We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 1 John 3:14

I pray that you had a blessed and wonderful worship with your local church this passed Lord’s Day. Fellowship with the word of God and other believers strengthens our hearts to continue to walk by faith and minister the love of God. God makes it possible to revive and refresh the His love that dwells in the hearts of His children in the assembly of believers. Many of our home bound saints, who faithfully served the Lord when their health and strength allowed them, have a great desire to gather and assemble with their local church. Yet in their restricted state, they remain faithful to witness to their faith in Christ and His love for the saints. The scripture passage reminds us of the evidence of eternal life and the salvation we have received in Jesus Christ. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit that dwells within every believer that “we love the brethren.” This is the evidence. Love is not merely an emotional or sentimental matter, it is action! The love of God was manifested in the laying down of His life, and we are to be willing to follow in His steps (1 Jn 3:16). The love of God is manifested through our deeds and actions to help others in need. God gives opportunity to share the resources that He has blessed into the lives of His children. Peter and John gave of their blessed resources to a “man who had been lame from his mother’s womb” that were not “silver and gold” (Acts 3). They had compassion for the man and demonstrated God’s love for the man to offer healing for his body by placing his faith in Jesus Christ. They didn’t wait to feel love but acted by faith and showed it. They stepped out in faith to minister the love of God and allow His grace to abound toward the suffering need. They had compassion on the man. Love is of God and His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love,” and as we are united with Christ by faith, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and we can love with God’s love. My friend, we know that “we have passed from death unto life” as we find ourselves willing to put the interests of another before our own, not because we have a natural affection or affinity for him, but because we belong to God. Uproot every weed of coldness, callousness, or unconcern that chokes out the fruit of God’s love sowed in your heart that you may be fruitful in His love (Mt 13:22-23). Father, thank You for Your love that is full of compassion, kindness, and mercy. Cleanse us from all bitterness, resentments, and unrighteousness that the fruit of kindness may abound from our tongues. In the blessed Name of Jesus. Amen.

For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. Rom 14:8

A common phrase among our local community is “Who’s your people?” It is a way to identify and understand a person by kinship, community, and family history. It is a phrase based on relationship, and expectations may be set based on family’s history and influence in the community. For some, this may be a blessing or a curse. But no matter what the family history, it is whose we are. The scripture passage reminds us of whose we are. As a child of God, “we are the Lord’s.” We are His for eternity. Nothing can change that. Nothing and no one can separate us from His love. Though we are surrounded by things that are temporal, things that come and go, things that fade and fail, but life in Jesus Christ is eternal. When we sleep in death, we are still “in the Lord” (Philemon 16). When He returns in glory we will go to be “with the Lord” (1 Th 4:17) forever. For the child of God, eternity is settled. “Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” We are the benefactors of God’s love and eternally adopted into His family. We are His children, joined to Him through Christ Jesus by witness of the Spirit of God “whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15). My friend, you are loved with an eternal love. You are liberated from the bondage of sin with an eternal liberty and “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom 8:16). What great hope we have for life today and for all eternity that “we are the Lord’s.” Father, thank You for Your eternal love and the liberty to love You, praise You, and adore You through Your Son Jesus Christ. He is the hope of glory and my eternal salvation. In the blessed Name of Jesus. Amen.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

There are great wonders in the world that exemplify the creative imagination and crafty innovations of man. Massive structures worthy of time and thought that remind us of the strength and will of man. These wonders are monuments to man’s determination for good and great self-achievement. Yet the wonder that excels them all is the wonder of God’s love. The scripture passage is popular among many well-known Bible verses and recited quite often in the gospel presentation. It is cited and often used as a support statement to strengthen an argument to win-over the loss or demonstrate that God cares. Far more than we could ever think or imagine, we find in this scripture passage the core of who God is and the great wonder of His Divine love. God more than cares for the world, “God so loved the world.” All that is within Him is love. He spared nothing to express His great love for the world which was perishing (Rom 8:32). God demonstrated “His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). God expressed “the breath, and length, and depth, and height” (Eph 4:17) of His inexhaustible love “that He gave His only begotten Son.” The wonderful gift of God’s love is “His only begotten Son.” The one and only Divine Son of the Father who is the “express image” (Heb 1:3) of God’s love. “For in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). Christ Jesus was loved of the Father and demonstrated the Father’s love to the world through His obedience and death on the cross. My friend, God can do no more to demonstrate His love and express the love He has for you and I than “that He gave His only begotten Son.” His greatest desire for all mankind is “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Father, thank You for Your love and the wonderful gift of Your love through Jesus Christ, Your only begotten Son. In the blessed Name of Jesus. Amen.