by Pastor Tim White

Last week my daughter Becca called me to tell me another cute story about my grandchildren. When she called me, she had 3-year-old Oscar on her lap. She told me that Oscar was having her show him his baby book. When it came to a favorite person when he was a baby, she told him it was G.P. He smiled and laid his head on her shoulder and said, “Still is.” It makes me want to drive over there and give him a big hug!” Love lifts us. Love shapes us. Love motivates us. Love humbles us. And love inspires us.

Love is not a gift that just some Christians have. Love is not an option that we can choose to take or leave in calling ourselves Christians. If you say you are a Christian but not a loving Christian, you are basically saying that you are not a Christian. Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment, for this is an old one you have always had, right from the beginning. This commandment - to love one another - is the same message you have heard before. 1 John 2:7

The Beatles put it this way. “All we need is love.” Or, Burt Bacharach said, “What the world needs now is love sweet love - it’s the only thing there is just too little of.” I like Carrie Underwood’s song, “I believe that in the end love wins.” William Shakespeare said in his play, Twelfth Night, “If music be the food of love, play on.” 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us what love is and what it is not.

Therefore, since we know that love is essential to be a Christian, then we all have a lot to learn about how to love in a more Christ-like way. Dr. Rey Diaz CEO of Orphan Outreach is going to be preaching this Sunday on Love from 1 John; and if you have ever read that book before, you know it is all about living out God’s love... Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:7-8.

If you want to be a more loving Christian, then don’t miss the message this weekend about God’s love.

Your friend for the rest of my life

Pastor Tim White