WHERE HAS LOVE GONE

What kind of church body would you like to belong to?
     One that claims to love but you can see by their actions they don’t or
     One that claims they love and you can see by their actions that they do.

For me my choice would be the latter but to be honest I have experienced more of the former than the latter.

It is very easy to say we love but much harder to prove it.

Sometimes it seems like if we preach to people that is all we need to do to show them we love them. Well for me I would rather see a sermon then just hear one any day. Talk is cheap and easy---actions are much harder but they show and prove much more that we really love.

I’ve heard people say that they love me but when there was a disagreement about something they were gone. It’s hard to take when you hear someone say that you are their best friend one day and the next day they’re gone.

Where are the people that truly love? I mean through the good times and the bad times! Where are the ones that you can really count on that love you, not just for what they can get from you? It's a strange thing when people want something from you, you seem to have a lot of, so called, friends or what you might call fair weather friends. If that is the only kind of friends you have, then you really don’t have any friends at all.

It seems we are very good at judging the outside of a person—
his clothes           his hair      the car he drives
the job he has      where he lives      his outward appearance
and other things that are external without really knowing his heartI am so glad that God judges the thoughts and intents of the heart and not just the outward appearance. And I am so glad he loves me unconditionally and not for any other reason. And I thank the Lord for my wife also who I think loves me unconditionally. To be very honest I think God showed me His love through her love. Praise God! And I also thank God for my family that loves me.

It seems that if we don’t conform to what other people think we should, we will be the outcast whether we are Christians or not.

Tell me, who has all the answers and who sets the standard? No one, only God.

When I think of David and all the ways he sinned—
          he took a census                    he committed adultery
          he killed an innocent man         he lied
          and I’m sure there were many others sins he committed
          but even in all this God said that David was a man after his heart.

How could he say that?

Let’s read Psalm 51 verses 1-17
     David wasn’t a perfect man and neither are we.
The thing that set David apart from many others was that David had a humble and contrite heart and was willing to repent.  Because of it, and like I said earlier, God judges the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Praise God and He does the same thing with us.

So it is important that we let God do the judging and that we continue to love and to be faithful friends to others.

I think I can relate to what the Psalmist said in Psalms 35:11 – 20 check it out.

Remember let love reign in our hearts and let’s love like:
     Jesus loved His disciples          David loved Jonathan
     Ruth loved Naomi                   Paul loved the brethren

Let us not just love in word, but in deed.

Jesus said the world would know us by our love.

Question: what kind of friend are you? God Bless you.