If Jesus’ life seems exalted in our eyes, if the Messiah seems surrounded with the misty halo of long ago, then the lives of his disciples must seem the same – obscure, mysterious and distant. We know that Jesus held a special love for his disciples and perhaps particularly for John, who some believe was the famous "beloved disciple."
The Bible offers us the well-known Gospel of John and the somewhat less frequently read three letters of John that appear toward the end of the New Testament. In John’s first letter, he delivers line after line of life-shaking truth. For all of us who grew up with the belief that God was unknowable and indescribable, the apostle John gives us the best definition of God that has ever been written. And he only takes three words to do it. "God is love," he tells us in 1 John 4:16, "and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." There is no greater wisdom than this, if only we can open our hearts to it. Listen to the power of this declaration from John, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…" Inside this truth is the birth of Radical Loving Care’s central statement which calls us to Live Love, not fear. Love drives away fear. Without Love, we are continuously vulnerable to fear’s dragon fire.
-Erie Chapman
1) Do you agree that God is Love?
2) How often do you find yourself living in fear instead of in Love?
Journal of Sacred Work 
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