Key Words: for God so loved the world
In March of 1991, Lisa Landry Childress (daughter of former Dallas football coach Tom Landry) found out she had a malignant tumor on her liver. This was just two months after she and her husband, Gary, had learned she was pregnant. The doctors counseled her to undergo an abortion so she could begin immediate chemotherapy. She rejected the thought of abortion, even though it meant she would certainly die. She and her husband had tried for years to have a baby. On December 20, 1991, after the baby was born, Mrs. Childress said, “This baby was a blessing, a gift to me. It wasn’t my right to deny this gift.” She lived three years and nine months after receiving a liver transplant, but the legacy of her love and sacrificial gift of life will live forever.
When D. L. Moody was in England on one of his crusades, he met a young man named Henry Morehouse. The Englishman was greatly drawn to the American. The story goes that Henry Morehouse asked Mr. Moody if he would let him preach in his church if he were to come to Chicago. The evangelist agreed to the suggestion, lightly enough, never thinking he would have to make good on his promise.
But in due time Henry Morehouse arrived on Moody’s doorstep to redeem the pledge. A reluctant Moody surrendered his pulpit, assuring his colleagues that the young man could not do much harm in one night, and that he would follow the young man into the pulpit and rescue the situation.
That night Henry Morehouse took John 3:16 as his text and preached on the love of God with such passion and power that an awed Moody invited him to speak again the next night. This continued for a week, each night the young Englishman speaking from the same text. Moody was overwhelmed. In fact, Henry Morehouse became known as the man who moved the man who moved millions.
On the last night of his series, Henry Morehouse said to the people: “I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you. Suppose I could borrow Jacob’s ladder. Suppose I could ascend that shining stairway until my feet stood on the sapphire pavements of the city of God. Suppose I could find Gabriel, the herald angel who stands in the presence of God. Suppose I could say, ‘Tell me, Gabriel, how much does God love the world?’ I know he would say, ‘Henry Morehouse, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That’s how much God loves the world.’”
Now, if that is not love, I fail to understand what love is! God loves you and wants you to be saved and serve Him all the days of your life.
What to do:
✞ Thank God daily in prayer for His sacrificial love.
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Extra
Keep Going
The word exhortation means “to encourage, to motivate one to keep going.” You find the word or a form of the word thirty-four times in the New Testament, and only three writers ever use the word. Luke used the word twice, and Peter used it once. It was Paul who was the great “motivator”, and he used the word thirty-one times.
Now I ask you, who can you motivate today to keep going for God’s glory?
What to do:
✞Encourage your family to keep going.
✞Encourage a member of your church family to keep going with a card or encouraging word.
✞Remember that we reap what we sow. If I want to be encouraged then I should encourage others.
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