“If You Love Me…”

A man by the name of Jimmy Brown told a story about the first girl who ever caught his eye.  He was seven years old, in 2^nd grade, and her name was Sherri.  She was the cutest girl he had ever seen with little pigtails, a beautiful dress with a big teddy bear on it, and the prettiest smile, even with a middle tooth missing.  Best of all, she could jump off of the swing further than anyone.

One day Sherri passed down a note which read, “Do you love me?”  Jimmy didn’t even know what love was, but he knew girls like being told these things, so he checked “yes” and passed it back.  At recess she ran up to him with a big smile on her face and said, “Say it.”  “Say what?” Jimmy asked.  “Say you love me,” Sherri replied.  While it was a little embarrassing, he went ahead and said, “I love you.”

The next day Sherri came up to Jimmy and said, “Do you really love me?”  “Yes,” he replied.  Unconvinced, Sherri asked, “Do you mean it?  Because a lot of boys tell me they love me, but some of them don’t mean it.”  Jimmy went ahead reassured her that his love was true.  The next day though, Sherri came back again, “If you love me and you mean it, then why don’t you show it?”  Jimmy was now beginning to realize this “love” stuff was tricky.  So, Jimmy decided to stop pulling her pigtails, spent the day with her at recess, sat with her at free time, and even gave her his special GI Joe eraser.  From this point on, Jimmy learned some important lessons about love.

What a sweet story.  In this life, the words “I love you” are common and often used flippantly.  Jimmy Brown quickly learned that just saying the words were not enough.  We even say them to the Lord, but do our words match our actions?  Jesus said very bluntly in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  Our love for God must be displayed through our obedience.  As Mark 12:30 puts it, we must love God with all of our “heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

Do we love God?  If so, our action must match.

Story Source - http://www.timshen.truepath.com/preach/frames.htm

Benefits of Love

Maybe I’m being sentimental, or cliché, or whatever you want to call it, but many of us are already thinking about love today anyway, so why not feed the fire?

We are all familiar with love on some level.  Love is packed full of benefits.  It saves us from hell.  It solves conflicts.  It brings people us closer together.  It produces hard work and good attitudes.  It’s even good for our health!

In a recent article, Lisa Collier Cool talked about the health benefits of love (Click Here).  Here are some that she talks about:

• Love Defuses Stress.  We know it can sometimes cause stress, but in general it helps prevent stress.  Getting rid of stress can help prevent diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  Several studies found that physical touch (like holding hands) reduces and helps us deal with stress.  Hugging has even been shown to lower blood pressure.
• Love Heals Wounds.  A study was conducted where couples were inflicted with a small blister.  They found that blister took two days longer to heal in the couples that were hostile and argumentative with each other.
• Love Keeps Us From Sickness.  Studies also found that many people who lost a spouse through death, divorced, or separation showed a decline in health.

God knew what He was doing when He brought man and woman together and introduced love (Genesis 2).  God knew what He was talking about when He commanded us to love each other (1 John 4:7-21).  God knew what He was doing when He sent Christ to the cross to show His love for us (John 3:16; 1 John 4:7-21).

People across the country will be demonstrating their love for each other today in their marriages, families, and friendships.  Surely God loves seeing people being sweet, kind, caring, and generous with each other.  However, let’s not let these wonderful attitudes and feelings die for 364 days after today.  Let’s make sure we spread the love on this Valentine’s Day, next Valentine’s Day, and all the days in-between.

Helping the Enemy

The U.S. and Iran aren’t exactly best friends if you know what I mean.  Lately the tension has really been rising.  Earlier this week an Iranian leader warned America to keep out of the Persian Gulf.  Despite the warnings, the U.S. Navy remained in the area.  As it so happens, our Navy detected Somali pirates and a distress call from an Iranian boat.  The Navy could have left things alone, but they decided to take action against the pirates.  They took over the ship, detained 15 pirates, and rescued 13 Iranian fishermen.  Josh Schminky, a Navy Criminal Investigative Service agent, stated, “When we boarded, we gave them [the Iranian fishermen] food, water, and medical care…They had been through a lot.  We went out of our way to treat the fishing crew with kindness and respect” (Fox News).

These Navy soldiers did a great act of service towards these Iranian people who could have been considered enemies.  This story is a great reminder of Christ’s words in Matthew 5:43-44, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  This also ties in with parable of the Good Samaritan and loving those who we may not like (Luke 10:25-37).  Clearly Christ’s message is for us to love and respect all people, especially our enemies.

This is always a tough pill to swallow, but a necessary one.  Most people today are quick to hate and slow to love.  God is calling for us as Christians to be different, to stand out.  He is calling us to love and respect when most would not.  Many of us have sung these words many times in worship, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

May we live in such a way that people will know from the way we treat others that we are different, that we are Christians.