Encouragement
I heard a good statement this week -
"Falling in love is easy, but staying in love is difficult"
On September 13th, La Moyne and I will have been married 56 yrs.
With declining physical health, spiritual health must become even more important.
While pastoring Kona Baptist Church on the Big Island of Hawaii, I was asked to preach the closing sermon at the annual Baptist Association of Churches. I thought long and hard about it. Though most people usually think of Hawaii as Paradise, satan thinks of it as his territory too.
My message entitled "The More Excellent Way" from I Corinthians 13.....
with the last verse being the key verse.
"Now abides Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is Love."
I emphasized all three.....
(1) FAITH sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible.
FAITH is not only knowing where you are going, but Whom you are following.
FAITH goes all the way with Jesus, Who went all the way for us!
(2) HOPE is what keeps you going.
In his book "Eternal Hope" Emil Brunner wrote:
"What oxygen is for the lungs, HOPE is the meaning of the human life.
Take oxygen away and death occurs...take HOPE away and humanity dies."
(3) Therefore, if FAITH is how you know where you are going...and HOPE keeps you going, then LOVE is how you get there. All of I Corinthians 13 is about Christ-like LOVE and it's value....presently and Eternally.
In Verse 1, we see the value of LOVE. Without LOVE, you are a 'zero'...or nothing.
A man who committed suicide, left a note beside his body in his car which read...
"You have to have LOVE to live!"
There is an old song entitled 'The World is Dying For The Want of a Little Bit of Love'.
Vs. 4-7 tells us about the virtues of LOVE if we are to be victorious in life.
A lady in Los Angeles told a new home missionary...
"To do any good here, you will have to LOVE the hell out of us!"
I John 4:7-8 emphasizes that "God is LOVE"....so if we belong to God, we will LOVE!
"The LOVE of Christ is to control and motivate us." (II Cor. 5:14)
Christ-like LOVE is not 'selective', but a commitment to love...
~anybody
~anytime
~anywhere!
Wherever we have lived, my Moyne left behind many people who loved her unconditional-kind of LOVE!
When I pastored in Hawaii, she understood that LOVE is something you do....
and 'why' you do what you do.
The people loved her dearly and we still hear from many precious people we met along the way.
Therefore with FAITH, HOPE and LOVE we can:
~fight the good fight
~finish the course
~and hear God say...."Well done thou good and faithful servant."
Thank you my Moyne, for being a good example of FAITH, HOPE and especially LOVE these 56 yrs. It has been a great journey!
God's not through with us yet....may we continue to live His kind of LOVE!
When La Moyne was in her teens, she sang 'The Love of God' at First Baptist Church, Hobart, Okla (her home church) then when her family moved to Colorado Springs, Colo. she sang it at her home church there.
Her Pastor (Dr. W.C. Bryant) wrote to the Choir Director at Wayland Baptist University about La Moyne's beautiful voice.
Dr. Shelby Collier flew up from Texas and after hearing her sing 'The Love of God',
he offered her a voice scholarship to Wayland.
'The Love Of God'
Words: Frederick Martin Lehman
Music: Mr Lehman's daughter Claudia (Mrs. W.W. Mays)
"The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song"
At the end of this song, La Moyne would always sing the words of "Amazing Grace"
to the tune of 'The Love of God' chorus. It was very thought provoking.
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I always love reading your articles because they transmit the love of God through your words. This one was extra special in that respect. Thank you and I pray God blesses you both for many more years. The Love of God is one of my favorite hymns. The last verse is priceless! Love you both,
In Christ,
Julia