Love gives at a great cost to self. The Father loved the world so much that He sent His Son to die for us – That is a great cost!!!! In the context of Jesus’ sacrifice, this 1 John 3:16 gives us a challenge that may seem overwhelming and impossible. He asks us to share our love with others around us. We do not do this out of duty, but out of compassion. We put our love into practice by meeting other’s needs even at great cost to us. To meet these needs, we may need to sacrifice our time, attention, and often our heart, which can often be more difficult that giving money. We cannot take a genuine interest in the welfare of others unless we are willing to become involved in their interests and their concerns. There is a price to pay for loving others, but I am sure that when you talk to the Lord about His sacrifice on our behalf, He will say that it was worth the cost to redeem us. I continue to learn that that the cost of loving those around me, is worth the cost.… READ MORE

There should be no more distinctive mark of the believer than love 1 John 3:14. No matter how else we may bear our testimony for the Lord, the absence of love nullifies it all (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Love is greater than anything we can say, possess, or give, and if love does not characterize our lives our life will be empty. The reason for this is that God’s greatest demonstration of love was seen at the cross where He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. We must understand that love is more than the emotional response that we see in movies, Love is manifested not by what we say, but by what we do. Love is an act of the will, and that is why our wills must first be yielded to Christ before we will begin to bear this Characteristic in our lives. The love that comes from our flesh is really selfish in nature while Biblical love (agape) involves self-giving. It is easy to say we love others, and be completely honest and sincere in our expression, yet we often do not see the lonely person in the crowd, we ignore the sick or … READ MORE

Doctrine has become a word that people avoid in Christian circles. But without doctrine you have no truth, and as a result have no hope of knowing the plan and purpose of God in salvation. We need to recognize and understand that the Bible IS the Word of God. It does not merely contain God’s Word it IS God’s Word from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21. This book, provided to us by God, gives us His plan to deal with the problem of sin in the world! Without this book, we would not know nor understand how we can overcome the principle of sin in our lives. The doctrine of salvation is critical for us to come to grips with, as we attempt to deal with the question, “Where will I spend eternity” We can ignore what God says, but in so doing we only condemn ourselves and others of a Christ-less eternity. I talk to many people who criticize the Bible, and yet have never read it from cover to cover. Nor have they attempted to understand what God has revealed to us through the pages of the Bible. Since our eternity depends on getting the question of our … READ MORE