SPIRITUALITY AND FAITH
interview at the funeral Clara said “Joe told me if anything happened to him, he wanted me to remarry. And I told him ‘No, no.’ Here I am, still his wife, and I’m going to remain his wife until the day the Lord calls me home.” What love! By the way she forgave the North Koreans as well for killing and keeping her lover.
WE ARE CALLED TO LOVE THE WAY HE LOVES
A. We are to be kind and forgiving people as Jesus is! Having received God’s love and grace, Jesus told us in John 15:12, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” But Jesus didn’t stop there! In Matt 5:43-45 Jesus said, “You have heard it said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” To put it in another way, we are called to love “supernaturally”.
This was shown by Maria Dyer born in 1837 in China where her parents were pioneer missionaries. Both her parents died when Maria was a little girl, and she was sent back to England to be raised by an uncle. The loss of her parents, however, did not deter her from the importance of sharing the gospel of love to those who needed God. At age 16 she and her sister, returned to China to work in a girl’s school as a missionary herself. Five years later, she married Hudson Taylor, a man well-known today for his life of ministry, faith and sacrifice.
Hudson and Maria’s work was resisted and often criticized—even by other Christians. At one-point Maria wrote, “As to the harsh judging of the world, and the
painful misunderstandings of Christian brethren, I generally feel that the best plan is to go on with our work and leave God to vindicate our cause.” Of their 9 children, only four survived to adulthood. Maria herself died of cholera when she was just 43 years old. But she believed the cause was worthy of the sacrifice. On her grave marker are the words: “For her to live was Christ and to die was gain.” Maria along with these verses in Ephesians show...
B. We are to love unconditionally and sacrificially as Jesus does! God’s love has no favorites and no conditions. It is radical and sacrificial. It is unconditional reaching out to everyone as partakers of His divine nature. God has not called us to do something unreasonable or impossible. He calls us to love because He has given us that love. We Are Called to Love the Way He Loves, with the Love He Gives! We are love with I John 4:7 and 19 Love …“love comes from God” and “love because He first loved us.” God deposits His love in our heart and calls us to release it.
WE ARE CALLED TO A NEW WALK
FOR A NEW LIFE
A. We are walk in that for which we have been Created and fulfill God’s good work (Eph. 2:10). You and I are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. We were created in Christ Jesus to live a life of love. We are to demonstrate our saving faith by living out in serving faith what God has prepared for us as born-again children of God! For this we must overcome the problem of our heads (vanity of our mind), hearts (tossed