Tried With Fire

I flipped through the New Testament last night and wrote a list of verses on the love of God. In all those instances in my non-exhaustive search, God's love was shown to us by the sacrificial and giving love of Jesus Christ, which ultimately led him to the cross. There's no way we could comprehend the perfect inter-trinitarian love of the Godhead. It would be more than we could handle or even witness in our fallen, creaturely state, but God demonstrated his love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5: 8) I then wrote a list of verses on how God's love is supposed to be seen in believers, and there was a definite parallel. The evidence of God's love in our lives was related to our sacrificial love toward others, especially in the body of Christ. For example - A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you h...

One of the elder's preached Sunday morning since the pastor is out of town. The text was John 13, and the theme was - love one another. This was a timely sermon because our church is beginning to get larger. It's easier to get lost in the crowd and not know everyone's names. It's also easier to fall into set patterns of gravitating to some versus others. I'm thankful for this challenge to love and, as an integral part, to know one another in greater depth. As Ron said during the sermon, "How can we love people we don't know?", and this is something I've been thinking about for some time. In my opinion, one mistake is to assume that we are more alike than we really are. Thus it would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that I don't need to learn anything more about you. I already know you because we must be similar especially if we are part of the same church. I don't need to stop and listen to a different perspective because I'v...