Thank you, Father, for a very productive day yesterday. Pretty much everything is ready for Sunday and You helped me get through a very large chunk of computer file organization.  Getting church files and sermon files, amongst all kinds of other files, straightened out will make things a lot easier. Your companionship is cherished!

1 John 3:11-24 (<<click here)

“And this is his command: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another.” v.23

Lord, as I pray and read through my study Bible* notes, I understand that first of all we must believe what You have said, that is very important but equally important is embracing who You are – You are the Son of God.

Believing “in the name” means that my goal is to pattern my life after Your life. And if I am doing that then I will abide by Your command and Your lifestyle to “love one another.”

It really is very much like a simple mathematical equation.

Believing Your words + believing You are God = loving one another

Living out my faith in You will always result in love. And that love has no exceptions. We cannot pick and choose – it is all inclusive. In reading Your word, that is how You lived.

Thinking along those lines brings to mind a portion of a recent sermon. In the days before Your crucifixion, You loved Judas. He wasn’t excluded. He wasn’t avoided. You didn’t withhold Yourself from him. In the upper room, You washed his feet just as You washed everyone else’s feet. You loved him. You repeatedly gave him opportunity to turn from the path he was headed down.

Could I have done the same? Could I willingly love someone that I knew was going to betray me? Could I treat with tenderness the individual that I knew was the catalyst for my death?

You are my example, in the flesh. You lived out Your love, withholding absolutely nothing. Lord, make me like You. May my love grown deeper and stronger as I spend time with You. Amen.

May 5th, Fri, 5:11 am