The Gift
The Gift
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
1 John 3:16
If you struggle to love others I know why! You probably won’t like the answer...
Do you know why we can know what real love is. Because Jesus, the Son of God...God in the flesh...the One who created all things including you and I, cared so much for us, His creation that He showed us the greatest gift. It is a perpetual gift. In other words a gift that keeps on giving. This gift is so powerful it has moved mountains. This gift is so tender it softens the hardest of hearts. Dr. Seuss even understood this when he gave us the story of the cold, hard, tiny hearted Grinch. Christmas would not exist and could not exist without this glorious gift.
God’s Word tells us how we can know what this gift is in so many places, but today we see it in 1 John 3:16 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” You guessed it...this gift is Love. Love that we simply would not know if God had not showed us what it really looks like. It looks like giving over who we are for someone else. It is because God showed His love to me that I can now show it to others, and this is accomplished when I give up who I am so someone else can benefit.
Do you struggle to show that love to others? Do you know why? I do...you haven’t known...I mean really known just how much God loves you...it is His gift to you and if you will receive that gift of love, you might learn how to show love. You have to know love to show love. Let that simmer for a bit.
Pastor Larry Hof
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
1 John 3:16
If you struggle to love others I know why! You probably won’t like the answer...
Do you know why we can know what real love is. Because Jesus, the Son of God...God in the flesh...the One who created all things including you and I, cared so much for us, His creation that He showed us the greatest gift. It is a perpetual gift. In other words a gift that keeps on giving. This gift is so powerful it has moved mountains. This gift is so tender it softens the hardest of hearts. Dr. Seuss even understood this when he gave us the story of the cold, hard, tiny hearted Grinch. Christmas would not exist and could not exist without this glorious gift.
God’s Word tells us how we can know what this gift is in so many places, but today we see it in 1 John 3:16 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” You guessed it...this gift is Love. Love that we simply would not know if God had not showed us what it really looks like. It looks like giving over who we are for someone else. It is because God showed His love to me that I can now show it to others, and this is accomplished when I give up who I am so someone else can benefit.
Do you struggle to show that love to others? Do you know why? I do...you haven’t known...I mean really known just how much God loves you...it is His gift to you and if you will receive that gift of love, you might learn how to show love. You have to know love to show love. Let that simmer for a bit.
Pastor Larry Hof
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