Week 12—Friday Matthew 10:11-13
Week 12—FRIDAY
“I’LL BE THE BETTER FOR GIVING IT”
We are looking at the effects of love in human relation and personal lives. A young pastor in Obihiro, Japan, was obviously a man of deep devotion to Christ and possessed a rich personal experience of God. He had lost his own mother and had a stepmother against whom he revolted in resentments. Someone got him as a non-Christian to go to church to see some slides. As he entered, the first slide he saw was “God is Love” in Japanese. It struck him deeply. “God is love”—and would forgive him? This haunted him and led him to be a Christian. He decided to go into the Christian ministry and entered a theological seminary. He read books on philosophy and found his faith undermined. He thought of suicide. So he left the seminary to go to the slums where Dr. Kagawa had lived and worked and suffered. Here he saw alcoholics, drug addicts, the down-and-outs transformed and made into new persons by the power of the love of Christ. His faith came back again, and now he is radiant and on fire. He lost his faith through the Word become word, the philosophies, but regained it through the Word become flesh—transformed human lives.
A cultured and refined woman came up to me after an address on love, the deepest thing in human nature, and said, “Your message touched something in my heart this morning and awakened something within me. I’m going home and love h–—out of my husband. If he responds, good, but if he doesn’t respond it will still be good, for I’ll be the better for giving it!”
In general, one out of four families in America breaks up in divorce. Among church members, one out of fifty. When they both read the Bible and pray, one out of five hundred. Obviously, to expose ourselves to the Bible with its revelation of God in Christ awakens love and maintains love and helps hold the family together. A woman said she couldn’t go back to her husband. Her doctor said, “Don’t try to make your husband good. Make yourself good—be the best wife, mother, daughter-in-law. Love them all.” She did, and won her husband and saved the marriage.
O Savior, save me from the worst sin of all—the sin of not loving. And save me from the sin of loving only those who love me. Give me a love unlimited. But I can only do this as I love with your love. My love is limited and breaks down. Give me yours—abundantly. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Love them all”—no exceptions, and no limitations.