Skip to main content

ONE PRAYER --- those people really love [+] Wednesday E-Devotion

I do some marriage counseling, and I am sold on pre-marital counseling.  But I am sick of a certain answer I get from some of the people I talk to.  The question is asked, "why did you marry this person" or "why do you want to marry this person?"  And they respond, because we love each other.
 
Why does that make me sick?  It is because most people don't really know what love is.  Love is not something that is here today and gone tomorrow.  Love is not something that we feel now but don't feel later.  Love is actually, in the most true sense of the word, an unconditional choice to serve and care for another person with no thought of what you will get in return.  What do you think of that definition?
 
Greatest illustration of that love is ... JESUS.  He died for us.  No strings attached.  We don't have to climb a ladder to get to god, or do good deeds, or dress in the right clothes.  All we have to do is acknowledge God's best and His love for us. 
 
Romans 5:8 (nlt) --- But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
 
We didn't deserve God's love, and we still don't deserve it.  Yet He loves us.  He calls us to love others as a display of God's love for us.
 
John 13:34-35 (nlt) --- So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
 
I long for the day and pray for the day when people look at The Community Fellowship say, "look how those people really love."  For the world, people who don't go to church or don't know Jesus, to say that would be a huge plus in our community for bringing them and others closer to God.  It is God's call on our church and on our lives ... to demonstrate the love of God to our community.
 
Yet far too often the church is a place where, at times, people don't feel loved or don't see love expressed (whether inside or outside the walls of the church).  That has to change.
 
Craig Groeschel in his ONE PRAYER message, Lord, Make Us One, talked about the fact that love unifies the people of God around God.  1 John 4:18 tells us that God's kind of love kicks fear and division out of our lives and out of God's church.  What happens when God's people understand what it is to really love each other and to love people who need God?
 
Acts 4:32 (nlt) --- All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.
I pray that our church will come to know and live and that your church will live in that kind of love.  I pray people will look at us and say, "those people really love."
 
 

Join the ONE PRAYER conversation at www.oneprayer.com.  The Community Fellowship and over 1,500 churches are focusing on God together for four weeks.  Spend time praying, fasting, sharing and seeking God.  It will change your life and your focus.  Join us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Catalyst ticket arrived

My ticket to the Catalyst Conference, in Atlanta Oct 8-10, just arrived. I'm excited!
10 comments
Read more

wash feet, sharing hope

  John 13:4-5,14 NLT  So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him… 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. Jesus set the example we follow.  He served.  He valued and gave value to others.  That is why we choose to serve. For 18 years our church has shared an outreach called back2school, and for 16 of those years we have chosen to give students brand new shoes and socks as well as washing their feet.  It is one of the most important parts of this event. Washing feet is a humbling experience where both the give and the receiver learn how to share some moments that might change their lives.  Jesus said we should do this.  See the verse above.  Follow His example, do what He did, and give far more than you will ever know....
Post a Comment
Read more

Have you heard of EDITH BURNS?

Edith Burns was a wonderful Christian who lived in San Antonio, Texas . She was the patient of a doctor by the name of Will Phillips. Dr. Phillips was a gentle doctor who saw patients as people. His favorite patient was Edith Burns.  One morning he went to his office with a heavy heart and it was because of Edith Burns.  When he walked into that waiting room, there sat Edith with her big black Bible in her lap earnestly talking to a young mother sitting beside her.  Edith Burns had a habit of introducing herself in this way: "Hello, my name is Edith Burns.  Do you believe in Easter?" Then she would explain the meaning of Easter, and many times people would be saved.  Dr. Phillips walked into that office and there he saw the head nurse, Beverly. Beverly had first met Edith when she was taking her blood pressure. Edith began by saying,"My name is Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?"  Beverly said, "Why yes I do."  Edith said, "Well, what do you ...
Post a Comment
Read more