Living and Loving As Christ Loves!

31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, [a] God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once.

33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:31-35

As I watched the news today, I saw a story about a young girl from Texas that was pulled from her mothers’ arms and kidnapped. To cut to the chase, the girl was located and rescued by the Police. But we must dig deeper into this story in the fact that it took many citizens and a local church to patrol the area as to locate the kidnapper’s vehicle.

When asked why he did what he did, one of the men that located the kidnapper’s vehicle stated the following: “We are called to love others as Jesus loves us”. This text is not only true, but also timely as I preached this scripture in church last Sunday.

As we enter the next couple of weeks that will have many attending graduations around the county, we must also think that Jesus was giving them their graduation message as well as their graduation instructions. Jesus would be leaving them and had taught them all that he could during His time with them. His instructions about loving others was not a question (?), it was a commandment (!).

Likewise, the church members that helped locate this kidnapped child in Texas understood that the search was not a question, but something that God was commanding them to do. After the girl was located, the man being interviewed did not take the glory, but instead gave God the glory.

Beloved, good people still exist and there continues work for God’s people as God commanded. Please take every opportunity to listen for God’s Word and take the opportunity to share the love of Christ, through worship, praising, sharing. Maybe you won’t help rescue a kidnapped child, but you will be sharing your graduation instructions with those that need the love of Christ.

This Is the Day the Lord Has Made,

Pastor Tim.