Loving God, bless the life and needs of the dear reader; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from Romans 13: 8 Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. 9 The law code - don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of - finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. 10 You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love. 11 But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. 12 The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. 13 We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. 14 Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about! (The Message)
Imagine getting love invoices from loved ones? They might come in the mail, addressed to you, with the message: You owe me love! Sadly, some of us might get SECOND NOTICE or THIRD NOTICE or even worse, FINAL NOTICE. Paul's message was urgent. We should be all about love in every aspect of our lives. We owe love to one another. We should treat each other in love. Paul saw that as the foundation of the Law, especially the Ten Commandments. If you study them you see he's right; we should love God and then love others in the correct way. Later, the Law would sum it up in The Great Commandment and the second greatest, love thy neighbor as you love yourself.
The urgency has not worn off except in most of us. We just cruise along looking out for ourselves and our families and we're forgetting the needs all around us. If confronted with needs we have great excuses. I challenge churches as I did last night and size, the belief another church "is doing that already," or a sense of hopelessness saddens me. I remind them that our church now, in most cases, looks exactly like the established church that John Wesley left to start the Methodist movement. In that movement the key word was "go, " not "come." Yet, we say, "We can't get people to come to church!" Uh, yes, most folks don't want to come to your church - Your church has to go to them. Sort of like what verse 14 says, "Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minutes. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!"
PRAYER: Loving God, pour out Your Holy Spirit on me and on my church! Let us have that sense of love and urgency that Paul and John Wesley and so many others have had at the start of great awakenings, and may it spread to our church members that they may see and come alive to the needs of loving and serving You and Yours. I ask this and pray this in faith and in the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
