PRACTICAL LOVE

In his book, The Upside Down Church, Pastor Greg Laurie says, “The first Christians didn’t out-argue pagans—they outlived them…Christianity made no attempts to conquer paganism and dead Judaism by reacting blow by blow. Instead, the Christians of the first century out-thought, out-prayed and outlived the unbelievers.

“Their weapons were positive not negative. As far as we know, they did not hold protests or conduct boycotts. They did not put on campaigns to try to unseat the emperor. Instead, they prayed and preached and proclaimed the message of Christ, put to death on the cross, risen from the dead, and ready to change lives. And they backed up their message with actions - giving, loving.”

A co-worker shares a significant event he witnessed among Christian children in Egypt:

A crowd of smiling faces awaited us as we entered the small stuffy room. The ages of the children ranged from eight to eleven years and they were seemingly oblivious and unaware of the circumstances surrounding their village—poverty, problems and persecution. To be a Christian, let alone a Christian child, was not an easy life.

It was Saturday evening and the excitement that filled the air overwhelmed any feeling of self-pity and despair that might have existed. Between thirty and forty young boys, each equipped with a large maize bag, excitedly awaited orders.

As we entered the room the youth leader saw the frowns on our faces and answered our questions even before we could ask. “Yes, it’s Saturday evening,” he started explaining, “and tonight the children will once again ‘invade’ our little village. They will go to every house in every street. They will ask the inhabitants whether they have enough bread to eat or not. If there is more than enough bread in the house they will ask the families to place any extra bread in the bag for those who do not have enough bread.

“The children will continue until all the bags are filled to the top. Then the fun part of the evening starts. They will then go back to all the homes where there was not enough bread to eat and distribute so that every family in our village will have enough bread to eat for the next week.

“They do not have the means to provide it themselves, but regardless of their own needs, they have become instruments of love to eradicate all hunger in our village.”

RESPONSE
I will live this day showing love to those in need
in the most practical ways.

PRAYER
Lord, bless those Egyptian Christian children who
love others and demonstrate it in a practical way.

Open Doors Ministry

Excellent!

The early church did not go around saying they have this cool new religion with awesome rules and traditions and that it was better than any other religion in the world.

Instead, they expressed the Life of Christ that was in them.

They did not even have the New Testament, but they had the Living Word inside them.

Do we have any concept today what it would be like to live everyday wholly dependent on the Holy Spirit? I am not suggesting everyone put their Bibles up for a year, but it does make you wonder if anyone is truly hearing the Lord and walking in love before the world and one another.

This thought always convicts me. We supposedly have so much but produce so little fruit. I include myself in this.

Pilgrim

Amen. Just had to add this Scripture.

The blind beggar who was healed by Jesus was overjoyed with his blessing, proclaiming, "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" (John 9:25)

Beautiful.

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Christiaan