I had a thought the today: "God, I know that all people are not going to love me, but please give me the grace to love them."
There is no way that we can make every person on earth love us. There will be inevitable personality differences. I know that I have met some people, and after a few minutes of acquaintance, I knew that they were going to be difficult for me to love, and that they would have a difficult time loving me. The religious and political differences between us were just too great. There was not a point of connection that we could make. The only point of connection that we had was that we were both human beings. My question to myself is, is being fellow human beings enough for me to love another person? There is a part of me that says "no" to this question. Given our political and religious differences, where is the connection to be made? That is a good question, and it is a difficult to give an honest answer. There is a powerful inclination to love those who agree with us and see the world as we see it. We can discuss world issues with those who agree with us and shake hands with them and gladly call them friend. But what about those who do not agree with us? I can only answer this as a believer in Jesus Christ. I ask myself, "Did Jesus die on the cross for this person?" If my answer is "no" then I believe that Jesus did not die for the whole world, but only for those in the whole wide world who agree with me. This might limit the circumference of Christ's love to a corner of Southwest Georgia. (A small corner of Southwest Georgia.) This made me take another look at John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 tells us that God loves the world. It does not limit the love of God to a small corner of Southwest Georgia, where I live, but it says that God loves the world. We used to sing a song in church when I was a child: "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." I never questioned the reality of the truth in this song, but the practice of the proposition of this song was another question. Did I really believe that Jesus loved "all of the little children of the world"? I truly believe that now at the age of 88, but did I believe that at the age of 10? I think that I did believe that, but I did not realize the implications of what it meant. It took a few years for that implication to become clear to me. Jesus really does love all of the people of the world. I spent several years in my years of ministry as an Associational Missionary in Southwest Georgia. One of my personal ministries was to both of the prisons in Mitchell County, the county work farm, and the Georgia State Prison. That work involved all who would come, as the song of my youth said: "Red and Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in His sight." The song, however, did not warn me that they would be felons. If I was going to spend hours each week in those two prisons, I really had to believe "red and yellow, black, and white, (and felons) they are precious in His sight." I spent twenty three years in prison ministry, and I really came to believe that "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight." This article is long enough. Believe the message of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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