Much of this
post is reprinted from a post from July of 2013, but I wanted to bring to your
attention a couple of truths that I seek to live by. First of all, showing others what the love of
God looks like will make a difference in the lives of the people you
serve. Second, showing the love of God
to others also refreshes and reminds us of how much God loves us.
I need His
love. It deals with frustration and
stress. It overcomes the questions and
dilemmas that at times seem to cloud our lives.
God’s love is powerful for everyone it touches and everyone it flows
through.
Dear
children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth
by our actions.
Love
is an action word. It is not seen in what we say, but it is lived out in
what we do. We've all experienced this on many levels throughout the
years, but the fact is many of us missed the very essence of what love does.
Love
goes the second mile. Love does for others when there's no possibility of
reward. Love sees past pain and struggle. Love forgets worry and
embraces acceptance. Love is a condition of the heart especially after
God has gotten hold of us and we have taken a hold of him. Love runs in
to tough situations when fear is running out.
We ought to be radically changed by the love that God had for us.
God showed
how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we
might have eternal life through him.
Got
spelled his love out on the cross. We've heard it, we’ve seen it, and we
have beat that fact to death throughout all the time we've been in church.
Yet the world around us is crying out for love spelled out in action and a life
lived with character and strength. That strength comes from a heart that
is not trying to get something in return but is trying to give. Do we
have anything to really give others?
Owe nothing
to anyone—except for your obligation to love
one another. If you love your
neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.
Stories
paint pictures in my mind. They are
often amazing. This morning I read of a
police department that attended the graduation of a girl whose dad was killed
in the line of duty. Yesterday, I
watched a video news story of a son of a deputy who was killed as he tried to
by his dad’s patrol car. Yet the boy was
out bid by a local farmer who turned at the end of the auction and presented
the boy with his dad’s patrol car as a gift (by the way, the farmer paid
$60,000 for the car that was worth about $12,000; the money goes to serve
families in law enforcement who lost loved ones.
I
am often humbled by the stories of friends who speak of their encounters with
homeless friends. One lady recently
talked about a homeless man that she ministered to that found out he had
cancer. Another friend shared how he met
a homeless mom and her daughter and simply listening to their story let to them
finding help.
After
myself being overly frustrated yesterday when trying to deal with a homeless
veteran I ran in two of the men that were homeless in our church. They now have a place to stay and have had a
good job as well.
The
picture painted for me by such stories demosntrated the fact that we have to
“be love”. Don’t just say you love someone. Be love. Don’t
just pretend to love people. Be love. Go out of your way to serve
others and don’t worry about what you will get. Be love. Cheryl is
a great example of love as Gary cannot express the love he has for his wife
like he used to express it years ago.
Who
is God calling you to love? Be love to someone today.
We love
each other because he loved us first.
Do nothing
from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another
as more important than yourselves;
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