Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:7-8).
God’s love is in us. God’s love is with us. God’s love is for us and on us.
Today I tied my puppy, a little wiener dog, to the hand rail on my front porch so that I could spend a minute picking up the leaves in my front yard. My neighbor is a mean atheist who likes to bully other people in the neighborhood. He always lets his huge 90 pound Doberman pincher roam around without a leash on. His big dog is very disobedient and never listens or comes when he screams for it to come to him.
His dog came over on my front porch and was pouncing on my puppy in a playful way. I just continued picking up the debris in my front yard. I was thinking that my neighbor would eventually come get his dog. So I just left the two dogs alone thinking that it would do my ten-pound puppy a little good to be rolled over a few times by a big dog. My neighbor came over to get his huge dog from my front porch and threw my dog while it was still on a leash.
Then, he caught his dog by the collar and squeezed his chops standing ten feet from my front door. Even though he knows I’m a pastor, he shouted God’s name in vain loud enough so that people could hear it and turned to look four houses away. I took my dog on a walk and prayed in the Spirit for an hour. The whole time I kept hearing the Holy Spirit over and over saying, “Walk in love, walk in love, and walk in love.” I couldn’t see straight for the first fifteen minutes. I remember thinking like a five year old boy, “Why doesn’t he have to walk in love? It’s not fair.”
I know the answer. God loves my atheist neighbor. Plus, I have been studying the Bible and walking with God for twenty years. And, I’m a pastor remember. Hello! His salvation is on the line. My reputation is on the line. Now that I’m writing this journal I can see why I went through this. The Lord wanted me to tell other followers of Christ that God is in them and He is love. Plus, we should love the unlovely. Besides, why get angry and ruin God’s plan or even postpone my neighbor’s possibility for salvation.
Besides all that, what if the local newspaper read something like this: “Local pastor kills atheist for throwing his puppy.” Not a good testimony for the home team. And not a good example to the community.
We can walk in love. We can walk in life, peace, joy, and self-control. We can hold our tongue and walk away. We can turn the other cheek because God in us is love. He loves us. Now we can be His love in human form.
Meditate for five minutes on this lesson.
Journal one whole page.
Pray this Prayer: Father, help me to walk in love. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment