MARIA TALKING ABOUT GOD'S LOVE            Maria Letter No.32               1/85

         1. IF OUR FISH ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT THAT WE LOVE THEM WITH GOD'S LOVE, that means they are accepting the Lord & His Love. If they are not willing to accept it, that shows they are too proud to even admit that they have a need for the Lord, & in their egotism they just want you to admire them & worship them for how wonderful they are, instead of admitting that it is God loving them through you. You can understand a fish getting a little offended at that, but the ones who are worthy accept it.
         2. WHY WOULDN'T YOU WANT TO BE LOVED BECAUSE OF THE LORD'S LOVE? Every time we love each other we are loving with the Lord's Love, we don't have our own love to love with, we're just loving each other with the Lord's Love! We're not our own, we're the Lord's. We're crucified, we don't live any more, it's Christ Who lives in us. When we love somebody, anybody, we're supposed to be showing them God's Love! We don't love them so they can say how wonderful we are or so we can show them how wonderful they are, we are supposed to be doing it to show them God's Love & how much the Lord loves them & how wonderful He is! For goodness sake, why don't we want to be loved just because the Lord wants to love us? (Peter: Well, you don't want to be loved that way because of pride.)--Yes, that's right!
         3. BUT IT'S A GREAT HONOUR & PRIVILEGE TO HAVE THE LORD LOVING YOU THROUGH SOMEONE, IT'S MUCH BETTER THAN JUST TO HAVE THAT PERSON LOVE YOU FOR YOUR OWN BIG TALENTS OR LOOKS OR WHATEVER YOU THINK YOU'RE SO GREAT AT! That's a wrong attitude for any of us to have! It's still part of that self-righteous "works" trip--wanting to do something wonderful or be somebody attractive & appealing to earn love.--Wanting to have the glory yourself instead of just giving it to the Lord. Which should he consider the greater honour?--If I love him for how wonderful he is, or if the Lord just loves him because He feels sorry for him & has mercy on him since he's nothing & nobody & doesn't deserve anything. He should thank the Lord for it & not me, the Lord is just using me as a tool to show how much He loves him. It shouldn't have anything to do with whether I love him for himself.
         4. WE DON'T LOVE YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE THIS WAY OR THAT WAY YOURSELF. Even if we were going to love somebody for certain things, we'll still give the Lord all the credit for those things. In other words, if you're going to love me for what I do, what I am, what I say or the way I act, then remember I'm that way because the Lord causes me to be that way & it's no credit to me! I could fully understand why a fish would say that, because it's like a test for them, the Lord is putting them on the spot to see whether they're going to accept His Love or not. But for one of our own people to say it is just pride!--And Juan is by no means the only guilty one.
         5. WHEN DAD LOVES ME, I SAY TO MYSELF, "I KNOW IT'S THE LORD"! He could stop feeling so close to me & stop feeling that I was his favourite or that I was the most special one to him at the drop of a hat if the Lord turned his heart that way! "He turneth his heart whithersoever He will". (Pro.21:1) I'm sure that more than half the women in the Family have as many or more talents than I have. Many of them have more charming personalities, & are prettier, more sacrificial, & have a lot more than I do, so I know Dad is not loving me for myself, he is loving me because the Lord has that love for me & is letting him love me. But I don't deceive myself that somebody else couldn't take my place! The Lord could turn Dad's feelings in a moment if that were His Will, because I don't have so much that somebody else doesn't have! Dad just loves me because that is the Lord's Will, the Lord has given him that special love for me! It's not me! How could people in our Family be offended when we don't love them just for "themselves" but rather to accomplish a purpose for the Lord, & because the Lord wants to show His Love for them?
         6. WHY IS IT THAT YOU LOVE CERTAIN PEOPLE & YOU DON'T INTENSELY LOVE OTHERS?--Because the Lord leads you to love those certain people for one reason or another! I don't know why anybody in our Family should say or think that we should love them for themselves. Everyone in the Family is loving to some degree, we all know the Word & we're all sweet & kind, most of the women are beautiful, & most of the men are pretty good looking, so how can you say that the reason you're in love with someone is because they are so much more of these things than somebody else? In our Home all the men are wonderful & all the women are wonderful too, so if I love one above the other, that's not me doing it, I wouldn't know which one to pick!--It's the Lord that does it for a purpose! As far as the men & women we have in our Home, if I were just going to come in blind not knowing who is who, not knowing what their position was, it would be like a beauty contest, I wouldn't know who to choose because they're all wonderful & the Lord has made them all that way. So how could I decide which one I was going to fall in love with?
         7. IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO ONE ABOVE THE OTHER, THEN IT'S THE LORD THAT DOES IT, IT'S NOT THIS LOVE-ME-FOR-MYSELF KIND OF BUSINESS! It's not a thing of loving people for some physical or mental or emotional trait or quality that they have or something they have accomplished. When we belong to the Lord, it is the Lord Who directs our thoughts, & not only our thoughts but our feelings too! He puts that certain special love for people in our hearts, it's Him! So it shouldn't make any difference why someone loves you! The motive doesn't change the love, so forget the motive. It's the love you feel, not the motive! The love can be just the same & just as strong regardless of the purpose, if it is God's Love!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family