July Pastor’s Chat
Summer is finally here and half the year is history. How are you doing so far this year at “following Christ Alone?”
We have talked in past “Chats” about how prayer is a vital aspect of following the Lord. This month I would like to emphasize another important aspect of our relationship with Christ: love! It says in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him, because he first loved us.” Focusing on God’s love is a great motivation to love the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:14 -15 makes this very clear, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
God’s love not only motivates us to love Him but also to love others. 1 John 4:11 says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” Did you notice the word ought? I think this is an admission that at times we fail to love others. I am afraid that we sometimes talk about loving but don’t follow through. That is why we are challenged by the Apostle John with these convicting words, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
Have you been talking about love but not following through with loving deeds and actions? If so, by the grace of God you can start following the Lord with actions of love for Him and others! Let’s look to God’s promise in 2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”
With Prayer, Pastor Mark
Verses and Quotations on Love
Verses on Love:
” For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21, emphasis mine).
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40, Emphasis mine).
Quotations on Love:
“Perhaps you have not thought of it in this way, but the entire Bible is a love story that we can learn from – the story of God’s unfailing love for an often unlovable human race. It is a pursuing love. Throughout the pages of the Bible we find God wooing, nurturing, caring, doing the best for those He loves, always seeking to draw men, women, boys, and girls to Himself. One verse seems to sum it up: ‘The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee’ (Jeremiah 31:3)” (Love Life for Every Married Couple, Dr. Ed Wheat M.D., pg. 50-51).
“Love is not easy or simple: it is an art that I must want to learn and pour my life into. I can learn how to love” (Ibid., pg.52).
