Month of Genuine Love

Last week I’ve written a reflection on what the Spirituality is – Loving Relationships, Passion for God. The essence of Biblical Spirituality is defined in the Old and New Testaments as Love!
The shema of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and Jesus’ Rule (Mark 12:29-31) echo this call for Spirituality: “The Lord our God is the one and only Lord! And thou shall LOVE the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind, and with ALL thy strength…thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Spirituality is a passionate love, a relationship with God and people! How spiritual are you is determined by how “hot” is your loving relationship with God and godly people. I must pause here for a moment, because we often hear one-sided focus on loving people. Today my sermon, leading to the Communion service will explore this passage more, inviting all to consider that it is impossible to love partially. We cannot love God with some of our mind, or just our heart, but with ALL heart + ALL mind + ALL will, if anything is missing, or partial, that means it is directed elsewhere, and is a betrayal. Relationship cannot be partial.
Partial does not mean we do not think about God enough, or we do not do ethical things of holiness, or we do not feel the joy always, it simply means we do not LOVE God enough. This is so important, because loving people is possible only after truly loving God.
Earlier this year we began an effort of reviving our witnessing. There has been an increased expectation of Evangelism, and leading people to Christ. As we are planning to be even more intentional toward reaching the lost, we want to follow Master’s Plan of Evangelism. Each month is designated to gradually prepare the church for soul-wining. The duration – a month – is an arbitrarily chosen, some may take longer, but none should short-cut and miss these steps.
We prayed in November. Ellen White says that if an answer does not come after much prayer and fasting, we must …guess!!!!.................
Pray and Fast more! Until we get it! Prayer should never cease among us, especially for forgiveness, reconciliation, and loving genuine relationships. We cannot afford to keep grudges, for such witness to unconverted un-Christian nature.
This month we invite you to select, prayerfully, up to 7 (seven) people you want to lead to Christ next year. Write their names on a list and put it in your Bible. These seven are the people you love and care for, and cannot bear to think that they would not make to heaven. They maybe already professed Christians who are not walking daily with Christ, or they may be non-believers. Do you love people to save them? Leading others to Christ will also take you closer to Him.