"I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen." (Luther's Morning Prayer)
Saturday, November 18, 2023 - Day 322 - (Today’s Bible readings: Daniel 11:20-45; Psalm 119:97-104; 1 John 2:28-3:10)
LOVE IN ACTION
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18 ESV)
Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross is the ultimate display of love in action. John tells us to be willing to lay down our lives for others. Then he gets specific: “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?”
The picture shows a man putting his love into action by giving a cup of something warm to what appears to be a homeless man.
We all have opportunities to share the love of God with people in need. The person is helped, and we get to serve Jesus.
1. Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
brought here together by Christ's love,
by love we thus are bound.
2. With grateful joy and holy fear
His charity we learn;
let us with heart and mind and soul
now love God in return.
3. Forgive we now each other's faults
as we our own confess,
and let us love each other well
in Christian holiness.
4. Let strife among us be unknown;
let all contentions cease;
be God's the glory that we seek;
be ours His holy peace.
5. Let us recall that in our midst
dwells Christ, His only Son;
as members of His body joined,
we are in Him made one.
6. For love excludes no race or clan
that names the Savior’s name;
his family embraces all
whose Father is the same.
(Where Charity and Love Prevail, Lutheran Service Book #845)
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your sacrificial death. May I copy Your example of love in action and not merely in words. Amen.
“See” you in church tomorrow!
Pastor David Paape
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