{"id":245,"date":"2019-02-12T00:50:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T00:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=245"},"modified":"2020-09-23T23:19:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T23:19:03","slug":"love-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"Love in Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barbara, as most mothers, spent a lot of time, thought, energy\u2014downright hard work on our kids. For a number of years, they were the primary focus of her life in spite of jobs, church and a pretty high- maintenance-husband. I have never heard her complain. I have never heard any regrets. It was an act of love.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Those \u201ckids\u201d are now in their 40\u2019s and 50\u2019s. They are having successful and I believe fulfilling lives. They have had a couple of rocky spots. That is an expected part of life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What payment does she want? The pleasure of seeing them have rich, fulfilling and rewarding lives.\u00a0She does not expect any repayment other than that and\u00a0experiencing their love.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I was thinking this morning that Jesus has poured a lot of himself into my life. Not just my salvation but on a daily ongoing basis. He has kept me safe in many situations both\u00a0physically and spiritually. He gives me daily guidance. He\u00a0forgives me and puts me on the right path. He has been patient with me in times of downright rebellion and disobedience.<\/p>\n

After enumerating some of those things I thought, \u201cI really hope I have lived a good enough life to deserve the investment he made in me\u201d.\u00a0I knew\u00a0I haven\u2019t.\u00a0I have failed in lots and lots of ways.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately a thought came that could only come from Jesus. \u201cI did it because I love you. Not for what you can do for me\u201d.\u00a0That was a sobering thought. Jesus does not invest himself in me because of what I can do for him. But simply for what he, out of love, can do for me.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sounds like Grace to me.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Must be why one of the New Testaments favorite terms for Followers of Jesus is \u201cChildren Of God\u201d.<\/p>\n

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of Go<\/i>d.
\nJohn 1:12 NLT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbara, as most mothers, spent a lot of time, thought, energy\u2014downright hard work on our kids. For a number of years, they were the primary focus of her life in spite of jobs, church and a pretty high- maintenance-husband. I have never heard her complain. I have never heard any regrets. It was an act […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}