96 Sermon Illustrations on God S Love

A personal exposition of the parable of the Prodigal Son, verse by verse. Author's older son wanted to ask grandpa for his inheritance ahead of time so he could pay for graduate school. Author replied, "Son, that wouldn't be good for your grandfather. It is, in effect, like asking him to drop dead: 'I wish you were dead, because I want what you have.'" He notes too many parents have received this loveless expression from their children.

Younger son in the parable takes off and gets "wasted." No cross in parable, no justice, but father's run to his son is that terrible sprint from heaven to the wood. The father makes three actions of love... The meal is a symbol of the fellowship we have with God in Communion.

Message of the story - the father is good.

Sermon on Psalm 103, for communion.

1. God is loving and compassionate.

2. His love is as high as heaven.

3. His forgiveness is from east to west.

4. He is compassionate beyond human fathers.

5. He knows our limitations, because he doesn't have any.

The very sin that makes it so hard to believe we can be loved by God is the precondition for experiencing how stunning God's love really is.

This is a first-person account from a mother about her family as they ate dinner on Christmas Day in a small restaurant many miles from their home.

Nancy, the mother, relates: We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly eating and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, "Hi there." He pounded his fat baby hands on the high-chair tray. His eyes were wide with excitement and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin. He wriggled and giggled with merriment.

I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man with a tattered rag of a coat; dirty, greasy and worn. His pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map.

We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. "Hi there, baby; hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster," the man said to Erik. My husband and I exchanged looks, "What do we do?" Erik continued to laugh and answer, "Hi, hi there." Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby.

Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, "Do ya know patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo." Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk. My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence; all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.

We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. "Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik," I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to side-step him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby's pick-me-up, position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man's.

Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love relationship. Erik in an act of total trust, love and submission laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain and hard labor - gently, so gently cradled my baby's bottom and stroked his back.

No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms for a moment, and then his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, "You take care of this baby." Somehow I managed, "I will," from a throat that contained a stone. He pried Erik from his chest unwillingly, longingly, as though he were in pain. I received my baby, and the man said, "God bless you, ma'am, you've given me my Christmas gift." I said nothing more than a muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly, and why I was saying, "My God, my God, forgive me."

I had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking -- "Are you willing to share your son for a moment?", when He shared His for all eternity.

The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, "To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children."

=============

Another version, with a different name for the mother:

This is a first-person account from a mother about her family as they ate dinner on Christmas Day in a small restaurant many miles from their home. Sally, the mother, relates:

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly eating and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee. He pounded his fat baby hands on the high-chair tray. His eyes were wide with excitement and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin. He wriggled and giggled with merriment.

I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man with a tattered rag of a coat; dirty, greasy and worn. His pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map. We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. “Hi there, baby; hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster,” the man said to Erik.

My husband and I exchanged looks, “What do we do?”

Erik continued to laugh and the man answered, “Hi, hi there.” Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby. Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, “Do ya know patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo.”

Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk. My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence; all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.

We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. “Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik,” I prayed.

As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to side-step him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby’s pick-me-up, position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man’s. Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love relationship.

Erik in an act of total trust, love and submission laid his tiny head upon the man’s ragged shoulder. The man’s eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain and hard labor – gently, so gently cradled my baby’s bottom and stroked his back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms for a moment, and then his eyes opened and set squarely on mine.

He said in a firm, commanding voice, “You take care of this baby.” Somehow I managed, “I will,” from a throat that contained a stone. He pried Erik from his chest unwillingly, longingly, as though he were in pain. I received my baby, and the man said, “God bless you, ma’am, you’ve given me my Christmas gift.”

I said nothing more than a muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly, and why I was saying, “My God, my God, forgive me.”

I had just witnessed Christ’s love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes.

I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking – “Are you willing to share your son for a moment?”, when He Shared His for All Eternity.

The ragged old man unwittingly had reminded me, “To enter The Kingdom of God, we must become as little children.”

"I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least."

-- Dorothy Day, Catholic social activist

"We do not fall in love, we grow in love and love grows in us."

-- Karl Menninger (The Best of BITS & PIECES)

"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving."

-- Amy Carmichael

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944), Writer

"Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

-- Franklin P. Jones, humorist, Bits & Pieces 07/08/02

"Love that ends is the shadow of love; true love is without beginning or end."

-- Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), religious leader, Bits & Pieces 07/08/02

"Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; 'tis woman's whole existence."

-- Lord Byron

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

-- The Dalai Lama, B&P 8/14/02

"To be loved, be lovable."

-- Ovid (c. 43 B.C.-A.D. 18), Poet, B&P 8/14/02

"I used to always feel the important thing is that people respect me, not love me -- but it is really much nicer when they love you, too."

-- Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Mayor of New York

"Love is not blind. Love is the only thing that sees."

-- Frank Crane

"By loving the unlovable, You made me lovable."

-- Augustine to God

"What, positively, is the will of God? The demand for love. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself!" as the second greatest commandment belongs together with the first: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mk. 12:28-34) There is no obedience to God which does not have to prove itself in the concrete situation of meeting one's neighbor, as in Luke (10:29-37). The demand for love surpasses every legal demand; it knows no boundary of limit; it holds even in regard to one's enemy (Mt. 5:43-48).

-- Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, p. 18.

"In order that we may know how to love ourselves, an end has been established for us to which we are to refer all our action, so that we may attain to bliss. For if we love ourselves, our one wish is to achieve blessedness. Now this end is to cling to God. Thus, if we know how to love ourselves, the commandant to love our neighbor bids us to do all we can to bring our neighbor to love God. This is the worship of God; this is true religion; this is the right kind of devotion; this is the service which is owed to God alone."

-- Augustine, "City of God"

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."

-- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), physicist and philosopher (B&P)

"Love - the feeling - is a fruit of love, the verb."

-- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"When you like someone, you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone, you love them with their faults."

-- Elizabeth Cameron, B&P 5/12/03

"Love without reverence is a destructive fever; reverence without love is a perpetual frost. True love kneels in reverence; true reverence yearns in love. Each, I say, is essential to the other, and both are needful in the creation of a worthy life. Calvary is the academy in which we may learn reverence and love."

-- Rev. John Henry Jowett (1864-1923), pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian

Church of New York City

“What is the highest, most exalted act of intelligent life? It is to love. Love seeks no cause, no end, no reward beyond itself. ‘I love because I love; I love that I may love.’”

-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Blair's Illustrations 1/30/04

"Love is a better master than duty."

-- Albert Einstein, QFTM 3/6/04

“In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.”

-- Janos Arany

“For aught that I could ever read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth.”

-- William Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

“We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.”

-- Benjamin Disraeli, “Sibyl”

“They do not love that do not show their love.”

-- John Heywood, “Proverbs”

“Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.”

-- William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night”

“Love reckons hours for months, and days for years;

And every little absence is an age.”

-- John Dryden, Amphitryon

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.”

-- Kahlil Gibran

One day a gentleman called upon an old man and during the talk the old man presented a lock of hair from the head of some child. The gentleman said to the old man, “I presume this is a curl cut from the head of some dear child long since gone to God.”

“No,” replied the old man, “it is a lock of my own hair and it is now almost seventy years since it was cut from my head.”

“But why prize it so highly?” said the man.

“Oh,” said the old man, “it speaks to me of God and His care more than does anything else I possess.” Then he related the following: “When I was a little child four years of age I was standing near my father watching him chop wood. As he was chopping the splinters flew here and there; some falling at my feet I picked them up, and in doing so I fell forward and in a moment my curly head lay upon the log just under the stroke of the axe. It was too late to stop the blow. Down came the axe. I screamed and my father fell to the ground in terror. He thought he had killed his boy.

We soon recovered. He took me in his arms and searched my body from head to foot for the deadly wound he was sure he had inflicted, but not a scar nor a drop of blood could be found. He then knelt upon the ground and gave thanks to God for His gracious care. Having done this, he took up his axe and found a few hairs upon its blade. Then turning to the log he found the curl, which you now see, sharply cut from my head. How great the escape.

The angel of the Lord had delivered. This lock my father kept all the days of his life, then left it to me as a memorial of God's faithfulness and care. It tells of my father's God and mine. I have many tokens of my heavenly Father's love 'during these many years, but somehow this speaks most plainly to my heart. It used to speak to my father's heart. It now speaks to mine.”

________

William Moses Tidwell, “Effective Illustrations.”

Thomas Carlyle had married his secretary, whom he dearly loved, but he was thoughtless and absorbed in his own interests and activities, treating his wife as if she were still his employee.

Stricken with cancer she was confined to bed for a long time before she died. After her funeral, Carlyle went back to his empty house. Disconsolate and grieving deeply, he wandered around aimlessly downstairs, engrossed in thinking about the woman he had loved. After a while he went upstairs to her room and sat down in the chair beside the bed on which she had been lying for months. He realized with painful regret that he had not sat there very often during her long illness.

He noticed her diary. While she was alive, he never would have read it, but now that she was gone he felt free to pick it up and thumb through it pages. One entry caught his eye: “Yesterday he spent an hour with me. And it was like being I heaven. I love him so much.” He turned a few more pages and read, “I listened all day to hear his steps in the hallway. And now its late. I guess he won’t come to see me.” Carlyle read a few more entries and then threw the book on the floor and ran out into the rain back to the cemetery. He fell on his wife’s grave in the mud, sobbing, “If only I had known...if only I had known.”

I once heard a story about a cottage in a little country village. In the cottage a family of four: father, mother, and two small children. One evening the cottage caught on fire. In a few seconds the thatched roof and the wooden timbers were ablaze. There was no fire engine in this remote spot and the villagers stood around helpless. Suddenly a young man, who had just arrived upon the scene cried out, “What, can nothing be done to save them?” When no one responded he jumped through the flames and darted into the house. A moment later he emerged bearing a little child under each arm. He had carefully protected them from the flames by hiding them under his coat but he himself was badly burned.

The parents of the two children died in the fire. There was much sympathy for the two children in the town and several people wanted to adopt them. When the judge arrived to decide who would adopt the children there were two who petitioned the court. The first was the squire of the village. He had money, position, and a fine house to offer the children. The second petitioner was the man who had rescued the children from the flames. When the judge asked him what right he had to ask the court for the children he did not answer with words. Instead he held up his hands that had been badly burned and scarred in their recuse and let them do his arguing for him.

Friends, when the devil accuses us before God and asks what right we poor sinners have to be adopted into God's family, I imagine the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't answer with words but rather holds up his nail scarred hands and points to his scarred side.

- Unknown

=========================

Another version:

Leslie B. Flynn told a story that illustrates a great truth. An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drain pipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck. Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor.

Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hand from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap the boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on for dear life. The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those marred hands had settled the issue. And so it is with Jesus. His nail-pierced hands remind us that he has rescued us from sin and its deadly consequences.

=========================

Another version:

I read a story by Leslie Flynn who told of a small boy being raised in a frontier city by his grandmother. One night the house catches on fire. The grandmother, trying to rescue the boy who was asleep in the bedroom upstairs, is overcome by the smoke and dies in the fire. This frontier city doesn't have much of a fire department. A crowd gathers around the house and they hear a small boy crying out for help. The lower floor is a wall of flames and no one seems to know what to do. Suddenly, a man pushes through the crowd and begins climbing an iron drainage pipe which runs to the roof. The pipe is hot from the fire, but he makes it to a second floor window. The man crawls through the window and locates the boy. With the crowd cheering encouragement, the man climbs back down the hot iron pipe with the boy on his back and his arms around his neck.

A few weeks later, a public meeting was held to determine in whose custody the boy would be placed. Each person wanting the child would be allowed to make a brief statement. The first man said, "I have a farm and would give the boy a good home. He would grow up on the farm and learn a trade."

The second person to speak was the local school teacher. She said, "I am a school teacher and I would see to it that he received a good education." Finally, the banker said, "Mrs. Morton and I would be able to give the boy a fine home and a fine education. We would like him to come and live with us." The presiding officer looked around and asked, "Is there anyone else who would like to say anything?" From the back row, a man rose and said, "These other people may be able to offer some things I can't. All I can offer is my love." Then, he slowly removed his hands from his coat pockets. A gasp went up from the crowd because his hands were scarred terribly from climbing up and down the hot pipe. The boy recognized the man as the one who had saved his life and ran into his waiting arms.

The farmer, teacher and the banker simply sat down. Everyone knew what the decision would be. The scarred hands proved that this man had given more than all the others.

_____________________

Robert L. Allen, His Finest Days: Ten Sermons for Holy Week and the Easter Season, CSS Publishing Company, 1993.

*

[see also HolwickID #27239]

There is a beautiful scene near the end of “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” Irving Stone’s historical novel about Michelangelo. An ailing Pope Julius II visits the nearly completed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo has to help him up the last few rungs of the ladder. He looks above him at Michelangelo’s depiction of God, about to impart the gift of life to Adam. The pope had fought many wars in the name of the church. He has blood on his hands, and he isn’t even sure if his cause had been successful. But as he looks at Michelangelo’s picture of God, a smile comes to his cracked lips.

“Do you truly believe God is that benign?” the pope asks the artist.

Michelangelo: “Yes, Holy Father.”

Pope Julius: “I most ardently hope so, since I am going to be standing before him before long. If he is as you have painted him, then I shall be forgiven my sins.”

In Michelangelo’s painting, the pope saw a different image of God, unlike the one he had lived with his whole life. This God wasn’t killing life; he was giving life, even in the face of his sins. Our God is loving, even in the face of our complaints against him.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #10824]

Karl Barth was once asked to sum up in a few words all he had written in the field of theology. This was his summary: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

=====================================================

From Kerux sermon #21644 by Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr.:

The year: 1961.

The place: The student lounge of the Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.

The purpose: A press conference with the world's most-famous living theologian, Dr. Karl Barth of Germany.

The question: A NEW YORK TIMES reporter asks Dr. Barth, "What is the greatest theological statement ever made?"

The answer: After a long pause, with thoughtful reflection, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

This is the heart of the Christian message!

===============================

Another version by Rev. Bill Adams, Kerux sermon #63814, and adapted by David Holwick.

(Note how the location seems to be interchangeable with stories like this.)

Karl Barth was one of the greatest theologians who ever lived. He had a huge impact in America, especially among Presbyterians. One time he was asked to give a lecture at the University of Chicago Divinity School. At the end of a captivating closing lecture, the president of the seminary announced that Dr. Barth was not well and was quite tired. Although he thought that Dr. Barth would like to be open for questions, it would be too much of an imposition on him. Then the president said, “Therefore, I will ask just one question on behalf of all of us.”

He turned to the famous theologian and asked, “Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?”

It was the perfect question for a man who had written literally tens of thousands of pages of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put into print. His classic “Church Dogmatics” takes up 14 volumes and costs $550 in hardcover, $1,600 on a CD (in two languages). The students held pencils right up against their writing pads, ready to take down verbatim the premier insight of this great man.

Karl Barth closed his tired eyes, thought for a minute, and then he half smiled, opened his eyes, and said to those young seminarians, “The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

*

[see also HolwickID #25203]

One man in his late twenties told of the distress of the previous

year when his wife had undergone a double mastectomy because of

cancer. From diagnosis through surgery and on to the present, he had

struggled to remain strong for his wife, wanting to be a source of

encouragement for her. But his own pain, confusion, and fear were

nearly crippling him emotionally. He shared that during this time

there were nights when sleep would not come, nights when - sometimes

with his wife, sometimes alone, but always with tears - he would read

the words of a psalm that God gave him: \reference{Psalm 142}{Psalms

142}.

- Steve Holmes, {Pulpit Helps, }March 1996, p 4

For years I had preached that God loved us so much that He gave His only Son. I preached about the constant call of the cross, the sacrificial work and the pain and suffering the Son endured on the cross. However, about four years ago my oldest son, who bears my name, who looks like me, walks like me, and even talks like me, had an accident. He climbed upon the kitchen counter to get a glass and while doing so dropped it and proceeded to cut his foot open. Needless to say, he was rushed to the doctor. The doctor said, "Before I can help him, I need to give him a local anesthetic." As he gave him the injection I turned away. I could not bear to watch, but I could hear the screams he yelled out. I cringed with each scream, for it was as if I was receiving the injection. It was at that point that I was able to better understand the Father's love for me. He allowed His Son to hurt so I could be helped.

B. James Noel, Sr.

John 3:16

The gospel of Jesus Christ needs to point sinners to the intrinsic majesty and glory of God and away from the self-esteem of man, according to John Piper. Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and a noted author, drew on the title of one of his best-known books, "Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions," unpacking the title's two premises with an exposition of Christ's high priestly prayer in John 17.

Piper addressed a luncheon sponsored by the Arkansas-based group in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in St. Louis.

"The gospel in America is the gospel of self-esteem," Piper said, describing a gospel "that defines love as 'making much of me. If you want to love me, make much of me.' That's the definition of love in America. You feel loved because you are contaminated by this gospel in which you feel loved to the degree that you feel made much of.

"We raise our children that way, we educate them that way, we motivate people in business that way -- get people to feel made much of and they will feel loved."

Defining the gospel merely as forgiveness of sins and avoidance of God's eternal wrath is part of the good news, Piper said, but it fails to account for the genuine ground of a sinner's joy in salvation through Christ -- the glory of God.

A critical error that typifies this faulty gospel is seen most clearly in its unbiblical definition of love, Piper said. In his high priestly prayer, Christ defined love by placing himself as the supreme object of all affections, even those of God the Father.

Instead of seeking satisfaction in loving Christ as the greatest and highest of all beings, much of what passes for the gospel in contemporary Christianity defines loving another person as exalting them so that they feel good, not about God, but themselves, Piper said. It is a man-centeredness that reaps deadly eternal repercussions, he said.

When Christians view love of God as seeking his glory, Piper said individuals, churches and global missions will be radically transformed.

"Do you feel more loved when God makes much of you," Piper asked, "or do you feel more loved when God enables you by the power of his Spirit to enjoy making much of him forever? That's a very damning question in America. Because we have virtually defined love as to make much of our children, to make much of our students, to make much of our spouse, to make much of people so they feel made much of and thus feel loved.

"I believe Jesus is praying [in the high priestly prayer] that there is a totally different essence of what love is from God to us and that is: God loves us to the degree not that he makes much of us, but that he gives us the capacity by regeneration and sanctification to enjoy making much of him forever."

Piper illustrated man's fulfilling his chief end in glorifying God through the illustration of a trip to the Grand Canyon. People do not visit this great wonder of nature to increase their self-esteem, he said, but rather to marvel at something that is infinitely massive and outside themselves.

Similarly, the full-orbed expression of the gospel satisfies people's deepest longings in a way that a man-centered pseudo-gospel cannot.

"Most people don't go the Grand Canyon to enhance their self-esteem because there is an echo of the image of God on our souls that we were made to enjoy making much of God forever, not made to be made much of forever," Piper said.

"We were made to enjoy mirroring the glory of God, and when people go to the Grand Canyon there is something that happens in the human soul standing on the edge of that expanse that draws them out of themselves and in a moment, there is a precious gift of self-forgetfulness in which they swell with wonder.

"That's why they're made and they all need positive echoes of it and they go to big crazy movies and they buy big books to put on their coffee tables with pictures of mountains and rivers because they know that their joy really comes from outside themselves and not by standing in front of a mirror. You were not created to find joy in a mirror no matter what you see there."

Piper called for missionaries, evangelists, church planters and all ministers alike to proclaim this full-orbed biblical gospel, which places love within the context of God's glory. Human beings who are made in the image of God both need and desire this message, he said.

"We must bring together the gladness in the glory of God so that his glory gets its due and we get our love," he said. "The world wants this, but nobody wants to tell them. We just help them to feel made much of and that is deadly."

*

If the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon didn't prove the urgency of proclaiming God's saving love to Muslims, take a quick look around the world.

-- In Indonesia, Muslim "holy warriors" are killing residents of "Christian" villages, looting their homes and churches and burning everything to the ground. An estimated 10,000 Christians have been massacred and another 8,000 forcibly concerted to Islam in the Malukus over the past three years.

-- In northern Nigeria, about 500 people -- mostly Christians -- died and 10,000 people were forced from their homes when Muslim mobs ravaged and destroyed 10 Christian communities in July. Twelve states in Nigeria are enforcing harsh Islamic law even against non-Muslims, in defiance of Nigerian law.

-- In Pakistan, six armed Muslims dragged eight Christian women off a bus and brutally raped them in front of witnesses. Two years later, a court succumbed to Muslim community pressure, acquitting three of the attackers and sentencing the others to time served and fines.

-- In Israel, 588 Israelis have been killed by Islamic militants in assaults that have included commuter bus bombings, sniper attacks on Israeli settlers and even a massacre at a bat mitzvah. The recent round of suicide attacks is made possible in large part by a promise in Islam's holy book, the Koran, that martyrs in holy war enter heaven immediately.

A SPIRIT OF TYRANNY

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, America's secular media worked very hard to paint a picture of peaceable Islam -- and rightly so. The vast majority of Muslims want nothing to do with terrorism that uses Islam as an excuse for murder.

But most Americans -- and many Christians -- fail to understand that "normal" Islam nurtures a spirit of tyranny that inspires the terrorism of groups like the Taliban, Laskar Jihad and Hamas. The Koran contains passages that seem to justify violence against people who do not submit to Islam's rule.

For example, Surah 8, verse 5 states: "Fight and slay the Pagans [non-Muslims] wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem [of war]."

Islam is an aggressive religion that requires everyone in the world to either convert or submit to its rule, says a longtime missionary among Muslims. In fact, the word "Islam" means submission. It emphasizes submission of Muslims to Allah, but also submission of non-Muslims to Muslims.

"Islam's domineering nature is seen the clearest in lands where it is the predominant religion," the missionary said. "There, Christians are second-class citizens, at best, and often face persecution. Muslims who convert to Christianity often face persecution from their families, prison, torture or death."

HISTORY OF OPPRESSION

Unlike Christianity, Islam has no concept of "unalienable" human rights, and the result is a history of oppressing religious minorities wherever Islam has ruled, says Egyptian-born author Bat Ye'or.

Since Muhammad's conquests in the 600s, Islamic law has discriminated against non-Muslims. Christians, Jews and others have been overtaxed, forced into slave labor and prohibited from testifying in court. Muslims have been free to ransack non-Muslim places of worship. Non-Muslims have had to accept being shouldered aside on the street, forced to wear patches with the images of apes or pigs, even forbidden to wear matching shoes.

Islam divides the world into the Muslim realm, the "land of peace," and the non-Muslim world, "the land of war." Non-Muslim lands are regarded as rightfully belonging to Islam, and a state of war exists until the day Islam reigns supreme. No good Muslim can accept the idea of permanent peaceful coexistence with Christians or Jews or any other religion.

From a Christian perspective, Muslims don't understand that God in his great love has made a way for people to be forgiven of their sin and to spend eternity in his presence. Taught that God is harsh and demanding, Muslims despair of achieving heaven. Convinced that God's kingdom must be established by earthly power, Islam is on a collision course with any society that believes God created his children for freedom.

BEYOND THE WALL

And fortress walls isolate Muslims from the good news, says Avery Willis, the International Mission Board's senior vice president for overseas operations.

"Muslims are separated from God's love and truth by walls of religious and civil law, tradition, family and community relationships, history, mistrust and fear," Willis says. "Christians often stay behind their own walls of prejudice, ignorance, anger and comfort -- unwilling to move beyond them to penetrate the walls of Islam."

To help Muslims find freedom in Christ, the IMB launched "Beyond the Wall" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The emphasis seeks to share the God of love with Muslims by increasing prayer for Muslims, developing effective tools for sharing the gospel with them, enabling Christian partnerships for Muslim outreach, conducting human needs and disaster relief projects for Muslim people and helping Southern Baptists hear God's call to the Muslim world.

The new vision for sharing Christ with Muslims comes at a time when Muslims themselves are questioning a religion that could spawn an atrocity like Sept. 11, says IMB President Jerry Rankin.

"Personnel throughout North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia are seeing signs of disillusionment among adherents of the Muslim faith," he said. "People are asking questions that indicate a search for hope and security, and the answer is Jesus Christ.

"In God's providence, he has turned the tragedy of a year ago into an unprecedented opportunity for penetrating the Muslim world. Our sovereign Lord is shaking the nations. May we be found faithful in going and sharing the hope of the gospel."

_________________

To learn more about "Beyond the Wall" and sharing Christ with Muslims, visit http://imb.org/hope. (BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: BEYOND THE WALL.

Christ draws young Muslims in spite of the dangers By Tabitha Frizzell

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- "Tom Edwards"* won't risk speaking the names of the friends he made while serving overseas as a missionary journeyman. He won't even mention the Muslim country he lived in the past two years.

He wants to protect the identities of his Muslim friends, some of whom came to know Christ because of their friendship. Islamic law prescribes death for Muslims who leave Islam. Though the government of the country Tom lived in wouldn't directly enforce the sentence, it would look the other way when family members carried it out.

"If something bad happens to them," he said, "they know they are on their own, for the most part, except for God helping them."

Despite the danger, many men asked Tom for Bibles, often discreetly. "One guy told me specifically, 'You could get in trouble for giving me a Bible, but I still want one,'" he said.

Tom met students who were interested in practicing their English with a native speaker. Many young men were curious about Christ and the Bible. He found they loved to argue about all kinds of things.

But Tom was not interested in pursuing apologetics. He wanted to meet people who already had seeds of faith planted in their lives by Christian radio broadcasts and believers they had met.

"I didn't want to waste my time arguing with people or just sharing with curious people," Tom said. "I started praying specifically that God would open their minds and that God would lead me specifically to guys in whose lives [he] was already working.

"When God did lead those people to me, it was easy. He had already opened their minds to hear about the gospel and glory of Christ."

While a volunteer group was prayerwalking in the area, Tom met a student he calls "Paul."

"I could tell from the start that this guy was different, very intelligent," Tom said. "He could process what I was telling him and he saw the parallels between different things and the symbolism in the stories. It could have been just because he was smart, and also because the Lord was working in his heart.

"I was able to talk with him about lots of things, especially the person and work of Jesus Christ and also God's plan through history."

One evening, after praying specifically for Paul's salvation, Tom went to meet him after work. Another friend was waiting there too. The friend and Paul had planned to study at a professor's home for an English competition.

"I chatted with his friend awhile," Tom remembered. "Then [Paul] came over and the first thing he said to me was, 'Tom, I'm interested in joining your party.'

"I was excited because I knew that was sort of in code language. He was saying he wanted to accept Christ as his Savior."

Tom was exhilarated by Paul's statement, but he knew Paul already had an appointment with his friend.

As the pair was preparing to leave, Paul's friend told him, "Why don't you go with Tom, and I'll go to the professor's house to make an excuse. I'll just tell him something so you can spend time with Tom, because he's leaving the country soon and he's your friend."

Tom and Paul walked to the beach for dinner and discussed a gospel tract. Tom did not often give tracts to Muslims, but Tom knew Paul would not be turned off by the vocabulary because they had already talked about Christ.

"It seemed like he had already made the decision and this was kind of review," Tom said. "There on a bench overlooking the sea, he asked Jesus to come into his heart and save him from his sin.

"Now he is meeting with another Christian, a South African guy, and going through some discipleship things together.

"Our prayer is that he'll grow. That he'll learn to share his faith with others. That he won't be afraid to share his faith. That when he is persecuted -- and he will be eventually -- he'll come through it. That there will be some kind of Christian community for him."

_________________

*Name changed for security reasons.

GOD'S LOVE

Rubel Shelly tells this story:

Jason Tuskes was a 17-year-old high school honor student. He was close to his mother, his wheelchair-bound father, and his younger brother. Jason was an expert swimmer who loved to scuba dive.

He left home on a Tuesday morning to explore a spring and underwater cave near his home in west central Florida. His plan was to be home in time to celebrate his mother's birthday by going out to dinner with his family that night.

Jason became lost in the cave. Then, in his panic, he apparently got wedged into a narrow passageway. When he realized he was trapped, he shed his yellow metal air tank and unsheathed his diver's knife. With the tank as a tablet and the knife as a pen, he wrote one last message to his family: I LOVE YOU MOM, DAD, AND CHRISTIN. Then he ran out of air and drowned.

A dying message-something communicated in the last few seconds of life-is something we can't ignore. God's final words to us are etched on a Roman cross. They are blood red. They scream to be heard. They, too, say, "I love you.")

God's love, Christ's blood

Illustrations For Preaching & Teaching

Editor Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 140.

Dean Liverman's sermon on John 3:16.

God's love is:

1. Extensive in action

2. Extraordinary in choice

3. Expensive in its sacrifice

4. Extensive in its offer

5. Exclusive in acceptance

6. Exceptional in its work

7. Eternal in its benefits

In the city of Chicago, one cold, dark night, a blizzard was setting in. A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the people were in and out of the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn't trying to sell many papers.

He walked up to a policeman and said, "Mister, you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and it's awful cold in there for tonight. Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay."

The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, "You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they come out the door you just say John 3:16, and they will let you in."

So he did. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door, and a lady answered. He looked up and said, "John 3:16." The lady said, "Come on in, son." She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace, and she went off. The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself: John 3:16 ... I don't understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm.

Later she came back and asked him "Are you hungry?" He said, "Well, just a little. I haven't eaten in a couple of days, and I guess I could stand a little bit of food." The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn't eat any more. Then he thought to himself: John 3:16... Boy, I sure don't understand it but it sure makes a hungry boy full.

She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub filled with warm water, and he sat there and soaked for a while. As he soaked, he thought to himself: John 3:16 ... I sure don't understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy clean. You know, I've not had a bath, a real bath, in my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out.

The lady came in and got him. She took him to a room, tucked him into a big old feather bed, pulled the covers up around his neck, kissed him goodnight and turned out the lights. As he lay in the darkness and looked out the window at the snow coming down on that cold night, he thought to himself: John 3:16 ... I don't understand it but it sure makes a tired boy rested.

The next morning the lady came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food. After he ate, she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker in front of the fireplace and picked up a big old Bible. She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face. "Do you understand John 3:16?" she asked gently. He replied, "No, Ma'am, I don't. The first time I ever heard it was last night when the policeman told me to use it."

She opened the Bible to John 3:16 and began to explain to him about Jesus. Right there, in front of that big old fireplace, he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He sat there and thought: John 3:16. ... I don't understand it, but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe.

You know, I have to confess I don't understand it either, how God was willing to send His Son to die for me, and how Jesus would agree to do such a thing. I don't understand the agony of the Father and every angel in heaven as they watched Jesus suffer and die. I don't understand the intense love for ME that kept Jesus on the cross till the end. I don't understand it, but it sure does make life worth living.

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

*

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 NKJV)

What Shall Separate Us From The Love Of God?

• persuaded — 2 Tim 1:12, 2 Cor 5:8, Rom 14:8 — full assurance of faith

• death — at any time, under any form

• life — with all its changes, trials, joys, etc.

• angels — the good are our helpers

• principalities — malicious spirits already conquered — Heb 2:14-15, Matt 25:41, 2 Cor 11:14

• powers — Heb 11:35, Rev 12:11, Eph 6:12, Col 2:15, 1 Pet 3:22 — persecuting rulers (Beza)

• things…come — 2 Tim 4:8, Jam 2:5 — including all that can happen

• height — of honour or office

• depth — of suffering, degradation

• any…creature — that can be named or thought of

• love…God — Jer 31:3, Eph 2:4-7 — manifested to and bestowed upon us

• in…Lord — 1 Jn 4:9, Col 3:3 — and believers in Him

The measure of the love of Christ — Anon.

I. Its depths –

1. It reaches to men in every sphere of life;

2. To man in the lowest abyss of sin.

II. Its height –

1. The height of privilege to which it raises its objects;

2. The height of excellence:

(1) In this life;

(2) In the future.

III. Its breadth –

1. How it reaches to all men and lands;

2. Bigotry would limit it.

IV. Its length –

1. From age to age is the same;

2. To it there is no end. How different this is to human love.

Learn:

1. Willing subjection to the purposes of Christ;

2. Superiority to envy;

3. The cultivation of extensive benevolence;

4. Anticipate the time when this love shall be comprehended

Christian Confidence — Mr Robert Bruce, the morning before he died, being at breakfast, and having, as he used, eaten an egg, said to his daughter, “I think I am yet hungry; you may bring me another egg.” But having mused a while, he said, “Hold, daughter, hold, my Master calls me.” With these words his sight failed him: on which he called for the Bible, and said, “Turn to the eighth chapter of the Romans, and set my finger on the words, ‘I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,’ etc., ‘shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus a my Lord.’” When this was done, he said, “Now, is my finger upon them?” Being told it was, he added, “Now, God be with you, my dear children: I have breakfasted with you, and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ this night.” And then he expired.

“Death is the passage to the Father, a chariot to heaven, the Lord’s messenger, a leader unto Christ, a going to our home, a deliverance from bondage and prison, a dismission from war, a security from all sorrows, and manumission from all misery.” — J. Bradford

1. The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell,

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell;

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,

God gave His Son to win:

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin.

Chorus

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall for evermore endure.

The saints’ and angels’ song.

2. When years of time shall pass away

And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,

When men, who here refuse to pray,

On rocks and hills and mountains call,

God’s love so sure shall still endure,

All measureless and strong;

Redeeming grace to Adam’s race –

The saints’ and angels’ song.

3. Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill

And ev’ry man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry,

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

*

”But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NKJV)

God’s Love In The Death Of Christ

• commendeth [demonstrates] — proves, establishes (Alford), makes known (Olshausen), renders conspicuous (Hodge)

• while…yet [still] — in the very time of our rebellion, and showing no repentance

• sinners — opposed to “righteous” and “good.”

• Christ died — not “scarcely:” without a “peradventure:” died cheerfully, voluntarily, and of a set purpose

• for us — John 15:13, 1 Pet 3:18, 1 Jn 3:16, 4:9-10 — though sinners

The death of Christ — D. Clarkson

I. Its character:

1. Real;

2. Violent;

3. Cruel;

4. The same death that was due to us.

II. Its design. It was –

1. The punishment of our sin;

2. The price of our redemption;

3. A sacrifice for sin.

III. Its effects:

1. Our sins are by it expiated or atoned for;

2. The wrath of God is diverted from us;

3. We are freed from all guilt.

Application: For Christ’s great love to us in dying for us, we should love Him with –

(1) An ardent;

(2) A transcendent;

(3) An effectual love.

The marrow of the Gospel — W. W. Wythe

I. The subject — “Christ:”

1. His essential dignity;

2. His perfect character.

II. The predicate — “died:”

l. Voluntarily;

2. Ignominiously.

III. The motive — “for us:”

l. Substitution;

2. Expiation.

IV. The objects — “us:”

1. Naturally insignificant;

2. Morally unworthy.

Christ dying for sinners — A poor little girl, after having been educated in the Hibernian Female School in Sligo, was apprenticed to a dressmaker. A lady, who had formerly taken charge of her, and had been very kind to her, going one Sabbath into the chapel before service, found the girl sitting by herself, reading her Testament. On coming up to her, the lady inquired where she was reading. She said, “In the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans.” “Why do you choose that chapter?”

She replied, “Oh! I delight in it much.” “On what account?” “It just meets my case: see, is not that delightful?” pointing to the 6th verse — “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly;” and then added, “I am indeed a sinner, and without strength; but here is the blessed remedy — ‘Christ died for the ungodly.’”

“The act of our Redeemer, in giving Himself for us, when we were ‘enemies,’ ‘ungodly,’ etc., is encircled with a splendour of moral sublimity which eclipses all inferior excellence; it exhibits an amplitude and vastness of moral virtue exalted above all rivalship.” — Dr. Payne

“The power of love, in all ages, creates angels.” — Longfellow

The Apostle John's use of the word “world” in John 3:16 points to the infinite depth of God's love for His fallen creation, according to New Testament scholar D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Typically “world” in the well-known passage is interpreted as “God's love for a large place,” he said, adding that it actually speaks of God's incredible grace.

Carson pointed out that John used the noun “world” many times in his gospel, although it is rarely used to speak of the largeness of the earth. In most passages, including in 3:16, John uses “world” to speak of the created order that is in rebellion against its Creator, he said.

“[What usually happens] is that we think [that] God's love must be wonderful because the world is so big,'“ said Carson, who is author of numerous books, including a commentary on the Gospel of John. “John's usage really is not primarily 'a big place.’ Only in three or four passages is it a big place, as in the last two places it appears in the book where it is a big place that can hold a lot of books.

“But in the 70 or so other usages, 'world' in John's gospel is a bad place. For the text to say, 'For God so loved the world,' is to say God is loving moral rebels. That should not shock us. That is a universal New Testament theme, is it not? After all, before we become Christians we are part of that world, and according to [John] 3:36, stand under His wrath.”

God's love as depicted in 3:16 is in line with His call to all sinners to turn from the broad way that leads to death onto the narrow road that leads to life, Carson said. The verse makes clear that the Gospel is to be preached to all persons, but it spotlights the fact that God loves them despite their sinfulness and rebellion, he said.

“When God says, 'World, I love you,' what does He mean?” Carson asked. “He does not mean something goofy like, 'Heaven would be lonely without you,' or something similar.

“On the one hand, this world stands under the judgment of God, and yet God loves us anyway. He loves us, not because we are so attractive, but it is profoundly our unattractiveness that must be overcome.”

The measure of God's love for His radically sinful creation is Jesus, Carson said. John spends major portions of his gospel developing the theme of the love between God the Father and the Son. Therefore, God's gift for the redemption of sinners is His unique and well-loved Son.

“We do not begin to explore the dimensions of God's love until we explore the nature of the Godhead,” Carson said. “And we do not begin to explore the dimensions of God's love until we explore the ugliness of our own odious rebellion. God thus loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.”

*

Your everlasting love is deeper, deeper, deeper than the sea,

Your everlasting love is deeper, deeper, deeper than the sea,

deeper than the sea.

All the wonder of your everlasting love is deeper than the sea.

Your everlasting love is higher, higher, higher than the sky,

Your everlasting love is higher, higher, higher than the sky,

higher than the sky.

All the wonder of your everlasting love is higher than the sky.

Higher than the heavens above is the glory of your wonderful love.

I'm lost in the mystery of

Your everlasting love,

Your everlasting love,

Your everlasting love,

Your everlasting love.

Your everlasting love is reaching, reaching, reaching out to me,

Your everlasting love is reaching, reaching, reaching out to me,

reaching out to me.

All the wonder of your everlasting love is reaching out to me.

In 1963, the United States Supreme Court outlawed prayer in America's public schools. One of the plaintiffs in that case was America's best-known and most visible atheist, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Over the years, she was a vocal proponent of atheism and an aggressive campaigner against religion in public life. Then one day she vanished, leaving her sports car in an airport parking lot and $500,000 missing from the American Atheists Association bank account. The Internal Revenue Service seized Mrs. O'Hair's home to pay her creditors and some back taxes, and one of the items at auction were her diaries. And one entry said, “The whole idiotic hopelessness of human relations descends upon me. Tonight, I cried and cried, but even then feeling nothing.” Then I was really struck by four words that Madalyn Murray O'Hair reportedly wrote at least half a dozen times over the years, “Somebody, somewhere, love me.”

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Deepest Cry of The Human Heart.”

I don't know about you, but that cry for love in Mrs. O'Hair's diary touches something inside of me. In a way, her cry is the cry of every human heart, “Somebody, somewhere, love me.” And for many who do believe in God, there is still that awful vacuum. It's possible to believe in God, to do God's things, and to still miss the deep experience of His love. And without that love, the emptiness and loneliness in our heart is never satisfied - no matter how many human loves we experience.

While you are probably nowhere near an atheist, it could be that you've invested a lot in good things that could easily become other gods: your career, your children, your projects, maybe your friends, your charity work, even your spiritual pursuits. But the deep, aching sense of aloneness seldom seems to go away. Every earth-love has ultimately either failed you or failed to satisfy you. So, after all these years, your heart is still whispering - maybe even shouting - “Somebody, somewhere, love me.”

Our word for today from the Word of God describes the only love that can ever truly answer this deepest cry of the human heart. It's found in Romans 8:38-39, “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There it is - unloseable love, unconditional love, unmeasurable love.

God wants you to experience that love more than you can imagine, so much that He sacrificed the One He loves the most for you - His one and only Son, Jesus. The reason we are missing that love is because we've pushed God out of our lives with our sin. We've lived “my way” instead of God's way, over and over again. And that has left us separated from God and from His love with a death penalty on our heads. But God just lavished His love on you by sending Jesus to die in your place.

But you're still missing this love your heart wants so much until you respond to it by placing all your trust in Jesus Christ to remove the sin-barrier and give you eternal life. You are that close to finally making ultimate love your own. If you want to begin this personal love relationship with Jesus Christ, tell Him that right where you are.

Jesus is the “Somebody, somewhere” that your heart has been lonely for. And you don't have to live one more day without His love.

__________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

Christian leaders must face their fears and admit they can do nothing without Christ, says Sammy Tippit, an internationally-known evangelist from San Antonio. The key to courage is God's perfect love, which drives out fear.

COURAGEOUS CHRISTIANITY

Tippit, whose autobiography, “God's Secret Agent,” tells of his mission work in communist Eastern Europe, said God's people are living in an age that requires them to be courageous, but that courage comes from being in the presence of God and not by denying fears.

Referring to the passage in Acts 4 where Peter and John are brought before the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, Tippit suggested there are three keys to courageous Christianity.

First, Christians must face their fears. Jesus forced Peter to face his fears, telling the apostle he would deny him three times. It was only after Peter acknowledged that he had fears that God was able to transform him into the bold preacher who proclaimed, “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed,” (Acts 4:8-10).

Second, Christians must admit they can't, but God can. Peter said, “Salvation is found in no one [other than Jesus], for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved,” (Acts 4:12). Tippit told of his arrest years ago in communist-led Leningrad, where he was asked to sign a confession for his crimes. He refused, and his jailers told him that if he didn't, he would be sent to Siberia immediately.

“Oh, God, I need you,” Tippit prayed, acknowledging that his own wit and words were not going to get him released. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Tippit began to write his testimony, in an echo of the Apostles Creed, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell, and on the third day He rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

“He came into my heart and saved my soul,” Tippit wrote, “and if you want to know Him, too, you can pray this prayer right now.” Saying the confession did not go over well with his captors, Tippit nevertheless conceded that his boldness and power came from God and not from his own feeble heart.

Third, courage comes from spending time with Jesus. Tippit said the Jewish leaders noted the courage of Peter and John, even as they realized the two apostles were “unschooled, ordinary men ... [who] had been with Jesus,” (Acts 4:13). Perfect love drives out fear, Tippit said, because there is no fear in the face of Jesus, where perfect love abounds (1 John 4:18). It is by spending time with Jesus that our fears fall into perspective before a great and holy God, suggested Tippit.

*

[Original illustration here was a duplicate in HolwickID 25837-26027]

Ida Scudder came from a long line of missionaries; but Ida herself had no interest in following in their footsteps. She’d seen firsthand the pressure and poverty of missionary work in India, and she wanted a higher standard of living without the prolonged, painful separations she’d suffered as a child.

All that changed after Ida graduated from college and made a trip to visit her parents in India. One night as she sat by a lamp writing letters, three men knocked on the door of the missions house, one after another. The first was a Brahmin. The second was a high-caste Hindu. The third was a Muslim. All three men were seeking medical help for their wives, who were having trouble in childbirth.

Ida’s mother couldn’t go because she was ill. Her father couldn’t go because the local culture wouldn’t accept such contact with the opposite sex. Nor did Ida go as she had no training.

She later wrote, “I could not sleep that night – it was too terrible. Within the very touch of my hand there were three young girls dying because no woman would help them. I spent much of the night in anguish and prayer. ... I think that was the first time I ever met God face to face, and all the time it seemed that He was calling me into this work. Early in the morning I heard the ‘tom-tom’ beating in the village and it struck terror in my heart, for it was a death message. I sent out my servant, and he came back saying that all of them had died during the night. I shut myself in my room and thought very seriously about the condition of the Indian women and after much thought and prayer, I went to my father and mother and told them I must go home and study medicine, and come back to India to help such women.”

Ida did just that, and in time she established the Vellore medical complex offering critical medical services to Indian women, along with strong doses of evangelism and Gospel witness. Today the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, is still offering help, hope and healing – more than 100 years later.[i]

Can we hear the knocks?

Missionary historians refer to this story as the “Three Knocks in the Night,” and it teaches a powerful lesson. When we hear three knocks on our door, we should have three words on the tip of our tongue – the three most generous words in the world: “God loves you.” Those words turn into loving acts of kindness; for by its very nature biblical love is selfless, given without strings, to whoever needs it.

This is the way God loves you; and this is what Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 7:7-8: “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you.”

God loves us just because He loves us, and that’s to be our pattern for loving others.

A “God loves you” plan

The most generous thing we can give others is the Good News of God’s love. How? By devising a personal “God loves you” plan for those we want to reach. Think of some ways you can let others know of your love and of God’s. Some examples may include:

● Finding a ministry to the homeless, families facing food insecurity or children in need of tutoring. Connect with a Christian relief organization. Partner with those trying to touch people who are in need of God’s love.

● Making a list of people you don’t like (yes, we all have some folks like that). Begin praying for them as Jesus instructed.

● Thanking the Lord afresh for His great love for us, even while we were “yet sinners” (Romans 5:8, KJV).

Love is only good when expressed, and we can all do that. As the old African American spiritual puts it: “If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul, you can share the love of Jesus and say He died for all.”

Find someone today and remind them of God’s never-ending love.

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[i] Ida Scudder’s story is told by Ruth A. Tucker in Guardians of the Great Commission (Zondervan, Grand Rapids: 1988), 155-157.