Love: February 14, 2011

TODAYS WORD FOR MONDAY FEBRUARY 14, 2011

LOVE

DEFINITION:

Affection for one another; an object of affection; any strong liking.

SCRIPTURE:

God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them. Hebrews 6:10

“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Today, February 14, in America we celebrate a day that we call VALENTINES DAY. It is a day when everyone is supposed to show love. We are to express our love in a special way to our spouses, our children, our neighbors and our world. Because this is LOVE day, we want to talk about loving the world.

John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that anyone that believes in Him would not perish but would have everlasting life. There are not too many people that have a world mentality when it comes to sharing their love and faith, but we are to love God and then respond as He commands us. Can you see beyond your daily routines, a world that needs Jesus and then are you willing to respond to their needs?

God has blessed us to be able to see the world from a mission perspective. We have been to 100 different countries and have kept our commitment to God that we made close to 54 years ago to help children and their families no matter where He led us to serve. We have developed what one might call a “WORLD MENTALITY.” Many people cannot see beyond what they can see with their own eyes. When we love God, He wants us to be concerned with a world that needs to know Jesus and He has commanded us to “Go” and “Preach” as is written in the verse above. This is what most Christians call “THE GREAT COMMISSION.” It is brief, yet forceful and uncompromising.

Jesus made two critical points to those that love Him. First, it is the gospel that we are to preach. This infers clearly that we are not to preach our own thoughts, ideas, beliefs, religion or philosophy. We are to preach the gospel --- the good news that Jesus came and died to pay the penalty for our sins --- because the whole world desperately needs to hear it.

Secondly, Jesus says that the gospel needs to be carried “into all the world.” The great commission was given to the whole church, every believer and is a permanent commission given to every generation, not to just the disciples.

You must respond to this command if you truly love God. The great commission does not allow for excuses like it is too hard, too far, and too dangerous or there are too many barriers. His command is an uncompromising demand that has no room for excuses. So as Christians we must reach out to the world we live in beginning today to share the good news of the gospel to every person in every part of our world.

As we have said before, begin at home, in your neighborhood and in your workplace. Only what is done for Christ will last. As the writer of Hebrews tells us, we show our love for Him by helping others and God does not forget our good work of serving others.

And even more important as a parent you have the responsibility as our parents did, to train us to be compassionate to the world. You must lead by your actions and then using the Bible share with your children what God commands us, who believe in Him, to do concerning our world.

Now is the day to begin and as you start sharing the good news with “YOUR WORLD,” then God will open new doors for you near to you or possibly, far away.

The critical point that we want you to understand about love, is that we are to show are love for God by showing love to your spouses, to our children and parents and to our neighbors. God’s great love for us which He showed by giving His only Son should motivate us to reach out to all the world to share the gospel – the good news that Jesus died to pay the penalty for ALL of our sins.

In 1 John 4:7-9 John put it this way: “Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 100:4.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

PRAYER:

Give me a new excitement so that I can begin today to share the good news of the gospel to the world that I live in. Give me the boldness and the confidence I need to be a witness to those who do not know You as Savior. Help me to be that shining light that You are looking for in my world. Challenge my family to join me in this new but wonderful ministry that You want to give us. Bless our efforts to share the gospel by giving us a fruitful ministry.