DownTown Tampa, 6:00 AM
Theoretically, today is the first day of a week-long work marathon where I get absolutely everything on my “to-do” list squared away.
I won’t bore you with every single detail (plus I don’t want the accountability of people knowing too much!), but I will admit to The List including things like:
- “Clean my study,”
- “Do the taxes,”
- “Outline (and possibly write a few chapters of) my next book,”
- “Take care of a couple of major home-ownership headaches….”
Waiting for grandmama Rebekah
GRANDCHILD TIME: The occasion for such confident planage (I know “planage” is not a real word, but I’ve decided it should be) is the fact that Rebekah is on her way to Connecticut for some serious post-Easter grandchild therapy. Theoretically this puts me in a good position to concentrate on several marathon work sessions.
The best thing about getting to the airport before 6:00 AM is the absence of traffic. Both ways. Consequently I was back home walking the dog by 6:30 and at my desk before 8:00.
GOSPEL OF LOVE: The first thing I read was my daily devotional from The Upper Room. Here’s today’s suggested reading, taken from 1 John 4:7-12
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
What a great summary of the Gospel message! If I really want people to see God and to be drawn closer to God through my work and my life – and I believe that I do – then the clarity of my witness is necessarily correlated to the quality of my love.
Here’s the thing about Jesus; he loved selflessly and he loved indiscriminately.
No approach to introducing people to the message of salvation is more effective or Christlike than living love out loud.
No approach to introducing people to the message of salvation is more effective or Christlike than living love out loud. God’s love, John says, is “perfected” in us. Another way of translating “perfected” is “made complete.” In other words, God’s plan to love the world actually counts on disciples of Jesus loving with God’s kind of love.
Otherwise, the scripture says, the conclusion is that we really don’t know God.
PRAYER: Teach me the Jesus quality of love, dear God; live in me, and love through me. Amen - DEREK
No comments:
Post a Comment