The Greatest of These is Love

There was a Dial deodorant soap commercial when I was younger. Their slogan was, "Aren't you glad you use Dial? Don't you wish everybody did?"

Well, that's my slogan now; "Aren't you glad you know the Lord? Don't you wish everybody did?"

I'm thinking about three things;
  1. Love,
  2. Evangelization 
  3. Alpha.
In that order. Because that's the order of their priority.

1a) The greatest of these is love. First the love of God for us. Before we knew Him, He loved us. He so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that whoever came to believe in him would not perish but have eternal life, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is the greatest love.

1b)Next, our love for God. When we realize His love for us, then what He did in expressing that love - sending His son to die, and when He fills us with His Holy Spirit, we realize the true depth of this love and we want to repay that love by serving and glorifying Him.

1c)Then our love for others, and as a result, the second thing;

2. Evangelization. If we love others, then we want to communicate this wonderful gift of God's love to them. We serve and glorify God by telling others; by introducing others to that first wonderful love and telling them about the beautiful relationship with God that is available to them.

Which leads to the third thing:

3. Alpha. Alpha is the best way I've ever found to accomplish that second thing; telling others. It is the simplest thing. All one has to do is invite. All one has to say is, "Would you like to come to an Alpha course with me?" It is so simple I'm amazed how difficult it is to get people to do it.

Jesus told his followers two things: he told us to go into all the world and make disciples, and he told us we would be his witnesses. The first was an order, the second was a statement of fact. In other words, he did not tell us to be his witness, he just told us we would be. What that means is, however we live our lives, the world is watching, so we can be good witnesses or we can be bad.

But the first was an order. We are to make disciples. Imagine if your earthly employer gave you a project and you didn't do it. You would be fired, or at least disciplined. Imagine then standing before Jesus and saying about the project he has given you, "I didn't do it." What do you think will be his attitude? 

So find an Alpha course, or start one, and invite someone to it. Those things Jesus said? You'll have them both covered.

Blessings,

John

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