine and guide your everyday actions. In this way, you can be sure of eternal blessings from God. In spirit, anything done without love, is more or less useless.