The conflict of the ages is not between Black and White but Love and Hate.

 

Dear Family and friends,

 

We need to think before we forget that we have the antidote of love to the illness of our society.

 

“The wind blows, and we are gone as though we had never been here. But the love of God remains forever.”

In memory of my cousin Vladimir who just died in Lima. He used to admire my Ruthie and our marriage as two who love one another.

 

I know love. I have truly loved one woman and one woman only.

The advantage of truly loving someone will irresistibly lead you to the source of true love and that is God. “GOD IS LOVE.”

 

No wonder someone has written a book titled, “Do yourself a favor”, love your wife. That book might have been written for practical and selfish purposes, but in my case it has led me toward God in Jesus the true lover of my soul.

 

If you have not loved someone to the point of expending yourself for that person; I wonder if you truly know God in Jesus who gave himself for us when we were still sinners?

 

Try loving like Jesus even if you get “sucker punched on the face plus six” and then discover that you do not have seven faces to turn the other cheeks but two cheeks only.

 

The comparison of the genuine love from the false love will reveal itself by contrast because you cannot fake genuine love.

“Love any way.”

 

Many have died without knowing the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

They live sheltered lives not knowing that “The Risk takers might not live long, but the cautious do not live at all.”

They live under the motto that “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Others take the Greek thinker’s advice “Whether you marry or remain single, in both cases you will repent.”

 

For me it was better to have tomorrow to correct my mistakes of today and not to wait for tomorrow to wonder the same thing that “How would today have been if I had just taken my chances yesterday?”

 

 

If in your sense of justice, you want to take revenge legally then love your enemies, because “They just can’t stand it.” “It burns them up when you love them.” It is like burning coals on their head. Shame will make them furious.

 

You will never be more like God when you love your enemies and love them first. Your enemies will never be conquered by the sword but by love. As God in Jesus conquered us with love to the point of loving him “BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.”

 

It is easy to hate those who hate us, even a tamed dog will bite you if you step in his tail, but to love those who hate us it is not only difficult but impossible. If I might say so, “It will be inconceivable,” unless the grace Jesus is in you as the hope of glory. Jesus in you will do the loving through you and in spite of you to your own amazement.

 

Nothing is like becoming a full time spectator of Jesus in your own life, again, as the only hope of glory.

 

This is the biblical cupid of Jesus on duty. “LOVE.”

 

Gerry Gutierrez.

 

PS. My cousin Vladimir and me in Alaska.