{"id":547,"date":"2009-11-11T17:49:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-11T17:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=547"},"modified":"2009-11-11T17:49:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-11T17:49:00","slug":"only-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=547","title":{"rendered":"Only Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Words and music by Carolyn Arends<\/span><\/a> and Brad Crisler<\/span>
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr.<\/div>\n

No one ever overcomes the dark with darkness <\/span>
It takes a little light to chase the shadows back <\/span>
So tell me why I try to fight the hate with hatred <\/span>
When only love can do that<\/span><\/p>\n

When I’m in this hole I just keep digging deeper <\/span>
And when I lose my way I circle ’round this track <\/span>
Trying to mend my heart with all the things that break it <\/span>
When only love can do that<\/span><\/p>\n

Only love, only love <\/span>
Only love, only love <\/span>
The more I try to fill me up <\/span>
The more I lack <\/span>
‘Cause only love can do that<\/span><\/p>\n

Well I could swear sometimes it seems like I’m in quicksand <\/span>
Or like I’m sinking fast in water cold and black <\/span>
I go deeper down the more I try to save me <\/span>
Guess only love can do that<\/span><\/p>\n

Only love, only love <\/span>
Only love, only love <\/span>
The more I try to fill me up <\/span>
The more I lack <\/span>
‘Cause only love can do that<\/span><\/p>\n

Well I have heard it said that you might be the answer <\/span>
And it occurs to me — that could be a fact <\/span>
‘Cause it was you who gave your life up for another <\/span>
And only love can do that<\/span><\/p>\n

Only love, only love <\/span>
Only love, only love <\/span>
The more I try to fill me up <\/span>
The more I lack <\/span>
‘Cause only love can do that<\/span><\/p>\n

C 2001 Songs of Peer, Ltd \/ Mr. Marley’s Music (ASCAP<\/span>)\/EMI<\/span>\/April Music
Inc.\/Waltztime Music, Inc. (ASCAP<\/span>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Over and over again I am blessed by Carolyn Arends<\/span> music<\/a>. She is amazingly insightful and blessed with the ability to put such wise concepts into beautiful and easy to understand lyrics.\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
GOD IS LOVE, Jesus is God and his Holy Spirit lives in me… if I want to live by and in and through the Spirit then I must live by LOVE…<\/div>\n
HE, God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, LOVE is the opposite of human nature…<\/p>\n

THUS THE BATTLE!<\/p>\n

I have a battle in my heart… everyone does… to respond to life and people with LOVE or AGGRESSION (anger, fear, hate all being under the banner of aggression).<\/p>\n

The more I think about my God and my people the less I have a selfish pull to respond with aggression. The more I seek to live by the Spirit the less often I find hills to die on. Do I want to win at the cost of others? I am coming to a place where I don’t.<\/p>\n

It is not easy to choose love,…there is always a cost…
it is painful to learn selflessness because it requires constant sacrifice, and never stops for it is a continual choice in each and every situation and with each and every person…
it is painful treading water, trying to not sink when those you seek to love repeatedly try to pull you under…<\/p>\n

I can’t seem to find the words… I can’t say it as clearly as Carolyn so I include her amazing lyrics… I have been feeling her words in my spirit long before I heard them and so when I listened to this song called ‘Only Love’ I weep in relief and agreement.<\/p>\n

There really is no other option!
…for we don’t win if we think only of ourselves
…we don’t win if we live out of an aggressive nature
…we don’t win by force
We win by surrender!
Christ alone can win so let him win in your life!<\/p>\n

THE BATTLE IS THE LORDS AND THE VICTORY IS OURS!<\/div>\n

p.s. It struck me as I worked on this post how frightening it is to love and live like this because we have to trust that Jesus will have our back… we can’t worry about protecting ourselves! I AM AFRAID but ‘perfect love casts out all fear’ and ‘he has not given us a spirit of fear’!<\/p>\n

TTFN<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words and music by Carolyn Arends and Brad Crisler“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr. No one ever overcomes the dark with darkness It takes a little light to chase the shadows back So tell me why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}