Tag: love

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 11

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 11

    (For those of you who missed our last episode, these are the roaming thoughts of a man at a funeral.)

    QUOTES from: “Ten Shekels and a Shirt,” Paris Reidhead, (1919-1992) Sermon on Judges 17, c.1945-47

    For a long time, I had thought about the missionary’s words, yet hadn’t thought of it again until now.  I had decided that I guess everybody knows about heaven, but I didn’t know if I really wanted to go there either.

    It’s not that I loved my sin… well, some of it… but heaven and hell didn’t seem real enough.

    I didn’t really get the picture of Heaven and I could not bear to even imagine any vision of hell.

    Then I thought about the corpse of my friend in the casket and had some comfort about the upcoming burial, instead of a cremation.

    And something else that missionary had said captured my mind, as I once again stared out on the cross and took in the sad music.

    * “Yes, will not the judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they are going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel.

    *They are going to go to hell because they are sinners who love their sin and because they deserve hell… I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen.”

    *“I sent you to Africa for my sake. They deserved hell, but I love them…

    And I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for me.

    Do I not deserve the reward of my sufferings? Don’t I deserve those for whom I died?”

     I thought about “Amazing Grace.”

    Hadn’t I heard that he was once captain of a slave ship?

    “A wretch like me,” “a wretch like me,” kept ringing in my head.

    I once was lost

    But now am found

    Was blind,

    But now I see.

     

     

  • Take a look in the mirror

    Take a look in the mirror

    TEXT: Do you love Jesus Christ?

    • No answer
    • Another text (later)
    • No answer

    So what is a brother or sister in Christ to think?  Are you too busy for just a simple answer to a genuine communication in love?

    Maybe you think: I have other things to do… or when that number comes up on your cell: “I won’t answer that.  I don’t want to talk to him (or her).”

    Is that your idea of what you look like when you say that you are a Christian?

    Do you really think that is what Jesus Christ expects from those who ‘claim’ His Name by calling ourselves: christians?

    Perhaps it’s time to take an honest look in the mirror of your Christianity?

    John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

    The word used three times in just one verse – a commandment of our Lord Christ Jesus – agapaō

    of persons: to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly

    I don’t know about you, but I see no choice here.

    IF a Christian brother or sister is trying to communicate with you: Jesus commands us to welcome them, to entertain them and to be fond of our brother or sister in the Lord — even love them dearly.

    IF we have a relationship with Jesus Christ, then by His command (IF in fact and in deed He IS our Lord) Jesus commands us to love each other dearly.

    Take a look in the mirror. After all, you should see a forgiven sinner staring back at you AND Jesus forgave you.

    In case you were wondering about the word for “love” in 1 Corinthians 13, often quoted as ‘the love chapter,’ it is a form of the same word:

    agapē – affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love

    You can be convicted by the entire list by reading the thirteen verses of 1 Corinthians 13; but to point out just a few for the mirror in front of you now:

    • Love is not arrogant.
    • Love is not rude.
    • Love is not irritable.
    • Love is not resentful.

    Yes, there are more.

    And don’t forget, dear brother or sister in the Lord:

    Love never ends.

    And one final look in the mirror:

    12  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

    Let’s talk of Jesus. Please SHARE your Christian Social Witness.

    & comment:

    Do you love Jesus Christ?

  • The Family that Prays together Stays together

    The Family that Prays together Stays together

    Is your family too busy to pray?

    I am praying for my family today.

    Romans 1: 

    God knows how often I pray for you.

    Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.

    10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you.

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