LOVE, INC.

I recently saw the above listing for an organization, and assumed it meant Love Incorporated, but I found out it meant "Love---In the Name of Christ", a very interesting name for a group of believers!

They had based their name on a verse of scripture in Paul's letter to the church in Colosse (Col 3:17)

In the NLT it reads "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father". These people were from various churches in their area who decided they wanted to help needy and hurting people in the name of Jesus. The Word of God is literally saturated with the word "love", and indeed it should be portrayed by everyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus! Right? But sad to say even a brief survey of church history will reveal something very different! Over the years churches have fought with each other, divided into different groups, and even some religious wars were started by people bearing the name of Christ. Certainly not a very good track record for followers of Jesus the "Prince of peace"!

John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, was known as the "Apostle of love", because he wrote so much about the love of God. A good example of this is found in his first epistle (1 John 4:7-12). Just read these few verses and count how many times he uses some form of the word love! For example "God is love", and "if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us" etc. This passage, as well as many others, clearly show that love for God, and love for one another, should be the trademark of followers of Jesus! We need to ask ourselves often "how well does my life show forth the love of Christ?"

What are a few ways that we can show this love? Maybe within your own immediate family might be a good place to start, then your close neighbor could be next, then the cashier at the grocery store etc. Most people respond to real love shown to them, so it shouldn't be hard to get started. We don't need to be a Bible School graduate either, to qualify as someone who can spread the love of Christ around! Any follower of Jesus can be used. The Holy Spirit who indwells believers in Jesus, is just waiting for us to give Him an opportunity to express the love of Christ! Why not allow Him to work through you to show forth the love of Christ this week?

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

KINGDOM APPRENTICES

It seems to me that God has always been looking for people who are willing to become apprentices in His Kingdom! In the scriptures we can read about Joshua, who is a good example of what God is looking for in an apprentice. He was apprenticed to Moses, who was a chosen vessel to lead God's people out of bondage in Egypt. Under the watchful eye of Moses Joshua learned valuable lessons that would benefit him as he led the Israelites across the Jordan, into their promised land. Some employer has rightly said, a good apprentice is "someone who wants to learn"! We should keep this in mind as we consider all that is involved in becoming a productive citizen in the Kingdom of God! Joshua lived in the shadow of Moses for some 40 years, an extremely long time to be an apprentice! Of course there was much to learn in order to be prepared for the task of leading this nation of rebels! By watching Moses, he learned many things that couldn't be learned from a book. He gained experience as a "spy" (Num 13:16), as a "warrior" (Ex 17:10), as a "faithful servant" (Ex 24:12-13), he learned how to be "humble" in the face of unjust criticism (Num 12:3), and he even learned from the display of Moses' temper (Num 20:7-12). So when it came his turn to become leader after the death of Moses, Joshua was fully equipped to take on this responsibility. (Josh 1:1-7)

One important aspect of becoming a good apprentice in any trade is to be apprenticed to a good employer, who will make sure you are exposed to all sorts of situations from which to gain experience. Some employers only use their apprentices as cheap labour, for example using them as a delivery boy, instead of putting them with an experienced tradesman so they can learn their trade. When we sign up as an apprentice in the Kingdom of God, we can be sure we have a good employer who will expose us to everything we need to become useful and mature citizens in His Kingdom! This accounts for Him allowing us to undergo certain trials or tests that may not seem fair to us at the time, but rest assured He knows what He is doing! These are lessons that we must learn, and He knows we could not learn them any other way! There's an old saying that "experience is the best teacher", and the lessons we learn the hard way are the ones we remember. So the next time you feel like you are going through a hard time, just remember that your heavenly Father knows best, and will not allow it to last longer than necessary (1 Cor 10:13).

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE THREE C's

I recently read a little booklet, written back in 1987 by Bruce Wilkinson. He called it "The Three Chairs", and in it he explained how generations can slip from one chair to the next, in a downward slide! He called the first chair "commitment", the second chair "compromise", and the third chair "conflict". In this article I will try to summarize the truth he was teaching, about these three stages of decline in basic values. We see this decline today in families, in churches, and in our entire social structure!

1/ Commitment---This is a firm belief in something or someone that takes priority over anything else in your life. We can call it a "conviction" that we will hold to, no matter whether anyone else does or not. This calls for an "absolute" source of values to base our conviction on, and that source can only come from a proper understanding of the Word of God, the Holy Bible! Jesus said "I am the truth" (John 14:6), and He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit, who would lead us into all truth. (John 16:13-15). Yielding to the prompting of the Spirit then is the only way to hold to your convictions, or commitments! (Rom 8:14), and (Gal 5:16-18).

2/ Compromise---This is when we lose our conviction about a certain value we have held, and for some reason or other we change our mind, and embrace a new value system. This can be the result of many different influences in our life. It might be "peer pressure" from our family or friends, or just not being willing anymore to be the "odd man out", which comes from not being able to enter in to things other people do, because of our convictions. This could be "fear based", and God's Word clearly tells us we are not to fear! In (2 Tim 1:7) Paul states "For God has not given us the spirit of fear---". This tells us two things, 1/ fear is a spirit, and 2/ it's not from God. Therefore it must originate from our enemy's kingdom of darkness and is to be resisted! (James 4:7), and (1 Peter 1:14-16)

3/ Conflict---This is a natural consequence of compromising our conviction on something we have held for some time. Because we know we are going against a conviction given to us by God, this is bound to bring conflict in our spirit! When this happens the only way to get back to where we were with our relationship with the Lord is through "repentance"! (1 John 1:9)

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer