‘I WANT MY FLOWERS BEFORE I DIE’
A friend of mine used to preach a sermon entitled, ‘I want my flowers before I die.’ Just before he stood up to preach, he would slip a wreath of flowers around his neck. Then he would preach the whole sermon wearing the wreath. It was an unforgettable message. Its theme was simple. Why wait […]
LIVES CHARACTERISED BY LOVE
It is a fascinating exercise to read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and to replace the word ‘love’ with ‘Jesus’. The result is a fine character description of our Lord. Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus does not envy, Jesus does not boast, Jesus is not proud, Jesus is not rude, Jesus is not self-seeking, Jesus […]
TO LOVE GOD IS TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER
In his delightful book, Faith Hope and Hilarity, Dick Van Dyke tells of a little boy in Philadelphia who was asked to write his favourite biblical truth on the blackboard. He wrote, ‘Do one to others as others do one to you.’ This was not quite what Jesus meant when he said: ‘In everything do […]
HOW WE THINK DETERMINES HOW WE LOVE
When we bring our thinking into line, our loving can also be brought into line. (Read Mark 12:29-31.) In our relationships with people, how we think about them determines how well we love them. We can dwell on people’s offences, or injustices that have been done to us or the nastiness of their attitude or […]
AN ATTITUDE OF LOVE
Once when Jesus’ opponents were trying to catch him out, one of them was so impressed with his answers that he asked what seems to have been a genuine question, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ Jesus answered, ‘The most important one is this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the […]
AGAPE IS UNCONDITIONAL
Agape, God’s kind of love, is unconditional. C. S. Lewis describes it in these terms: ‘Divine Gift-love…is wholly disinterested and desires what is simply best for the beloved.’ Not uninterested, but disinterested. With no desire for personal gain or benefit. The whole object of agape is the welfare of the one who receives love. This […]
LOVE IS A CHOICE
To love is to choose. When God chose Israel, it was not because of what Israel could do for him, but because of what he could do for her (Deuteronomy 7:7-9). God’s love for Israel had nothing to do with her merit or skill or worth. He simply chose to love her. There was nothing […]
COMPASSION MEANS ACTION
The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:33) is very well known. The point is that it is not enough to feel sorry for someone. Such feeling must result in positive action. For many years, it was our family custom to decide how we would celebrate Christmas dinner. One year, when we lived across the […]
SEEING THROUGH THE EYES OF JESUS
Nine times in the synoptic gospels, there is reference to Jesus having compassion. It was something that he felt deep down. When Jesus looked at the crowds that followed him, many of them diseased and distressed, both Matthew and Mark tell us that he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, ‘like […]
WE NEED FRIENDS
Affectionate love is a reflection of the image of God. If we want to live the kind of life that God wants us to live, then we need to learn how to be more spontaneous and warm in our love for one another. As a whole person, I need the love of my fellows. And […]