BERNARD SHUFORD

“I love you” are words I give freely to my wife and to my family.

Those are very special words to me, reserved for extremely special relationships, upon which I heap them excessively.

Yet, I virtually never use them with others. 

There are many people that I love.  Dearly.  Sometimes, I hear or read “Love ya!” from them, and it leaves me uncomfortable.  Not that I resent them telling me, but that I do not feel free to use those words in relationships outside of my family. 

My primary concern with those relationships is the ACT of actually loving a person, rather than sharing the intimacy of saying “I love you!” to them. 

What about you?  How do you cover the boundary between intimate, personal love and the general love of Christian family? 

*Note – to those who know me personally or perhaps use this language with me, I’m not offended.  However, if this helps you understand me a little better, bravo!    I hope you know that I love you because of how I treat you, and not just by what I say.

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Every now and then, I think it does every Christian husband good to listen to a little country music.  We need to be reminded of young love, of fun in the sun, and of how blessed we are.  To be reminded that love is a fragile thing that sometimes takes a lot of work, and to be reminded that it is worth it. 

So crank up some Conway Twitty, or some Brad Paisley, or some Allison Krauss, and then run home at the first opportunity and hug your darling. 

Just don’t listen to it for too long, or you’ll cry for days. 

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“The Social Gospel” is regarded by most evangelical Christians as a distortion of the Gospel.  Largely it involves a misunderstanding of Christ’s commands regarding the poor and deciding that it’s more important to help people physically than it is to tell them that they are dying and going to hell.

It bothers me that in an effort to avoid “the Social Gospel”, (more…)

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