Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Milt Warkentien.
What do you think of when you think of Jesus?
For me LOVE is first and foremost. Jesus had love for all people but wasn’t afraid to speak up for justice. Following Jesus seems so simple, but in reality, is SO hard.
This past Sunday I pulled out a couple of my favorite pieces I’ve written and was struck by how much I was writing about over 30 years ago still resonates today. We keep talking about progress and how we’re overcoming certain things, but to me it seems that we’re really in the same predicaments in so many ways. Today I ask you to ask yourself, “How can I live my life with more love?”
“Give from your Heart” was the Prelude and “Celebrate Life” was the postlude, if you’d care to go back and listen to the worship team perform them.
Give from your Heart (1990)
1) Where is the light? Darkness abounds. Where’s the Light that the world’s in need of now? Open your heart and let God’s Light shine, the Lord calls us all to serve. Turn darkness to light. Hatred to love, and show the world that the Light is present here. Give from your heart.
2) Take time to care. Take time to share. Show the world that the Light is present here. Give of yourself to help those in need, the Lord calls us all to serve. So take time to care. Take time to share, and show the world that the Light is present here. Give from your heart.
3) Reach out your hands. Give from your heart. Show the world that the Light is present here. Don’t turn away and don’t pass right by, the Lord calls us all to serve. So reach out your hands. Give from your heart and show the world that the Light is present here. Give from your heart. From your heart. From your heart.
Celebrate Life (2002)
(Refrain)Celebrate life. Share some laughter. Live with love in your heart, share a smile. Celebrate life. Help another. Live with love in your heart, be a friend.
1) We all are born and we all will die, our time here is not very long, so take time each day for fam’ly and friends, for tomorrow might not come at all. (Refrain)
2) Why’s it so hard for us to forgive? Why’s vengeance the first choice for some? And why does hatred and vi’lence abound? Why can’t we learn to just get along?
(Refrain)
3) Wars still abound, still taking young lives, why’s living in peace made so hard? And why does a person’s color of skin matter more than the love in their heart?
(Refrain)
4) Just think of all the joy there would be, if we all could live peacefully. We all have a role to make this come true, it’s to live life with love in your heart.
(Refrain)
With the weather we experienced last week the communion anthem may seem appropriate, too. Its title is “Winds of Ice.” I’ve had numerous people perform it, but I’ve been playing it with Fred for close to 40 years.
“Live with Love” was written for one of my niece’s wedding. The piano part represents God in our life, always present and never changing. Each instrumentalist, ad libs their part, other than the piano, representing different people in our lives and how we must listen to each other to be able to live in harmony. Conflicts will arise, just as tonalities may suspend over each other, but by listening to each other and living with love in our hearts we might be able to create beautiful harmonies and sounds.
Sit back, close your eyes, and think about living with love. I leave you today with the anthem from Sunday, and a prayer that people will learn to listen to each other and live with love, for Jesus said in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
May God bless us all, Milt