February 26, 2023
Greetings and blessings to all of you. In John 13:34-35 it says, “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 shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Why is it “new”? Because this love is a self-sacrificing love…it is from the deep recesses of the heart. It comes with a fresh power. It is a spiritual foot washing. We all have “dirty feet”. We need a constant cleansing. Jeremiah (God’s prophet) said, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.”) So, God left us with a divine love that would set us apart from the rest of the world. Such a love would draw others to Christ. Such a love would be “our first response” to the One who died for us. We should not try in a natural way to fulfill this word. We cannot turn to a religious, ethical, or a legalistically way in imitating God’s love. REAL LOVE is the divine dispensing of the Triune God. When we are in relationship of the Divine Life the outcome will be loving others. When we love Christ….when we are walking in the Spirit we will begin to enjoy and love others. Don’t you want to do that? Remember we are made in the image of God and He is most pleased when we represent Him to the world. How? The Spirit saturates us with the love of God and the it spills over to others. “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” (I John 3: 24) Loving actions reveal the truth and depth of our love. A triangular of love is then formed that is God at the top, you and I and then the church to complete the design. If we are having a problem loving others jump in the boat with David. After he committed murder he prayed, “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:7-10) Loving one another is a sign that we belong to Christ. If we desire to have the ability to influence people concerning the Lord and to bear fruit; we must have love for one another and become one in the Body of Christ. Before going back to the Father, Christ prayed for the believers and disciples in John 17:21. He stressed that He wanted us to be Unified in Spirit. “That they all may be one as You, Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” May we have a fresh spiritual experience each time we gather together.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC