February 2024 Newsletter – Rev Juan Feliciano
Love
This month, as usual, we will be hearing a considerable amount about love. Our society, in its longing to acquire true love, has given itself to the task of defining, experimenting, and being able to retain it as well. This is because when true love is exercised between a couple the results are positive in areas of mental, social, and physical health (APA 2012). Therefore, living in a society in which 90% of the people are married before the age of 50 the topic becomes one of utmost importance. We, however, need to be careful of the definitions that our society has given to love and begin to question as soon as we hear them if they do in fact line up with God’s definition of love. Using John 3:16 as a baseline, we can determine that God, who is love, demonstrated what love looks like to the world by giving up Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. Love therefore is about selfless giving; it does not seek its own as defined in 1 Corinthians 13. All too often when listening to programs that discuss the topic, we hear quite the opposite it is mostly about what can be obtained through love for our benefit. This is not the Godly way. True love can only be acquired through the one who is love, God. The Father is waiting with outstretched arms for all of those who are truly seeking love. This love, His love will end the searching that is in your heart.
AMOR
Durante este mes estaremos oyendo mucho acerca del amor. Nuestra sociedad, en su afán de obtener el verdadero amor, se ha dado a la tarea de definir, experimentar y el tratar de retenerlo. Esto se debe al hecho de que cuando el verdadero amor es ejercitado por una pareja los resultados son muy positivos en las áreas de salud mental, social y física (APA 2012). Por lo tanto, viviendo en una sociedad donde el 90% de la población se casan antes de los 50 años de edad, el tópico del amor se convierte en uno de importancia vital. Es necesario tener precaución con las definiciones que nuestra sociedad ha dado al amor y empezar a analizar de inmediato si es que se alinea con la definición de Dios. Si usamos a Juan 3:16 como base podemos determinar que Dios, que es amor, demostró la apariencia del amor al darse así mismo a través de su hijo