Gracious and Loving God of life, pour out Your comfort on those who mourn, and be with the needs of this dear reader; In Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text today is from Galatians 5:13-15 :13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Someone once wrote and I've shared this before, and not as any endorsement of the corner bar: "There is more fellowship and less fighting at the corner bar than there is in most churches." Well, that would be true on several levels, but let's just address the spiritual one. The church is a spiritual organization. It deals with life and death decisions, eternal ones. And when the church is open to the leading of God's Holy Spirit, we also become aware that the enemy of God wants nothing better than to disrupt and destroy the work of God. Such was the case in Galatia and such may be the case in your church. Paul urges the believer to rise above that. As people of freedom because of God's saving acts in Jesus Christ, we have the power to choose that which is best for the good of Christ and harmony and understanding and love were the best options in any setting, especially the church. Paul even uses the law to remind them of what Christ said as well, "Love your neighbor as yourself." In other words, think and act just beyond your own self-interests and desires, love someone in the same positive way you should be loving yourself. If you love yourself, you feed yourself. Why not feed others? If you love yourself, you clothe yourself, why not clothe others? If you love yourself you provide for your cleaning and care, and why can't you do that for others? If we chose to care and feed and clothe and visit only among ourselves, the result will be not only the destruction of others but ourselves as well.
Look beyond "me" today. Love beyond "me" today. Love each other in positive, uplifting, constructive ways.
PRAYER: God of love, help me to see beyond myself today and to love others in the way that I know I should be loving myself. Give me the eyes of faith and love to see the needs of those hurting and hungry around me. Help me to respond in ways that Christ Jesus would. I ask this in His precious name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
Prayer Needs: A dear family in our church, Mark and Jan Fliegel lost their 23 yr old son, Tim, yesterday morning. The cause of death is not known. Tim was in Abilene visiting friends and died around 3 a.m. His body was taken to Ft. Worth where an autopsy was performed. Please be in prayer for Mark, Jan, Lucy, and Conrad as they travel to Ft. Worth for a viewing of the body. Plans right now call for a memorial service to be done on Saturday, Dec. 19th at 2 p.m. at First UMC-Harlingen. Lucy is a senior at Centenary College in Shreveport, La, and Cameron is in middle school. Also please be in prayer for Sydney Broyles undergoing surgery today. Surgery is also scheduled for Johnny Means, and an appointment in Houston for John Topp has opened up this Friday. Also, a dear friend, The Rev. Tommy Hays in on his way to Pakistan to preach a series of evangelistic sermons and we need to cover him in prayer. This is an environment isn't open to the Christian message, but with your prayers and the power of the Holy Spirit, may God's message and light fall on fertile ground.
