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by Pastor Rodger
Scripture Reference: 1Peter 4:7-11
What does a Christian look like?
by Pastor Rodger
Scripture Reference: 1Peter 4:7-11
What does a Christian look like?
Love.
That’s the long and short of it… Love.
Jesus says in John 13:34-35 that those who follow him will be indentified by their love.
Love for each other, love for family, love for their enemies, and love for the unlovable, that’s supposed to be our identifying feature. Skin color doesn’t matter, language doesn’t matter, age doesn’t matter, gender doesn’t matter; followers of Jesus are to be known by their love.
Love is not a passive verb, but an active one. In America, we like to talk about love from a distance, but that’s not love. It may be smooshy-gooshy feelings that make for a good chick movie, but real love involves work.
Love costs something. Love requires sacrifice.
Love means giving your enemy food if he is hungry and drink if he is thirsty.
Love means feeding the smelly homeless person.
Love means spending time with the doddering old woman who tells long pointless stories.
Love means forgiving someone who hurt you deeply.
Love means going to someone that you have hurt and begging their forgiveness.
Love means going to someone that you have hurt and begging their forgiveness.
Love means forgoing that vacation so you can support your aging parents.
Love means cleaning out that extra room and providing a place for a struggling friend to stay.
Love means not playing golf this Saturday so you can help disadvantaged kids.
Love means caring enough to share your faith with those who need Christ even if you think they might mock you.
Love costs something. Love requires sacrifice. But it’s worth it.
Look at yourself in the mirror. Do you look like a follower of Christ? Do you reflect love to others?
Spend some time in prayer and ask God to show you how to love others this week.
QUESTIONS AND CHALLENGES:
- What are you going to do to demonstrate God’s love this week?
- Hospitality is a demonstration of love? How can you show hospitality this week? Perhaps you could make it a goal to invite someone new to dinner this week. Or, you could invite someone from church out to coffee and listen to their life story? What else might you do?
- Serving others is another form of love. Mountain View Christian Church has released our Season of Service schedule this week. Look through the schedule. Which one of these projects will you take part in?
I challenge you to do something hard, to get your hands dirty, to test your faith this week by loving someone else, showing hospitality to another, and serving others.
God Bless you in these endeavors,
Pastor Rodger
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