“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18
As I drove home from a prayer meeting at Church yesterday a song on Prime Country had a phrase “All gave some and some gave all” that caught my attention. It was a song with a patriotic theme so one can understand what the writer may have been saying but consider how that phrase reads after reading the above verses from first John. These children attend the Lutheran school in Dondon which is just a few minutes from the Citadel fortress in Northern Haiti. Our Trinity/HOPE mission team was sharing a devotion with the ‘whole’ school and you can see the white room partitions were rolled up so we to all be together. Each of these boys and girls are learning about Jesus Christ and all of them will have many opportunities to share the Gospel news in their lifetime and a few of them may spend their lifetime giving all their time sharing the love of Jesus as teachers, missionaries and Pastors and workers in the Kingdom. We too have choices as we prayerfully use our time, talents and treasures to help others who are working in the mission fields near and far off. May we seek His guidance and follow His directions to accomplish His will. I am closing today with the words from the hymn ‘We give Thee but Thine own’ that were written by William W. How in 1854.
“We give Thee but Thine own, whate'er the gift may be; all that we have is Thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from Thee. May we Thy bounties thus as stewards true receive and gladly, as Thou blessest us, to Thee our first-fruits give! Oh, hearts are bruised and dead, and homes are bare and cold, and lambs for whom the Shepherd bled are straying from the fold. To comfort and to bless, to find a balm for woe, to tend the lone and fatherless, is angels' work below. The captive to release, to God the lost to bring, to teach the way of life and peace, it is a Christlike thing. And we believe Thy Word, though dim our faith may be: whate'er for Thine we do, O Lord, we do it unto Thee.”
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay