Quote from Forum Archives on October 22, 2002, 3:00 am

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

I have three young children, and we try to get them to watch
wholesome things instead of just TV programs. In fact, they
watch very little TV, per se, but we've compromised by having a
good variety of children's videos for them when they want to be
"entertained". One of the ones that I like myself is the Steve
Green "Hide It In Your Heart" series. In this video series,
Steve Green shares scriptures with children and puts them to song
and action.

One of the songs that sticks in my mind comes from a scripture
that I've often quoted here: Matthew 22:36-40. In it, some of
the words say... "You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart... and you shall love your neighbor as you love
yourself..." (On these two things depend ALL the Law and the
Prophets...).

The early church clearly understood and practiced these
principles in everything they did. Today's message from Bob Gass
is about just that - loving and serving others. Jesus showed us;
He served in every possible way, and He gave Himself in every
possible way. Even as God, He gave up His position and became
lowly, ordinary, and fully human. Scripture says that He was
fully God, yet fully man. Only God could possibly pull that off!

Do you love God enough to love people, and if you love, are you
ready to lay down your life for others, thinking of Christ and
serving Him? Make no mistake about it, this is a costly choice.
It involves giving up self. But what's the alternative? Living
for self, only to lose everything? God wants us to give it all
up, in order to gain everything - a return to an eternal
relationship with Him. Unless our inner attitudes (our spirit)
has been changed by the Spirit of God, we cannot do any of this.
But if we earnestly seek God, He will pour out His Spirit upon
us, cause His Spirit to dwell within us, and enable us to do
things that were formerly impossible to do. For nothing is
impossible with God. Do you believe that? How about acting upon
what you believe and take on the attitude of a servant - but only
if you're serving under the submissive spirit of serving our
Gracious and loving Creator!

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

WORD FOR TODAY by Bob Gass 22 Oct 2002

Loving the Lord - and others!

" FOR EVEN THE SON OF MAN DID NOT COME TO BE SERVED, BUT TO
SERVE, AND TO GIVE HIS LIFE " MARK 10 : 45 (NIV)

No two ways about it, if you love the Lord, you'll love people
and lay down your life (your comforts, your rights, your
schedule, etc.) for them. Read the Gospels; you can't escape the
fact that the Lord's first love was always for people; people of
all races, in all situations, whether powerful or not, acceptable
or not, young and beautiful or covered with sores - even
children. How many destinies were changed when He stopped, and
stooped, to bless them?

The early church understood this. They shared everything (see
Acts 2:44). They were even willing to sell their possessions to
take care of one another. Rather than thinking of their own
needs, they thought of others first - amazingly, their own needs
were taken care of in the process. That's how it works! Their
willingness to serve one another humbly also brought them favour
with outsiders, who were then introduced to God's love.

When you give yourself to God, you become committed to what He's
committed to - loving people. Bruce Wilkinson points out: 'God
didn't come to the Garden of Eden to tend His prize-winning
grapes, He came to tend His children. Christ didn't come to erect
public buildings, shore up retirement accounts, write a literary
masterpiece, or win a seat on the school board of governors.' No,
He came for hurting people, to put their lives on track, to give
them joy. Hey there, goal- oriented, purpose-driven,
time-conscious, go-getter, are you forgetting something? Others!

Printed copies of "The Word for Today" are available free from
UCB, PO Box 255, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 8YY, England.
<www.ucb.co.uk>

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION As a gift to the body of Christ, permission
is given to churches and Christian organisations to copy up to a
maximum of 52 daily excerpts per year. Such excerpts must
acknowledge: The Word for Today as the source, give the UCB
address and inform that free issues of the daily devotional are
available.

--

The email version of Word for Today is posted by ChristianNet.

ChristianNet is not funded by any denomination or organisation.

Email: christiannet@frater.net Fax (US): 1 530 325 6040 Fax (UK):
44 (0)870 133 0807 WWW: www.christiannet.frater.net
Donations:
www.paypal.com/xclick/business=alistar%40frater.net&item_name=ChristianNet

To subscribe to this list, send an email message to
maiser@frater.net, placing the following in the first line of the
message body: SUB WFT

To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message to
maiser@frater.net, placing the following in the first line of the
message body: UNSUB WFT

If you want to have your say, join the WFTtalk discussion list by
sending an email message to maiser@frater.net, placing the
following in the first line of the message body: SUB WFTtalk

=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
webhosting.yahoo.com/