February 12, 2023
Greetings and blessings to all of you. Since God is Love and we are not; it stands to reason that we (as spiritual growing Christians) have to figure out how we can become Love. Love is an action. God wants us to grow in the image of Christ; therefore, he left us some thoughts on how to achieve this task. One way is to read the Love Chapter in 2nd Cor. 13 saying your name. For example, the verse say Love suffers long; you say Paula suffers long; it says love is kind; you say Paula is kind. And you keep going until the end. Being honest you will feel a conviction from the Holy Spirit as you come to the verse that you need to work on or you just cannot do. Excellent! Just say OUCH, pray for help in that area, then repent and finally live out your repentance with the help from your brothers and sisters in Christ. Another tip from the Scriptures when you believe that you have been unjustly hurt; allow Love to penetrate your heart by reading Proverbs 3:7 “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.” Also, at this point we could remind ourselves as we read I Cor. Chap. 7 the list of heart problems like idolators, revilers, fornicators, etc. The chapter ends with “and such were some of you. But you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” The psychologist calls this practicing Empathy. This trait is useful in learning to understand what another person might have or has been going through. The ability to Love One Another (as we are called to do) requires us to live in a spirit of forgiveness knowing people need the wisdom and knowledge of our Savior and some of them do not have it -yet. That is why when Jesus died on the cross He said, “ Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. They were ignorant of the Truth not recognizing He was the Messiah. We were like them at one time...we did not recognize that we needed a Savior. How can we become Love? Like our Savior we must seek the highest good of others and that is not based on emotions or feelings. It is a decision based on I John 4:7-12 “..let us love one another for love comes from God. Saints, we have the Holy Spirit in us to do what the flesh cannot do. Christ has commanded us to Love our Enemies. How is that possible? By consistently looking by faith to the cross where Jesus gave His life for us when we were still in our sins. (Romans 5:8)
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC