Real Love

Thursday's Devotion (3-23-06)

"He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." 1 John 2:9 (KJV)

I'm not sure that there's any scripture more important than this one, except, "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Have you ever met someone that acted all "holy," but the moment you do something they don't like they start to treat you bad? Unfortunately, I've met too many of these people. I've also met too many people that have been negatively effected by those people. People that say, "Yeah, I know how your religion is: You judge me for all my wrongs, and then you go and do worse!" Because of the 'Christians' that don't treat everyone with love and respect, the rest of us suffer greatly. Christianity is not a game to be used to control people. Christianity isn't a game at all! Don't play with it like it is. Don't hate in the name of Christianity (or Jesus,) because our faith isn't about hate. If you don't have love for everyone else, then you can't have love for God. If you don't have love for God, then you can't be saved. It's as simple as that. So, the next time a 'believer' treats you like trash you just remember that's not how it's supposed to be. That's not how it is IF a person is doing right by God.

If you're one of these people, then I want you to realize what people like you have caused. Because of your hate, and because you hated in the name of Christianity... There are millions of people who reject Christ every single day. I know some of those people. I feel bad that they had to meet all the wrong Christians first. What is love? Well, love doesn't condemn. Love doesn't hold grudges, love doesn't harm other people. What love does do is help others where ever possible, it treats everyone with kindness, and it is eternal. Real love doesn't change, it doesn't leave. Meaning you can't just love someone because they did something good, but then the moment they do something bad you stop loving them. That's not love. If that's how love worked, then we would all be condemned right now. I did something bad tonight, something bad last night, and I always do something bad. Everyone does, there's no way around sin. But there is a way to defeat sin - Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ saved you, and He's able to save whoever else HE CHOOSES!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message, and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins, and we forgive all those who've wronged us. Help us to love everyone and to hold no grudges. Draw us closer to you, and to each other. In Jesus name. A-men!

God bless!

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