February 24, 2024 ~12:00AM
Sharing to the kids tomorrow about love. Last week I talked about how they can show love. Well, the truth is I arrived late and what I stumbled upon as I walked into the sanctuary was a teacher filling in for me, talking about – well, right there: How they can show love.
I picked up from there simply by saying that they can show love by knowing how they were loved first. They don’t tell someone that they love them, in order for that other person to love them back. No, the beauty of our life in Christ is that we can go back to the One who loved us first… And in so doing, we are able to love even those that the rest of the world would find hard to love.
Just to wrap it up I brought them to 1 John 4, where it’s shared that we love one another, as Christ has loved us.
The first step to loving others is to understand and appreciate how Christ loved us first.
I feel I should continue that tomorrow by following the old song, which goes,
‘I love you with the love of the Lord,
Yes, I love you with the love of the Lord,
I can see in You the glory of my king…‘
Well, it’s a couple of hours after Chapel Time, and I did go this route. Started off with a recap, telling them that if they have trouble loving (that is, loving others, or even loving themselves) they would do well to remember how much God loves them.
And I reminded them that God DOES love all of us. I said that He knows all there is to know about them – their successes, their failures, what they want people to see, what they hide from themselves and others, their past, their present, and their future – He knows ALL these things and so much more, and He still says that He loves us so much..
..and what, pray tell, was the proof of such an inhuman, extravagant, ridiculous love? Well, again, they were reminded that I could make such a claim to them only because Christ did what He did. At the cross He proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that He does not condemn us, but it is in His heart to save us.
Now after that recap I told them how I admitted that even if we already have this ‘lifehack’, we may still find ourselves having trouble loving ourselves, or others. It’s here that I quoted the song I sought out to sing… and drove the point that, if we are having trouble loving (others, to be precise) even with the love of the Lord, the solution seems to present itself in the next line: We ought to see the glory of the Lord in these people.
Yes, before we give in to the triggers we program within ourselves, to get immediately frustrated no matter how good our day has been going, at the thought of these people – Let us understand that even in these people, the glory of the Lord can be seen.
And what was this ‘glory of the Lord’? Well, for that I went ahead and pulled up Jeremiah 33:3, and then Jeremiah 31:3:
Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3
I shared this only to point out that there were things that these people we supposedly hate knew, that we don’t know. There are things that the Lord has shown to them that we don’t know for ourselves.
These people are not to be reduced to what they did to us, or to others – on the other hand, by way of things we know and don’t know, we’re reminded that they, like us, are people too, with their own experiences, their own successes, failures, things they wish to show the world, things they wish to keep to themselves. They have their own past, present, and future, and we would love them simply by recognizing this, more than dwelling on how they hurt us.
In fact, now that I think about it, if we reduce their entire existence to what they did to us, then we effectively do the same to ourselves; Everything else about our identity is thrown out the window when we dwell on what’s been done to us. To take offense is an affront to our own intricate existence.
the LORD appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Jeremiah 31:3
I shared this to bring it all together; If we have trouble loving others, even when we realize how we ourselves have been loved by God, perhaps it’s as simple as realizing that this same God who loves us with all His heart, mind, body, soul and strength? He loves THEM too. Christ died for them, too. Christ came back to life for them, too.
With that, I ended my message, and prayed for them.
If I bring everything I shared to these kids together, from the first Friday of this year, I’d end up with the following set of lines:
Trust In The Lord. He Is With You. Know The Love of God. Love One Another.
Pretty sure I missed a message or two there, but that’s what we have so far. Still praying on how to make this consistent for the next school years, still praying on where we’re to set out beginning March of this year.
It’s always a pleasure being a big brother to these folks. With them I’m reminded today, to love others as God has loved them, and as God has loved us.
Just thought I’d share all of this, before I went any further with my writings.
I pray for you, as I pray for them each and every time I have a chance to talk to them: May you have a good and blessed weekend ahead.
And may God bless us all.
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#Love #GodsLove #PracticalChristianity #LoveOneAnother #Jeremiah #Bible #BibleStudy #Reflections #BenefitsOfSalvation #JesusChrist #HolySpirit #Grace
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