Love isn’t everything—perhaps you’ve heard that remark. Love may not be everything, but without it you have nothing. The lack of love is evident throughout the world today. Most people don’t even know what love is; they’re strangers to it. They’ve never had it, never been blessed with it, never really given it. How pathetic!

Man and woman were created in the love of God. No hate, malice, envy, strife, or grudges, existed in Eden—none, none, none. Man, created in the light of God’s eternal love, was to have lived forever in a body of clay. But sin entered, and he lost that eternal life.

The things God gives to us are eternal; His love is eternal love, everlasting love, and He meant for us to know that wonderful love in its fullness.

The Bible tells us how important love is: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [love], I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity [love], I am nothing (I Corinthians 13:1,2).

Great Love Was in My Home

We who have had love bask in it as we bask in the sunshine. We draw on it; we adore it, and we know it’s life. Growing up in a home of love is true security. Let me tell you how love influenced my life, and how love can melt the hardest of hearts. You may not have been so fortunate to grow up with love, but it is not too late to know the greatest love of all: the incredible love Jesus has for you.

As a child coming home from school I knew I would meet love. I knew when I was on my way home that one person would probably be there: Mama. She was full of love. As a youngster I’d open the door to our house and rush through that long hallway shouting, “Mom, where are you?” She’d poke her head out from one room or another and say, “I’m not deaf!” I don’t know how many times she reminded me she wasn’t deaf, but I was full of joy and eager to see her. Once I saw her, if I didn’t have anything on my mind to talk to her about, I was satisfied and ready to go play. Usually she would be busy getting supper ready. That was fine; all was well. As long as Mom was in that house, there was plenty of love. Mama represented God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost all three to me in love. Mom is no longer in my house, but Jesus is; and still I live in a house filled with love. Jesus is all you need to have love in your house, but you must yield to that love.

Learn the Greatness of God’s Love

You may not have grown up in a house of love as I did, but with Jesus, you can have no less love in your home than I had. To have that love when something goes wrong during the day and to know it will be all right when you get home because love is there is a wonderful feeling. Live in Jesus’ love; you’ve got to have it. Look for it; expect it. If you’ve never had love or you’ve never learned how to use love, it’s time to accept God’s love in this final hour.

Some families are clumsy in using love. Sons and daughters merely shake hands with their mother or father. What would my mama have thought of me, what would my daddy have thought of me had I responded to them like that! What kind of son was this? What’s happened? What have we done to you? What are you mad about? Shaking hands is something you do with strangers, not your parents. My mama didn’t hold out her hand to me; both arms went around me. She wanted to hug me to her heart.

If you have love, you’re going to show it; if you don’t have it, you discourage yourself and others around you. But when you have love, it flows; love is great. Let the Holy Spirit give you trust in God’s love for you, and let it flow to others.

Love Dries Tears

At mealtimes much love was displayed around our big, long kitchen table that seated nine people. Dad was a man of few words, but it was just as well because most of the rest of us were full of talk. By the time we all told our experiences of the day, we were filled with enjoyment. We shared our opinions. Love looks out for others; love really cares. Love dries tears; we dried each other’s tears, and that’s the way it is in God’s house. When there’s great love, there’s great care for one another. We carry each other’s burdens.

In our home we carried one another’s burdens. Mom and Dad didn’t carry them all. We would share, talk about something that was bothering us. Maybe one would ask, “What’s bothering you? What’s wrong?” That bond of love is wonderful. Love isn’t everything? What if we hadn’t had it?

Too Poor to Complain

We didn’t have much money; in the days of depression most people didn’t have money. Some people didn’t have bread; but by our family respecting God, He saw to it that we always had bread. We had little else sometimes, but we had bread.

With great love Mama prepared our meals. Many times she would fry the grease out of salt pork (down South we called it fat-back), add flour and make wonderful gravy—Johnny sop. Mom served it as though she were serving a banquet. Out would come a big pan of hot biscuits, and then the Johnny sop. That may not sound like a good meal, but love made the difference. What would Mama have thought had we started complaining about her gravy? She’d done the best she could with what she had.

You can have a family of love, or you can have a family that grumbles and complains about everything. The more some people have, the more they seem to complain. Our family was too poor to complain, too grateful when a little extra was put on the table.

My parents couldn’t buy very much for us children. What little we had, Mama was always careful to divide equally with great patience. Sharing is the difference between a home with love in it, and a home without love.

Appreciate What You Have

Love isn’t everything? Love was everything to the Angley family. We didn’t always have enough clothes to keep us warm when it was cold. We had no raincoats; when it rained, we’d be soaked through and through by the time we reached school. In the winter, we would freeze half-to-death it seemed. No matter how cold it was, no matter how hard the rain poured down, we weren’t allowed to enter the school building until the bell rang. We just learned to endure, wear what we had, and not complain. There were other people who didn’t have much, but the love in our family made up for the lack of material things.

Those few in school who did have money, who were nicely dressed, didn’t have the love, the care that we had in our home. They didn’t appreciate what they had.

We grew up appreciating the little things of life. Any little thing I would give my mama—maybe it cost but a nickel—she would act as though it had cost a hundred dollars. She thought it was wonderful that I had remembered her. That’s appreciation that comes from true love. With such gratitude you learn to be grateful to the Lord.

Gratitude for what the Lord has done, for the salvation that Jesus brought, is missing in so many hearts today. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God so loved this world that He gave Jesus. When you reject such a gift, you’re a pauper concerning love. The world needs love, the reality of the personal love God has for each person. The reality of this love is what we are trying to bring to people throughout the world.

This old world is in an awful condition without love. Children are on drugs and alcohol; young people have run away from home, destroyed their lives; they either didn’t have love or else they turned from the love they did have.

Make Love Your Way of Life

My parents never said to one of us seven children, “You’ve got to get a job.” Why? We had so much love that we were eager to get a job, eager to help out, to dig a ditch, to do anything to get a few dimes, a few nickels. We were never told to pay board, for we always shared in what we got, ready to help lift the burden from Mom and Dad’s shoulders as much as possible. Why? Because love was everything.

Love in our home was a way of life, it warmed our hearts many times; our hearts would have been cold without it. The love in our home made us feel cared—for when our clothes looked shabby, threadbare. Love made the difference. The patches on our clothes Mom sewed on with love; every stitch she made was with love. Love was our way of life.

Jesus came saying, I am the way (John 14:6). He was the way of love. The world then was in darkness the way it is now. We’ve got to get His message of love out to all who have not had a chance to hear it. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).

With Jesus’ Love You’re Never Alone

Love lifts people up, never pushes them down. Love tells people that the Lord died for them; He loves them, and He wants them in His Heaven. It’s not God’s will for anyone to be sick; it’s not His will for them to be hungry; it’s not His will for them to not have clothes to keep them warm. No, it is not His will.

Love rounded my life out; love surrounded me. I never knew what it meant not to be loved. We experienced a lot of hardships, a lot of difficulties; but we never experienced any days and nights without love. If a cry from one of us came during the night, we heard feet hitting the floor as a loving parent came to hover over us until we went to sleep, until we stopped hurting. We didn’t feel alone; we were never alone because we had love. Love is wonderful.

Money Isn’t Everything

I knew I didn’t need money to have happiness when I was growing up. I’m glad I was taught that way; it’s a part of me today. I find when you have love you have just about everything.

I have been so blessed with love in a family of love: a mother who loved me beyond words, a wife who loved me better than she loved her own life. Then I had a mother-in-law who dearly loved me, as well as my two oldest sisters. With that love I just had it made in life. I was loved.

I didn’t get depressed or anxious over lack of money because I was never broke in love. Money wasn’t everything to me, but love was. Angel, my wife, was the same way, even though she had been reared in a different environment from mine. She was used to money, to plenty of clothes, and plenty of food. Although blessed in the material things, she didn’t have as much love as I had. She didn’t grow up with that love because her father didn’t have love to serve. Her mother was the one to give her love, but she lacked that great love in her family. When she found me, however, she found love.

My family amazed her, especially my dad. She wasn’t accustomed to a father being loving and kind, one that would speak sweet words to his children. She fell in love with him, adored him, thought he was a most wonderful person. Her father wasn’t like that at all. He was so different that I wouldn’t even call him pop for a long time. I just couldn’t speak the words; he didn’t measure up to my dad in any way.

My in-laws had a nephew living in their home, and he would call my father-in-law Uncle Bill. I called my mother-in-law Mom, and called my father-in-law Uncle Bill, too. He didn’t love me into the family; in fact, he didn’t want me in the family.

Love Can Melt the Hardest Heart

My father-in-law couldn’t stand preachers—he hadn’t educated Angel to marry a preacher. He’d say, “Ernest, how were your offerings in the last revival?” I wouldn’t tell him. I’d answer, “Oh, the Lord blesses us; the Lord looks out for us. He always supplies our needs.” I’d leave it like that. Then he would grumble, “Preachers, that’s all they’re after is money.” I’d just let him talk. If he ever heard a bad story about a preacher, he wanted to tell me all about it.

People talk about preachers wanting money, but what I want money for is to get the Gospel to people. I spoke to a reporter who was amazed to find that I don’t live in a mansion, that I don’t have a bank account, and take a small salary—and I give much of that to help in the work of God. I live to do God’s work. To me His work is a love service.

My father-in-law was a railroad boss who oversaw some pretty rough and tough men, but I never had a fuss with him, not a harsh word—and that was a miracle! I’d show him love, and go on. He liked to give advice. Angel and I would let him say what he thought should be done, and how we should do it. Then we did things our way. We kept peace that way. I knew I didn’t have to do what he said anyway, so why get ruffled up about it? Why be downhearted about it?

Then one day he said to my mother-in-law, “Why is it that Ernest calls you Mom and calls me Uncle Bill?” The love was getting into him. He wanted me to call him Pop, and so I started calling him Pop, and finally he learned to love me.

It’s wonderful to win people for the Lord. Nothing but love could have won my father-in-law, and there was no other preacher he would have called for when he was dying but me. Even though I was hundreds of miles away, I went to him just as fast as I could. I was able to get him saved; old hardhearted Pop finally came to the Lord. If I ever prayed a prayer of love as I rebuked the devil, it was that prayer for him.

Real Love Comes Only through God

Love is the answer to all our questions. Real love is full of answers. That’s the reason I had answers in my home; there was too much love for there not to be answers.

No real true love exists without God’s love. Many times a couple in love have that love mixed with many other things. It’s the combination of human love and the Jesus love that makes a good marriage. If you don’t have a good marriage today, it’s because one or both of you don’t have the Jesus love and the human love all blended together in one mold. The Jesus love is full of answers, full of joy, full of peace, full of life. Yes, love really is just about everything. We were created in the image of God and God is love.

Love Needs a Response

Because in growing up, many people have lacked love, as adults, they find it hard to accept God’s love. When you grow up secure in love, when you always have plenty of love, then whether you yield to it or not, you don’t doubt God’s love. No one could have made me doubt my mother’s love for me; no one could have made me doubt my wife’s love for me, and no one can ever make me doubt God’s love for me, the Jesus love for me. I know I am loved—and you are, too, if you let Him love you.

If you feel you’re not loved by God today, it’s because you won’t let Him love you. Love needs a response. The Lord can’t love you and draw you close to Him unless you respond. To back away, to go against His love you tie His hands. Love must have a response in marriage, too, in the home, or there will be no joy, no peace and security.

Laughter Is of God

Love was the reason we had so much joy in our home as we were growing up, the reason laughter would ring out. We laughed a lot; I was used to laughter. Laughter is of God. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me (Genesis 21:6). I’ve seen many people who didn’t know how to laugh, but the Lord taught them how to laugh when they came to Calvary. They went away with laughter. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart (Psalm 32:11).

Don’t Be Deceived about Love

Too many children are being reared in this old world today without love, and they don’t know what real life is. Most of them are going to live and die without ever knowing love. They will never learn to really live, for they can never learn to live without God’s love; it’s an impossibility.

If you have anything in your heart except the love of God, you’re robbing yourself, you’re robbing God, and you’re robbing all those around you. If you don’t serve pure love, pure human love, pure godly love, you’re serving something else; and you’re doing a cruel thing to yourself and to others.

Real love has no fighting, no hate—only against the devil. Many people are deceived; what they think is love isn’t real at all; it’s just infatuation or maybe a quality they imagine is present, but quickly find it has no substance. What they settled for, what they thought was love, wasn’t love at all. Real love creates happiness within and without. Real love is just about everything.

I’ve taught young people down through the years to let God bring their mate to them. Don’t do your own shopping; you can be fooled. Many people have been fooled momentarily by something that looked like love, but in the daylight was just a shallow imitation.

Use the Gift of God’s Love

Love behaves itself in a marvelous way. Love is wonderful to be around. Love isn’t something you want to get away from; love draws you to God and to His people. Love, love, love is just about everything. In real love you have the real peace, joy and happiness that money can’t buy.

People without love have substituted money and the material things of life for it. Instead of giving their children the real love they need, they buy them something, bribe them; they don’t really give them the true gift. Real love requires discipline.

The Lord gives us many things, but the first thing He gives one of His children is the gift of love. If you use that gift, He’ll add much more. If you use that gift, He’ll direct all your paths. If you use that gift, you’ll find Jesus is the waymaker.

However, if you don’t use the gift of love, you’re not going to have the gift of real life. Jesus said, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10). I have come that you can have abundant life right here on Earth. At last I’ve brought the same love that was in Eden, divine love that made the first man, the first woman as happy as the angels in Heaven.

Perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect understanding produce a perfect day. You can help make a heaven, or you can create a hell around you. The Lord has given you a wonderful blood love shield, a spiritual Eden. Decide which you want: flowers or weeds. It takes work to cultivate beautiful flowers. Some people would rather look at weeds than to put forth the effort it takes to grow and maintain lovely plantings. They declare they don’t like flowers. No one but God can make a living flower. How could you have the love of God in you and not love His beautiful flowers? Love reaches out for love: With the love of God in you, you reach out for that which God loves. With the love of God in you, you reach for the truth daily. In that truth is liberty, freedom, peace, joy, understanding.

I Thought My World Had Ended

Yes, love is just about everything, and that’s the reason it felt as though my world had ended when Angel died. When Angel went to Heaven, it almost killed me. Her death left a horrible vacuum; that love gone—and I had had so much love. I had thought no one could ever love me like Mama loved me, but I met a girl who went beyond because it was a different kind of love. I had learned love through my mother, and I learned through others who loved me that love will make any sacrifice; love will do anything wonderful. Love cares, and love sacrifices. When God took Angel’s great love from me, He left me like one dead. The only life I could feel was just a small place around my heart. The sun didn’t mean a thing anymore nor did the moon, the stars.

I found there is really no life without love. Lacking in love, people don’t appreciate nature, the blessings of God, the things of God, the joy in the Holy Ghost, and the fruits of the Spirit. Love is what plants your feet on the solid rock, shows you the way and helps you to walk it.

Love is understanding; Angel and I understood each other. We didn’t have the confusion in our marriage that is found in some marriages. Grace abounded in our marriage, and we looked to God when we didn’t have answers. We knew we were called of God, and God would direct us. Sometimes it took forty days of fasting in the work of God to get an answer that had to come, to get the help that was needed, but it always came.

Now Angel was gone. I turned to God; His love was my salvation, what I cried for. “Oh God, love me! Love me!” I cried out to the Lord. “God, I just have to be loved! I can’t live without love! I had so much love and now it’s gone, and I can’t live like this!” He would move in and pour down love.

God can give you all the love you need, and then you can sing that song:

I’m never alone;
My Savior is with me
Wherever I roam.
I’ll hold to His hand,
Lean on His strong arm.
My Savior is with me;
I’m never alone.

God’s Love Dispelled the Darkness

In my sorrow, the Lord would speak letting me know that He was there, and He would say, “I’m the Lord that walketh with thee.” What a statement of love; what a love package! He would hand me that gift of love many times in one day and in all hours of the night. Out of the darkness it would come, “I am the Lord that walketh with thee,” and His light would dispel the darkness around me. And then I would go into myself again…it was so dark, so cold. Again He would speak, “I am the Lord that walketh with thee.”

Angel had been gone for several weeks. Time didn’t matter anymore; I did well to live time by the seconds, not by the minutes, and not to even think about the hours. Every second was an ordeal, a burden, a cross. Every minute could seem like an eternity. One particular day, I was down on my knees in her office, sobbing. I don’t know if it were Jesus or an angel, but it didn’t matter; love came into the room. How would you feel for divine arms to go around you like human arms? Nobody else was in the house, but I knew without looking up or looking around that divinity had come. Without saying a word, He hugged me close to Him. As He held me, the peace of Heaven flowed.

I’ve learned to creep into those arms when I’m hurt. Instead of taking my hurts to people, I take them to Jesus; and I let those loving arms go around me. I know I’m loved, and I know all I have to do in trying moments is be still and know that He is God.

If you have love, you have just about everything. If you don’t have love, real love, you have nothing. Without real love, you are the poorest of the poor, you are defeated, living a life of misery, despair, oppression and depression. How sad to live that way when you don’t have to!

Don’t count your friends by numbers; count that one dearest friend, Jesus. When you have that friend, you have all you need. You don’t have to look beyond to see any other face.

During that awful time after Angel’s death, there was just one face I would be looking for. I’d never seen a face like hers—and now it was gone. Those eyes that would light like stars, those dimples, that beautiful skin and hair haunted me. Hers was the face I wanted to see, but I learned there was another face with an even greater love, greater strength, and that was the face of Jesus. He made Himself amazingly real to me in my sorrow. That love face, that love touch brought me peace like nothing else could. The valleys are the making of us when we turn completely to God.

Reach for God’s Love

Depend on God’s love. Stop thinking about who loves you and who doesn’t. If people don’t love you, don’t let it take away any of your strength. You have all the strength you need through the strength of God’s love. You have all the strength you need as you let the Lord love you. Let the Lord love you, and if He isn’t loving you as much as you want Him to, just say, “Jesus, love me,” and He’ll make Himself so very real to you once again.

If lack of love is your mountain today, reach to the Lord to fill that need. Maybe your mountain is one of poor health. God’s love is here for that mountain, too. I would have been dead, no doubt, for many years had God not given me a fantastic miracle when I was in a dying condition. I wanted to stay and work for Jesus, to preach His Gospel to a lost world; and when I thought all hope was gone, Jesus came to me with His divine miracle touch and healed me. What He has done for me He can do for you.

God’s Love Saves

Through the power of the Cross, your God will move. He loves you; He cares for you; He’ll hold you close, breathe upon you and give you strength. Didn’t He prove His love for you when He let His Son make the two-fold atonement for you on the Cross? Look to the love on the Cross without fear or doubting, and then He can give you His love as He longs to do. If you don’t have the reality of His salvation, won’t you pray this prayer with me now?

Oh, God, I need your help! I am nothing without your love. Please, God, I don’t want to die lost. I don’t want to go to hell. I know there is a burning hell, and I know you sent your Son with His love to save me from it. Please, God, forgive me of all my sins. Make me new in you, dear Jesus. I do have love in my heart for you. I do thank you for dying for me so I can live with you for all eternity. I believe in your blood, and I believe that your blood washes away all my sins. Come into my heart, Jesus! Come on in.

If you meant that prayer, He has come. Lift your heart to Him, and let the Lord fill it with His overwhelming love.

God’s Love Heals

No matter how sick you are, how nigh to death, God can still heal you. It’s frightening to watch your body go down to almost a skeleton, to know that within a few more days you will be dead. But it’s marvelous for Jesus Himself to come, to make you well all over. He healed me when I was sure I was dying. He didn’t touch me; all He had to do was speak the words, and I was made whole through His divine love.

You who need healing, trust His great love to come to you now as I pray for you: Lord, I come against their diseases, I come against their afflictions. In the name of Jesus I come with the gifts of healing and the gift of miracles to make them whole through your precious blood love name. Heal in the mighty name of the Lord! Heal in His powerful healing love!

Just as you cried for God to save your soul and He saved your soul, as you cry for healing know that with His love He is ready to answer your cry. He is the saving, healing Christ, and He loves you. Trust His holy promise written in His Holy Word: For I am the LORD that healeth thee (Exodus 15:26). God’s love is everything! Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).