I found it (the word 'mercy') occurs 261 times in the Bible-and seventy-two percent of them are in the Old Testament. That's a three-to-one ratio. Then I studied the word 'love' and found it occurs 322 times in the Bible, about half in each testament. So you have the same emphasis on love in both.

Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.

Where there is no extravagance there is no love, and where there is no love there is no understanding.

A time is coming when the whole round world will know that God reigns and that God is Love, when hell and heaven, life and death, sin and salvation, will be read and understood aright at last.

Disaster occurs in your life when you lack the mental composure that comes from establishing yourself on the eternal truth that God is holy love.

Think about this. The One who created and controls the world, the One who is the ultimate definition of what is loving, true, and good, and the One who alone has the power to finally defeat sin has chosen, because of his grace, to wrap his arms of faithful love and protection around you, and he will not let you go. You can take your life off your shoulders because God has placed it on his.

Your love is never your foundation; his eternal love is. Live in this hope.

All the human love we've experienced has been flawed in some way. But not God's; his love is perfect and perfectly steadfast forever.

All the human love we've experienced has been flawed in some way. But not God's; his love is perfect and perfectly steadfast forever. It is the single most stunning reality in the life of a believer. God has placed his love on us and he will never again remove it. There's a reason to continue, no matter how hard life seems and how weak you feel.

The law of love is the ultimate law because it is the negation of law; it is absolute because it concerns everything concrete. The paradox of final revelation, overcoming the conflict between absolutism and relativism, is love.

I have given no definition of love. This is impossible, because there is no higher principle by which it could be defined. It is life itself in its actual unity. The forms and structures in which love embodies itself are the forms and structures in which love overcomes its self-destructive forces.

We must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. And with love, there are no rules.