BY OUR LOVE

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself.  It's as if they are showing you the way.   - Donald Miller

I snatched this quote from Reader's Digest before I tossed out the old magazine.  I pondered the quote after my first reading.  What do I love and what would I want others to be excited about? 

I first thought of foosball and how my girls enjoy a rousing game - especially if it means beating dad.  They love the game and play it when they can and it started with us.  It started with my enjoyment of the game passed on to them.

I enjoy the Hebrew language.  When I first studied Hebrew, it was to fill a requirement in my M.Div. program.  But taking Hebrew from Allen Guenther and Elmer Martens was not about requirements.  It was about learning to love a language they both loved.  I still remember Allen saying with fire, "Read the Hebrew Scriptures in the original even if you cannot translate it all.  It will transform you!"  I know he meant the transformation would come through the reading of the Word, but I could tell he was full of passion for its original language.

How we love something will tell others how important it is.  Take the disciples of Jesus.  I don't mean the ones in the Bible,  I mean the ones who worship each week in churches and join for Bible study and prayer groups.  I mean the disciples who live today and confess their love for the Lord.  Would you follow Jesus based on what you see?

Jesus said that the world would know who his followers were by their love for each other.  Is this evident among the followers of Jesus today?

The intent of these questions is both reflective and evaluative.  I mean to make the followers of Jesus (of which I am one) consider how their lives demonstrate a passionate love for the Savior.  It is also evaluative.  Do we have a love for Jesus that would cause someone else to take notice and want to love Him  as well?

I really hope I demonstrate that kind of love.  If others do not see it, then I pray that the Lord will continue to draw that kind of love out of me and that my love for Jesus will cause followers and seekers of Jesus to want to love Him more.

It is not like we are without an example.  See what kind of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God.  And that is what we are.  1 John 3