Living a Life of Love #1
God’s plan for this world is to burn it up (1 Pet. 3:3-10)! What will abide out of this world after the fire of God are two things: the Word of God (Mat. 24:35) and people (Rev. 7:9; 22:5). God loves people. When deciding on an inheritance for Himself, He chose to give Himself people (Deut. 32:8-9). God desires to be with people forever and plans to share all of His creation with them. People who live with the unseen world’s values will invest in people because people are eternal and valuable to God.
God so loved people that He sent His Son to die for them! The people of this world who do not yet know Christ must be given the opportunity to believe. Believers will have to go and tell them of Christ’s death and resurrection. For many this will mean leaving family, friends, and their home culture in order to take the gospel to those who have never heard. It will take the attitude of the Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, who served in India, Japan, and Southeast Asia. He said he longed to be back in Paris, “to go shouting up and down the streets to tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ.” [i]
Not only do these people need to repent and believe the gospel, but afterwards they must be established in their new-found life in Christ. The Apostle Paul was moved by love to impart the gospel and his life as he followed-up the converts of his ministry. He wrote, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (1 Thes. 2:8).
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7
These young believers will need someone who can come along side them and help them understand the Bible and apply it to life situations. It will not take spiritual giants, but a person who is just a little farther along in their pilgrimage who is willing to share with others what they have learned. Someone put it this way, “It’s like a new patient who has checked into a hospital getting help from some other patients. They can help because they know the hospital, having been there a little longer than the new patient.”
[i] Give Up Your Small Ambitions by Michael C. Griffiths, Moody Press Chicago, Illinois 1978 p.6
Developing Kingdom Leaders - Tom Yeakley 