John 13:34 NASB
A
new commandment I give to you, that you love
one another, even as I have loved
you, that you also love one another.
One
of the toughest things that we have to do is to love. One of the sweetest and best things we will
ever do is to love, but our world and most of the people around us believe love
is something it is not. Jesus is the epitome
of love. Not everyone will say that, but
many people and for generations will assert that Jesus taught us to do just
that.
Last
week I heard something that stopped me in my tracks. It has to do with serving others, and it you
really know me you know that my calling is to serve and to lead others to serve
in the name of Jesus.
Here
is that quote: Our goal
is to minister to those who want it and love those who don't - David Martin
Serving
is loving, but to love others is not always each. Loving people who do not want what we are
offering or don’t even want to be near us is tough. Often times it is easier to stay by ourselves
and not to love or serve, but we just cannot do that. We must love.
We must serve.
I’d
like to share some of the thoughts that inspire me to keep on loving, to keep
on serving. Some of the following I
heard years ago while others are new or fresh.
But when I read them, think through them and see to employ them, I find
myself propelled to love more. The more
we serve and love the more people will encounter our God who has loved and
served us.
God's
definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by
how we love. - Francis Chan, Crazy
Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Love
is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nothing
can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love. - Billy Graham
To love at
all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and
possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it
to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little
luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of
your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will
change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable,
irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. - C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
If this is
going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to
pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge
that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and
then admit that we just don't want to do it. - Stephen Colbert
If you
judge people, you have no time to love them. - Mother Teresa
But God
doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that
we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if
He doesn't come through. - Francis Chan,
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
May we be caught loving others in creative
ways that stick. Real love, authentic
love leads others to change. That love
changes us too.
1 John 4:12 NASB
No
one has seen God at any time; if
we love one another, God
abides in us, and His love is
perfected in us.
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