I LOVE YOU--CHARITY
Scripture Reading-- 1 Corinthians 13
How would you define the word love? First John 4:7-8 says, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." To truly understand love, we must understand God's kind of love. Genuine love is God's kind of love.
A boy sat in the doctor's office and listened intently to the doctor's explanation. The boy's sister was dying of a terminal illness. A blood transfusion was the only hope, the doctor said, if her life was to be spared. He explained that the sister had a rare blood type that was hard to match. A blood test revealed that the boy had the needed blood type to save his sister's life. After thinking it through for a moment, the boy agreed to give blood with hopes of saving his sister's life.
Bravely, the boy climbed onto the table and allowed the nurse to insert a needle into his arm so she could collect the blood. The nurse noticed tears in the boy's eyes. "Are you in pain?" she asked.
"No."
"Then what's wrong?"
Tears flowed down his cheeks. "When do I die?"
"Die?" the nurse said. "You're not going to die. We're just collecting a small amount of blood to help your sister. You'll be fine."
Genuine love is selflessly giving of ourselves to meet the needs of someone else. That's what the boy did, and it's also what God did. God didn't just tell the world of His love; He proved it. When we show this love, we clearly demonstrate God's love--that's real love! It's one thing to say, "I love you." It's another to prove it. Self-sacrifice is the proof of genuine love--God's kind of love for us.
EXERCISE: Give an example of how you could show God's love to someone today.
--Tom Palmer--
No comments:
Post a Comment