Dean Cotes from
family ministries came to share with us today. He asked the question "What
family do I belong to" and he talked for a while about how families have
changed over the past few decades and what a vast difference there is today
from sixty years ago. He also talked about family resemblance, and how if we
know the family we can see the family likeness but even so everyone is unique
with their own character and needs. A loving family will support each other, be
there for one another in times of trouble and cheer each other on in their
accomplishments, families are important.
If we are a Christian
then we belong to the family of God, and we may all be different but we all
should have a family resemblance to the Father and to Jesus. And this is
portrayed in how we treat one another, how we help one another, how we share in
each other’s joys and sorrows. God’s Word makes it clear that if we do not love
our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we don’t love God.
1 John 3
In this the children of God and the children of the
devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God,
nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the
message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not
as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother.
And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s
righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we
have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not
love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By
this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this
world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him,
how does the love of God abide in him?
This love also
extends beyond the family to those who are lost, and by the way we act, by the
compassion and care we show to them, they will see the love of Christ in us. Dean shared with us what the Helping Hand Appeal will be doing this year. They have called it, Waves of Transformation, transforming lives by the simple act of supplying clean water to those who are without. Every minute, everyday, people suffer and lives are lost needlessly because of a lack of safe water and sanitation. so when we give each week to Helping Hands we will be helping others in other countries, people who we could not normally reach.
Colossians 3:12
Let us go out into the world with love in our hearts,
Let us go our into the world with love in our hearts,
Love is patient love is king,
And leaves selfishness behind,
Let us go our into the world with love in our hearts.
Let us go out into the world with Christ in our hearts,
Let us go out into the world with Christ in our hearts,
He will take away our sin,
and new life will then begin.
Let us go out into the world with Christ in our hearts,
