For God so loved the world
Christmas time is a great time to write about love, and love fits with the theme of walking in unity. There will be no unity without love, and that is what our church desires to walk in. I want to quote from God Still Heals, by James Garlow. He says about love:
I’ve seen our church do some incredible things to demonstrate love, there are literally too many to mention. One example, though, was last Sunday. There is a couple, literally off the streets, doing things that you would picture street people doing. They recently gave their lives to Christ, and made the commitment to be His disciples. They were baptized two weeks ago, and married the next weekend. The church was invited, but here is the interesting thing. Very few in the church knew these people, this couple had only been attending about a month. But after worshiping for over 1 ½ hours together, staying until after 12:30, over a 1/3 of the congregation stayed for the wedding, just to show support and love. Volunteers took care of the wedding cake (baking as well as serving), reception, sound, set up and clean up. Donations were given so they could have a night in a rather expensive hotel, including breakfast. One man, who tapes the services, and didn’t know until that morning that the wedding would take place. He stayed and taped the wedding, took it home to edit it so he could give it to them.
This is not the perfect church, we have our differences and struggles. We all make mistakes, BUT we know that each of us are growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. And we love one another.
The words “love one another” occur twelve times in Scripture, eight times in the present tense. That means we’re to love one another habitually, as a way of life. This kind of love is not a feeling; it is an act of the will. We love our brothers and sisters in Christ not because they happen to be great people but because we have chosen to love them. First John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is make complete in us.” A healthy church is one in which the people love one another.
I’ve seen our church do some incredible things to demonstrate love, there are literally too many to mention. One example, though, was last Sunday. There is a couple, literally off the streets, doing things that you would picture street people doing. They recently gave their lives to Christ, and made the commitment to be His disciples. They were baptized two weeks ago, and married the next weekend. The church was invited, but here is the interesting thing. Very few in the church knew these people, this couple had only been attending about a month. But after worshiping for over 1 ½ hours together, staying until after 12:30, over a 1/3 of the congregation stayed for the wedding, just to show support and love. Volunteers took care of the wedding cake (baking as well as serving), reception, sound, set up and clean up. Donations were given so they could have a night in a rather expensive hotel, including breakfast. One man, who tapes the services, and didn’t know until that morning that the wedding would take place. He stayed and taped the wedding, took it home to edit it so he could give it to them.
This is not the perfect church, we have our differences and struggles. We all make mistakes, BUT we know that each of us are growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. And we love one another.
posted by kansasscott @ 2:57 PM
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