Power Of Love

Key Scripture: “Love other people as well as you do yourself.   You can’t go wrong when you love others.  When you add up everything in in the law, the sum total is love.”  Romans 13, The Message

Power Point:

     I’ve been absorbing some wonderful thoughts from Mother Theresa this morning. The more I read what she said, the more I wish I had known her.  She genuinely understood the love of God and she managed to live her life from that place.  I have trouble with that don’t you?  Please say “yes”. 

     You see I’d really prefer that people make it easy for me to love them.  Wouldn’t that be nice?   Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), God is diligently at work on our hearts to help us to love as Jesus did. Loving people is how He spreads His kingdom around.  That means that we make sacrifices for the ones He places in our lives, even when we don’t think they deserve it.  That means that we mature to a place where we are more concerned about others than ourselves. 

     I’ve always been fascinated by a scripture in 1 John 4:7 that says if we don’t love one another, we do not know God, for God is love. In fact, it goes on to say that if we love God we will follow His example in Love.  We love Him because He first loved us.  We love others because He showed us how to do that when He sent His Son to love us in person.

     Do you remember Matthew the tax collector?  Everybody hated him. Everybody. He was dishonest, and proud and stole their money. He was definitely not easy to love and impossible to like.  But Jesus made it a point to go stand below the tree where he was hiding, and invite him to dinner. Really? The tax collector? The early forerunner of the IRS? Was He making a point? Yes, Beloved, He was. He made the same point when He talked to the woman of Samaria. He made the same point when He took care for the woman caught in adultery.

     Scripture says, “For God SO loved that He gave..." I heard a pastor preach on that the other day and it took my breath away.  God didn’t just love.  God so loved us that He sent His Son to show us what He is really like. We get the choice to so love Him back that we begin to love just the way He so loved us. His purpose in Jesus was to take us out of Satan's domain and transfer us to His kingdom where love rules everything.

     Is love ruling in your heart today? Is kindness governing your thoughts and actions?  Are you committed to loving your brother or sister the way Jesus taught you to? Are you laying down your life for them even if they don’t do one thing to deserve it? Is your focus on them or you or Him?

These are some thoughts from Mother Theresa on Loving:

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

Power Thought:

God so loved the world that He gave the best that He had to us.  He asks us to do that too.  SO? I think it's our move.