He Loves Me!

Have you ever wondered whether or not God loves you?  Maybe you have done something bad, like telling a lie, taking something that didn't belong to you, or maybe you have disobeyed another of his commandments.  Does God still love you?  To get the answer, you might play the "He loves me — He loves me not" game? You know how to play that game, don't you?  You take a flower, usually a daisy, and you pluck out the petals one at a time and with each one you take turns saying, "He loves me. . . He loves me not." The very last petal you pull out is supposed to tell you whether he loves you or not.  Do you think that is a good way to know if God loves you?  I don't think so.

To show how much God loves us, Jesus told a story about a man who had two sons.  One day, the younger of the two sons went to his father and asked him to give him all the money that would be his when his father died.  The father agreed and gave the boy his inheritance.  A few days later, the son packed all of his belongings and left home.  He went to a far away country and there he wasted all of his money in wild living.  When all of his money ran out, he went to a local farmer and asked him for a job.  The farmer hired him and sent him out to feed his pigs.  The young man was so hungry that even the food that he was feeding to the pigs looked good to him.

When the young man finally came to his senses, he realized that even his father's servants had a better life than he did. He said to himself, "I will return to my father and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against you and against heaven. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Please let me come back home and be one of your servants.'"

The boy began his journey home to his father.  While he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.  Filled with love, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.  The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against both you and heaven, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

But his father called his servants and said to them, "Quick!  Bring the finest robe and put it on my son. Place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Kill the calf we have been fattening and prepare a feast.  Let the celebration begin! My son was lost, but now he is found!"

You see, the father's love was not dependent on the behavior of the son.  The father loved his children regardless of their behavior.  That's the way it is with God's love for his children.  There is nothing we can do to be deserving of his love.  His love is undeserved, unending, and unconditional.

Be My Valentine

It is almost time for one of my favorite holidays — Valentine Day. It is a very special day because it is a time when we tell our friends, family members, and sweethearts how much we love them. There are many ways to tell that special someone how much we love them.  It is always sweet to say it with chocolate. One of the most popular ways is to give your sweetheart a Valentine card.

Valentine cards may be sweet or they may be funny. They may be warm and friendly, or they may be very romantic. I always spend a lot of time choosing a card for my wife because I want  her just how much I love her. I know that my wife likes to hear me say I love her, but do you know what she likes even more? She likes for me to show her how much I love her. One day I asked my wife to make a list of things that I could do to show her that I love her. This is what she wrote:

• hold me
• kiss me
• hold my hand
• spend time with me
• take me out to eat
• take me out to a movie
• help me with the housework
• wash the dishes
• send me flowers.

Sure, my wife likes for me to tell her I love her -- but she likes it even more when I show her.

Do you think Jesus likes to hear us tell him how much we love him? I am sure that he does, but I think he likes it even more when we show him how much we love him. How do we do that? Well, you know that list my wife made? Jesus made a list too! The list that he made can be found right here in the Bible. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)  If we want to show Jesus how much we love him, we will read his Word and do what he told us to do. When you tell Jesus you love him, remember that he likes it even more when you show him — by keeping his commandments.

The Uttermost Part of the Earth

When I was a child, I was a member of an organization in our church called Royal Ambassadors.  We met every week and studied Scripture and learned about the lives of missionaries like William Carey, Adoniram Judson, David Livingston, and Lottie Moon.  We also learned about our responsibility to share the love of Christ with others.  One particular Bible verse that I remember learning was Acts 1:8. "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (King James Version was all we had in those days.) When we learned that Scripture verse, the teacher explained to us that it meant that it was our responsibility to share the Good News to those in our town, in our state, in our country, and finally, to the "uttermost part of the earth." The first part of that challenge was pretty easy to understand, even for an eight-year-old boy, but how was I to share the Good News to the whole world?  I never dreamed that God would lead me into a ministry called Sermons4Kids that would allow me to do that very thing!

The first week of October 2015 I received an email from a Sunday School teacher in a small town near Nairobi, Kenya asking if Sermons4Kids could send him our Curriculum CDs.  This week, I received an email saying that the CDs had arrived and attached to the email were ten photos of children using the activity sheets and coloring pages that are included in our lessons.  What a thrill!  I did a search on Google and learned that it is 8,884 miles from Abilene, Texas to Nairobi, Kenya. There are probably places that are further from Abilene than that, but it sure seemed like "the uttermost part of the earth" to me.

Thank you, Father, for allowing me to have a part in sharing the Good News to children all over the world.