Love is Like fire

Love is like fire

When it is first kindled in a man,
small troubles and temptations smother
and hinder it; but when it really burns,
having kindled the man's eagerness for God,
the more temptations and tribulations meet it,
the more it flares, until it overcomes and consumes
all injustice and wickedness.

The Love of God

God in his almighty power and divine nature hovered in
the wind before there was a place to stand, and before the
foundation of the world was laid; he, the infinite Being,
was alone in his glory. It seemed to him not enough to be
alone, however, as there was nothing to praise and glorify
his name, for he wanted praise. So in his wisdom, which
endures for ever and never changes, he created heaven and
earth and filled them with his glory - that is, with all creation,
the work of his hands in which we recognize his invisible
being and eternal power, if we note and observe it.
On looking at it, he declared that everything was very good,
made according to his will and without blemish; but among
them all there was no creature able to give him the praise
he wanted. So he said, "Let us make human beings in our
image, that is, beings who are perfectly pure and completely
without blemish."
Then he made a man and a woman and gave them dominion
over all the work of his hands, except the tree of life
and of the knowledge of good and evil. Regarding this tree,
he said, "When you eat of it you shall die." But the human
beings whom God had made for his praise soon turned away
and forgot their Creator's command and all the good things
he had given them. They exchanged obedience for disobedience
and ate of the forbidden fruit. This caused them to
fall, and their descendants also, for the wrath of God came

over them, and as a result the earth, too, came under a
curse, and as a punishment bore thistles and thorns where
they had hoped for good. God had expected goodness and
obedience from them, but they had been disobedient and
caused thistles and thorns to grow. Therefore eternal death
and damnation came over them and all their descendants,
and it became impossible for any of them to attain what the
one man, Adam, had lost - that is, God's favor and grace;
for the wrath of God had come upon them and they lay in
the power of death under sin, as under a heavy load that
none of them could lift. Only the one eternally powerful
God, against whom they had sinned, could do so through
his dearly beloved Son.


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