Thought of the Day !!

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us.
1 John 4:11-12 (NLT)

Friends, there has always been anger and hatred in our world. It began with a jealous Cain and has grown from one murder to mass genocides. In the last several years we've seen the hatred of Americans displayed by people flying planes into the twin towers. Of course, we've also seen a massive amount of hate for those who are of middle-eastern descent by us Americans. And then lets not forget all the ism's that run rampant in our society today. There's racism and classism at the top of these where people are looked down upon because of race or their place in society.

But it doesn't end with our society. I've seen people in our churches who've forgotten the purpose that God gave them. Many of us have seen those who are more interested in control or running the church their way instead of God's way. I've also seen preachers who've decided that they know better than God and feel like their church is their own private territory. And in both of these scenarios, I've seen bickering, backbiting, gossip, anger and eventually hate.

As Christians we are called to be different from the world. You'd expect to see this going on in a large corporation where all are competing to get ahead. But our churches should be a place of peace that are set apart from the world.

Of course the truth of the matter is that we Christians are still sinful human beings. We cannot claim perfection. But we can strive for it. And that's what I see as our problem. We need to strive more to be different...to be set apart from this world instead of conformed to it...to go on towards perfection. And when I say go on towards perfection, I mean it as Wesley did. I mean that even though we will never be perfectly sinless people, we can strive for (and obtain) perfection in Christian love.

When John wrote "since God loved us that much", he was talking about verse 9 that reads "God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him." So God loves us so much that He gave of Himself for us. He was born into a cold world and died an even colder death. And since He loved us this much, the least we can do is love each other. It is only then that God will preside in us. If we have hate for people who are different, people of different color, people that think differently, people in our churches, people who come from our own household, people in general, then we do not have God in us. This is simply because God is love and where hate presides, God does not.

This Advent let us prepare for Christ by practicing love. Break down those barriers that separate you and whomever. Forgive a friend. Shake the hand of a stranger who may look or act different from you. Speak to someone you normally wouldn't. Smile at anyone today. Let us allow the love of Christ to show through us so that others will know that we are different...that we are set apart...that we are with God and He is with us.

In the love of Christ,
greg