Synopses & Reviews
All in the same day, you say that you love the book you’re reading, the salad you had for lunch, your spouse, and God. Love is such a vague, elusive concept that we use it to describe everything from passions to preferences, from the absurd to the sacred. We know what it means to be loved, but we have trouble translating that into what it means to be loving—what God wants most from us.
Jesus told His listeners that the most important commandment is this:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” But how do we love God—heart, soul, mind, and strength?
God intends that our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies all be fitted together in Christ, who wants to make us whole by making us one with Him, one with ourselves, and one with others. And the bonding agent is love—His love for us and our love for Him and for others.
In Above All, Love, Julie Ackerman Link takes a life-changing look at this great commandment as she explores what it means to love God with all of your being. Above All, Love is filled with inspirational insight and biblical wisdom that will nurture your own response to God’s love. As we discover that God loves us in all of the same ways that He wants to be loved, our love for Him will grow deeper, and we will become satisfied in the safety of His embrace. And as we come to love God with all of our being, His image is restored in us, and we reflect His glory to the world.
Synopsis
With inspirational insights from her own life, the author explores what it means to love God with all aspects of our being?heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Synopsis
According to Jesus, the most important thing anyone can do is to love God. But what does it mean to love someone we can't see or touch? And how can we obey the command until we understand its meaning? With inspirational insights from her own life and the lives of others, the author explores what it means to love God with all aspects of our being-heart, soul, mind, and strength.
About the Author
Julie Ackerman Link was a popular author with Our Daily Bread readers, and her insightful and inspiring articles have touched millions of lives around the world. Julie worked in publishing and started her career at Zondervan, where she served as managing editor of devotional and self-help books. She authored A Heart for God, a companion Bible study to Above All, Love. After a lengthy battle with cancer, Julie went to be with the Lord in April 2015.
Table of Contents
Introduction
What is Love? - Why Is There So Much Confusion? 11
God Is Love - Why Is There So Much Hatred? 18
First Love - How Does God Love Me 22
Part 1: With All My Heart
My Desire - Why Do I Want What I Shouldn't Have 35
God's Desire - What Does God Want Me to Have? 48
Life Hurts - What Can I Do with the Pain? 58
Beauty - Is it a Vice or a Virtue? 69
Part 2: With Alll My Soul
Identity - Who Am I? 89
Diety - Who Is God? 98
Divinity - Who Is Jesus? 103
Community - Where Can I Find Myself? 107
Part 3: With All My Mind
Agreeing - That God Is Right 135
Remembering - What God Has Done 147
Knowing - Who God Is 152
Believing - What God Says 169
Part 4: With All My Strength
Weakness - Everything I Never Wanted to Know 186
Certainty - The Strength of My HEART 190
Humility - The Strength of My SOUL 196
Unity - The Strength of My MIND 203
Integrity - The Strength of My LIFE 209
Acknowledgements 235
Note to the Reader 237