St. Augustine

"For he loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake."

I want to love with the love of God. Completely sold out and given away to the people around me. I want to love so much that my pain at losing a friend to death is only dwarfed by my joy that they can see the face of Christ more clearly. I want to love with no reservations about being taken advantage of. I want to seek the best of every person I come in contact with. I want to love with a love that gives glory to God. I want to love God with a passion that brings all other loves along with it. I want every love to be centered on God, to point to Him, because that is in only real love.
I want my love to be filled with grace. Unmerited favor to those I love. God's grace through me making me able to give grace to imperfect people around me. I want to "love more and love less," that is, to love the people in my life by always loving God more than them. That is the only way to truly love. 

It's a Zombie World

It struck my recently how so many people are fascinated by death. The horror movies, the vampire stories, the zombie comedies. They all have a bizarre attraction to people. And then I realized a simple truth; people relate to that. Most people don't realize it but they relate to these creatures that are dead. Think about it for a minute. In most of the stories there is some kind of disease or curse that mutates people into the living dead. They move, they breath, they eat and drink, they have desires and drives, but they have no soul.
And the stark reality is that this is the natural human state. We naturally are dead. We live and walk, eat and sleep, even interact socially, but we have no life. We act on our basest desires, we feast on sin. We stumble and destroy. We try to devour that glimpse of real life.
But there is a cure. There are people who are not controlled by the disease. The vaccine has been handed out and the ones who have received it are also able to pass it on. Those who were once hostile to life now are givers of life. But the cure involves dying. The living dead must be finally killed and reborn to be alive. The soulless, shuffling zombies can become living, conquering humans. And on the outside there isn't always that much of a visible difference. But the soul is alive.
So the challenge is this: Live as though you are alive. If we have been set free from the plague of sin than we ought to live as though we are free, no longer walking in the same way of life as the dead world. Because how can we who are dead to (death) live in it any more? By grace we have been vaccinated through faith. So those who are dead to sin cannot live any longer in it.

Ephesians 2:1-5ish "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—"

Romans 6:2ish-12 How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

Love Her More and Love Her Less - John Piper

The God whom we have loved, and in
Whom we have lived, and who has been
Our Rock these twenty-two good years
With you, now bids us, with sweet tears,
To let you go: "A man shall leave
His father and his mother, cleave
Henceforth unto his wife, and be
One unashaméd flesh and free."
This is the word of God today,
And we are happy to obey.
For God has given you a bride
Who answers every prayer we've cried
For over twenty years, our claim
For you, before we knew her name.

And now you ask that I should write
A poem - a risky thing, in light
Of what you know: that I am more
The preacher than the poet or
The artist. I am honored by
Your bravery, and I comply.
I do not grudge these sweet confines
Of rhyming pairs and metered lines.
They are old friends. They like it when
I bid them help me once again
To gather feelings into form
And keep them durable and warm.

And so we met in recent days,
And made the flood of love and praise
And counsel from a father's heart
To flow within the banks of art.
Here is a portion of the stream,
My son: a sermon poem. It's theme:
A double rule of love that shocks;
A doctrine in a paradox:

If you now aim your wife to bless,
Then love her more and love her less.

If in the coming years, by some
Strange providence of God, you come
To have the riches of this age,
And, painless, stride across the stage
Beside your wife, be sure in health
To love her, love her more than wealth.

And if your life is woven in
A hundred friendships, and you spin
A festal fabric out of all
Your sweet affections, great and small,
Be sure, no matter how it rends,
To love her, love her more than friends.

And if there comes a point when you
Are tired, and pity whispers, "Do
Yourself a favor. Come, be free;
Embrace the comforts here with me."
Know this! Your wife surpasses these:
So love her, love her, more than ease.

And when your marriage bed is pure,
And there is not the slightest lure
Of lust for any but your wife,
And all is ecstasy in life,
A secret all of this protects:
Go love her, love her, more than sex.

And if your taste becomes refined,
And you are moved by what the mind
Of man can make, and dazzled by
His craft, remember that the "why"
Of all this work is in the heart;
So love her, love her more than art.

And if your own should someday be
The craft that critics all agree
Is worthy of a great esteem,
And sales exceed your wildest dream,
Beware the dangers of a name.
And love her, love her more than fame.

And if, to your surprise, not mine,
God calls you by some strange design
To risk your life for some great cause,
Let neither fear nor love give pause,
And when you face the gate of death,
Then love her, love her more than breath.

Yes, love her, love her, more than life;
O, love the woman called your wife.
Go love her as your earthly best.

Beyond this venture not. But, lest
Your love become a fool's facade,
Be sure to love her less than God.

It is not wise or kind to call
An idol by sweet names, and fall,
As in humility, before
A likeness of your God. Adore
Above your best beloved on earth
The God alone who gives her worth.
And she will know in second place
That your great love is also grace,
And that your high affections now
Are flowing freely from a vow
Beneath these promises, first made
To you by God. Nor will they fade
For being rooted by the stream
Of Heaven's Joy, which you esteem
And cherish more than breath and life,
That you may give it to your wife.

The greatest gift you give your wife
Is loving God above her life.
And thus I bid you now to bless:
Go love her more by loving less.


http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/poems/love-her-more-and-love-her-less