#dailydevotionals | At Water’s Edge

The One Who Has the Son

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Betsy

There was a great story in the news on Mother’s Day about a ten-year old boy who saved his mother’s life because he knew how to be fast. His mother was talking on the phone when suddenly her face drooped, her speech became garbled, and when she tried to stand up, she fell on the floor. Her son Lance knew something was very wrong and he bolted up the stairs to a neighbor’s apartment, who immediately called 911. This mother made a full recovery because her son knew how to be fast and saved her life.

Do you know how to recognize when someone is having a stroke? I listened to an NPR report on this yesterday. There is an acronym that outlines symptoms that indicate that a stroke may be happening, and it ends with what you should do. It is B.E. F.A.S.T. Here is what to watch for:

Balance is suddenly affected.

Eyes begin to droop.

Facial muscles sag.

Arms can’t be lifted properly.

Speech is slurred.

Time is of the essence, so get help immediately.

If you spot these things, be fast and call 911.

Our scripture today has a phrase that reminded me of Lance and his mother: “The one who has the Son has life.” Check it out:

1 John 5 (Common English Bible)

9 If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son. 10 The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son.

12 The one who has the Son has life.

13 The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life.

God sent his only son so that YOU might have life. He testified to this fact at Jesus’ baptism when the heavens parted and he proclaimed, “This is my SON in whom I am well pleased.” With his son comes the promise of eternal life if you accept him as your savior.

Do you know him? Do you have the testimony of the son within you? When was the last time you shared it? The invitation for us today is to go and tell someone about the life-giving gift of the son. And be fast! Your word just might save a life.

The 120

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Betsy

A few years ago I became enamored of a television show called The 100. I love all things science fiction and this really captured my imagination. The premise was based on the earth’s apocalypse and the survival of humankind. After a devastating nuclear event rendered earth uninhabitable, a group of people fled to an orbiting space station. Three generations later, the space station’s life support system began to fail, and so a plan was devised to send one hundred delinquent juveniles back to earth to see if life can now be maintained. From this small number, civilization begins to regroup. They are eventually successful after seven seasons of twists and turns.

This premise is biblical in two ways. First, it supports “remnant theology,” which teaches us that God always preserves a remnant of humanity for the future. We see this from the Genesis flood narrative to the diaspora stories in the Old Testament. The New Testament picks up the theme when a band of twelve becomes a global movement. Second, it reminds us that God uses small seeds to reap great harvests. His faithfulness to us is evident all throughout the Bible.

This show came to mind this morning when I read the scripture assignment for today. Right away the number one hundred twenty jumped out at me. I love reading about the early formative days of the church, and today is no exception to the wonderment of it all. Think of it: at one point, we were only one hundred twenty strong as a church of Christ-followers. A quick Google search reports that the number today is 2.3 billion.

From tiny beginnings, great things grow!

Acts 1 (Common English Bible)

¹⁵During this time, the family of believers was a company of about one hundred twenty persons. Peter stood among them and said, ¹⁶“Brothers and sisters, the scripture that the Holy Spirit announced beforehand through David had to be fulfilled. This was the scripture concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷This happened even though he was one of us and received a share of this ministry.”

I appreciate the Common English Bible’s use of the word “family.” It is comforting to remember that at one time, those who loved Jesus and his message were a family. I doubt that the same thing would be said of us today. Our extreme denominationalism has fractured us into disparate entities. Competition, resistance to opposing view points, and our tendency to erect walls around our doctrinal beliefs have rendered us incapable of functioning as a whole unit of believers.

²¹“Therefore, we must select one of those who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus lived among us, ²²beginning from the baptism of John until the day when Jesus was taken from us. This person must become along with us a witness to his resurrection.” ²³So they nominated two: Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴They prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s deepest thoughts and desires. Show us clearly which one you have chosen from among these two ²⁵to take the place of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.” ²⁶When they cast lots, the lot fell on Matthias. He was added to the eleven apostles.

In selecting a new apostle, the eleven prayed for discernment and left the decision to God. They knew that he would examine the thoughts and desires of the candidates and would reveal his choice in the casting of lots. By this method, the integrity of their group would be maintained…and from that tiny band of twelve, many would join and the numbers would grow.

The challenge for us today is to realize that in our warring of ideologies, we would do well to simply pray for discernment and leave the decisions to God. People too quickly weigh in on all kinds of issues that are better left to prayer. Where is God calling you to water, rather than uproot, the seeds he has planted? Do you really have the full picture of the garden he laid out thousands of years ago? Who is the Master Gardener?

It is a matter of “trust, and obey.” And pray.

The Disrespectful

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Betsy

When did it become acceptable to be so disrespectful?

Regardless of what side you take on a political or social issue, you will find loud statements of disrespect on both sides. Name calling, snide remarks, hate words, slander…all these are weapons in the war of words which society fully engages in day after day. Social media is very anti-social. News is not so much newsworthy as it is opinionated, and those who are privileged with opinion platforms are loud, inappropriately angry, and seethe with disrespect.

What does this do to us as we listen? Do you walk away from these encounters discouraged, defeated, detached, and with your blood pressure elevated? Me, too.

In our Psalm today we are reminded that happiness can’t be found among the disrespectful.

Psalm 1 (Common English Bible)

The truly happy person
    doesn’t follow wicked advice,
    doesn’t stand on the road of sinners,
    and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful.
²Instead of doing those things,
    these persons love the Lord’s Instruction,
    and they recite God’s Instruction day and night!
³They are like a tree replanted by streams of water,
    which bears fruit at just the right time
    and whose leaves don’t fade.
        Whatever they do succeeds.

I have a friend who initially gave up social media for Lent and then decided to stay off due to the constant disrespect he experienced when he expressed his political beliefs. He discovered that his “friends” quickly went on the attack, even if he was trying to respectfully argue a point. I have another friend who is a retired police officer who suffers daily from what he reads on the internet.

I think it is important to remember that the celebrity “news” people and your so-called “friends” on social media platforms are merely dust that blows away. The trick is to not let it get in your eyes as it blows past you. We need to keep clear eyes focused solely on the Lord’s instruction. That helps us to be like trees that are planted by the water that will bear fruit for the kingdom if we focus on keeping the righteous things in the foreground.

⁴That’s not true for the wicked!
    They are like dust that the wind blows away.
⁵And that’s why the wicked will have no standing in the court of justice—
    neither will sinners
    in the assembly of the righteous.
⁶The Lord is intimately acquainted
    with the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked is destroyed.

God blesses the righteous with happiness and destroys the disrespectful.

Perhaps we should all closely monitor the things we engage in that are making us unhappy. My guess is that spending less time engaging with angry people will result in feeling more peaceful. Reading God’s word day and night will result in an intimacy with him that brings calm to our hearts.

And thank you so much for reading At Water’s Edge! May you find peace, hope, and contentment today as you carry his word in your heart.

Reality Test

Posted on May 7, 2021 by Betsy

I remember a time before reality TV. A time when stories were told, news was reported, documentaries were produced to take viewers deep into places unknown, and cooking shows were of the Julia Child variety where the most unexpected thing might be seeing her drop an entire cooked turkey onto the floor. Bon Appetite!

Now we are inundated with “reality” shows that aim to titillate, shock, and disturb, in an effort to sell more products. With a plethora of bachelors, back-biters, unreal and highly nipped and tucked “housewives,” big brothers watching from cameras in every room, and well-scripted scenarios of misbehavior below decks, we have lost the distinction between fiction and reality. These guilty pleasures are harmless as long as you understand that distinction. Trust me, what you are seeing is all fiction. Reality is found elsewhere.

Our lectionary passages from John’s writings this week keep pulling us back into God’s reality of the connection between love and obedience. Keeping God’s commandments is the way we demonstrate our love for God, and a way that we experience his love for us. By giving us order, God keeps us safe and protected inside his loving arms. And when he sent Jesus, we were commanded to love one another as a proof of our love for God:

1 John 5 (The Message)

^1-3Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-born. If we love the One who conceives the child, we’ll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.

A key component to the gift of the commandments is that they are not meant to be troublesome, but to bring life to our lives. Staying within those safety rails is a way to experience wholeness and freedom. When we follow God’s law, we separate ourselves from the chaos of the world. Jesus conquered the world with his death-killing death:

The Power That Brings the World to Its Knees

^4-5Every God-born person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.

^6-8Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God’s presence at Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.

Just think of it! We are invited to partake in the reality of his spirit, his baptism, and his crucifixion.
There is nothing that television can script that could even come close to the disruptive and shocking reality of what Christ did on the cross for the benefit for all of humanity…and we get to participate in it with him. His baptism becomes our baptisms, his resurrection gives us eternal life, and his Spirit helps us defeat the world as we make better choices and live within his commandments.

All of this is a gift, given to us without price. So next time you indulge in a moment of “reality TV,” consider the truth and reality of God’s presence in your life. It is far better than anything you will see.

Mine! Mine!

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Betsy

In the Disney classic Finding Nemo we meet a group of greedy seagulls who chant “MINE! MINE!” as they forage for food. While fish and sea life are definitely their preferred diet, seagulls will also feast on human food, garbage, and refuse. Have you ever watched two seagulls tussle over a French fry in a fast food parking lot? The Disney spin that a seagull will claim anything they see as “mine” is not far from the mark. And as someone who lives near the beach, can I please make a request? DON’T FEED THE SEAGULLS. You are contributing to their behavior!

When I read today’s passage, I wondered if the early Christ-followers didn’t have a similar perspective. Jews who understood all the messianic prophecies and realized that Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of all they had waited for were probably quite startled to learn that Jesus came to save everyone, including the gentiles:

Acts 10 (The Message)

^44-46No sooner were these words out of Peter’s mouth than the Holy Spirit came on the listeners. The believing Jews who had come with Peter couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on “outsider” non-Jews, but there it was—they heard them speaking in tongues, heard them praising God.

The proof was in the pudding. The outsiders spoke in the tongue of the Holy Spirit, a unifying voice that proclaimed that what once was “mine” is now for everyone. The outsiders have been let in.

^46-48Then Peter said, “Do I hear any objections to baptizing these friends with water? They’ve received the Holy Spirit exactly as we did.” Hearing no objections, he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then they asked Peter to stay on for a few days.

With the evidence of the universality of Christ right in front of them, they acted in one accord to acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit and confirm it with baptism in the name of Jesus. The “mine” became “ours.”

If only we could adopt that same perspective! Our bitter division, our denominationalism, our thinking that “my doctrine is better than your doctrine”…all of this surely grieves the Holy Spirit, who calls us to be one in Christ.

One body. One voice. One heart.

A quote that is attributed to many sources including John Wesley helps us to keep the main thing the main thing: “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. And charity in all things.” If we live in a time when we can’t agree on the essentials or the non-essentials, let us at least agree on charity in all things.*

This passage points to the main thing. The Holy Spirit is the transforming power of God and will come upon whomever God chooses to come upon. The outward and visible sign of this is found in baptism, which is a confirmation of the work that God has already done. Jesus instructs us to go into the world and teach and baptize in his name. We can all agree on this.

In the kingdom of God there is no mine or yours…only ours. Go and share him with someone today.

*Read more about this quote here.

Joy Made Complete

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Betsy

Last week we said farewell to a beautiful man in our congregation who lived a joy-filled life. His joy was so complete, it spilled out from his pores whenever you were near him. From his vigorous bell ringing to his infectious smiles to his proud excitement over announcing his Special Olympics medals and achievements, he was simply pure joy. Our sanctuary is a bit dimmer in his absence. He knew that God is love, and he exuded that love everywhere he went. Now he knows completely what he only knew in part here on earth. A life-long fan of The Wizard of Oz, his eternal life over the rainbow is a source of joy for all who mourn his passing.

Do you know this joy? The joy that comes from living a life fully centered in God’s presence?

We continue with Jesus’ last set of discourses to his disciples, and we find a clue in the 15th chapter of John about how our joy may be made complete. Would it surprise you to know that it comes from obedience? Not the “obey the rules, don’t rock the boat, stay in the lines” kind of obedience, but the type of obedience that comes from living IN the love of the father where obedience to his commandments brings harmony, peace, ease, and relief. Think about that for a moment. While following the rules brings a certain kind of order and calm to our lives, real joy comes from remaining inside the boundaries of God’s love:

John 15 (Common English Bible)

⁹“As the Father loved me, I too have loved you. Remain in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. ¹²This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.

Jesus instructed his disciples to keep the main thing the main thing: to love one another just as he loved them. This kind of love is the key to joy. It is the gateway to peace on earth, if we could just be obedient!

Jesus offered the extreme example of sacrifice by giving up his life for that love.

¹³No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I don’t call you servants any longer, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last. As a result, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

And so we are left with this…the call to obedience to God’s commands is centered on the greatest command that we love each other. And when we lay down self and selfishness and do just that, the world indeed will become a place of complete joy.

¹⁷I give you these commandments so that you can love each other.

Let the Seas Roar

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Betsy

One of the absolute joys of living on the Outer Banks is the constant presence of water. Canals, inlets, sounds, bays, creeks, and of course the magnificent ocean surround us with beauty and song. As I was driving to my office last week, I glanced in my rear view mirror and there it was…I could see the dunes, the sea oats, and the ocean itself as I headed west to my church. Sheer glory! Water, water, everywhere.

I remember standing out in the church parking lot after an evening worship service when I first moved here and hearing an unusual sound. It was a kind of dull roar or constant wooooshing sound that I couldn’t quite place. It was the ocean. A storm was coming in and we could hear it from a mile away. I had never heard the ocean at the church before and I was struck by the beauty of the sound that evening. The noisy bypass that lies between the church and the beach usually obliterates the sound of the crashing waves, but not that night.

When all of creation sings of the majesty and the power of God, we need to listen.

Psalm 98 (New King James Version)

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
²The Lord has made known His salvation;
His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.
³He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

God is worthy of our songs and shouts of joy! He is the giver of every marvelous thing and has brought salvation by his holy arm. His faithfulness to his people is an opera of his great works on our behalf. We owe him our rejoicing and our praise songs.

⁴Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
⁵Sing to the Lord with the harp,
With the harp and the sound of a psalm,
⁶With trumpets and the sound of a horn;
Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King.

So bring out the trumpets, the harps, and the horns! The Lord reigns, and his kingdom lasts forever. Even the sea roars in anticipation of his coming. The rivers clap their hands and the hills dance in his presence. Praise the Lord!

⁷Let the sea roar, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell in it;
⁸Let the rivers clap their hands;
Let the hills be joyful together
⁹ before the Lord,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
With righteousness He shall judge the world,
And the peoples with equity.

Sing joyfully to the Lord, all the earth! Let us praise the Lord.

Wells of Salvation

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Betsy

I finally hugged my first non-family person this week. It came at the end of a surprise breakfast with my District Superintendent and his lovely wife. She is an incredible woman of faith and we sometimes tease him that he “married up.” He doesn’t mind this because he agrees.

We were discussing how life would feel now that we are all fully-vaccinated, and I mentioned that I think I have become “touch averse.” For over a year I restrained myself from hugging, shaking hands, touching a shoulder in a gesture of comfort, visiting the sick in a hospital and holding a hand, comforting the grieving with a gentle pat on the arm…the virus stole all of this from us and as a pastor who easily uses touch to convey concern and love, IT HAS BEEN HARD. All of you “huggers” feel this pain with me, I am sure!

This sweet woman listened with great empathy to my confession and then said, “You know, when you are with someone in a pastoral setting, you are clearly being the love to Jesus to them in that moment. And with that comes the power and protection of the Holy Spirit in everything you say to them and everything you do.” When breakfast was over, I hugged her. Happily.

This is exactly what I needed to hear as I make my way up from the dark hole of touch aversion back to the sunlight of normal behavior. She offered me a sip from the well of Christ’s salvation and I didn’t even know how parched I was. I will trust and not be afraid.

Isaiah 12 (New International Version)

Surely God is my salvation;
    I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
    he has become my salvation.”
³With joy you will draw water
    from the wells of salvation.

My concern has not just myself, but also for those around me. My congregation is a delicate population for the most part, and as an international airline pilot’s wife, I have not wanted to give or receive any illnesses during this time. But the Lord has done a glorious thing, and the county where I live has received state-wide commendation for our vaccine implementation. And in all things, the Lord himself is my strength and my defense.

⁴In that day you will say:

“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
    make known among the nations what he has done,
    and proclaim that his name is exalted.
⁵Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things;
    let this be known to all the world.
⁶Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
    for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

The time is almost upon us to return to those wells of salvation where we will hug each other and draw water together with joy. Soon it really will be over and we will sing once again to the Lord and let the world know what he has done. So as we approach the end of this terrible marathon we’ve all been running, let us safely press on toward the goal of living as those who are saved by the Lord.

We really are one day closer to the end of this thing! Thanks be to God.

Bee Still

Posted on April 29, 2021 by Betsy

When it comes to gardening, I have a real “black thumb.” I don’t come by it honestly. My Dad was a terrific “green-thumb” gardener and I grew up eating fresh vegetables from his back garden. Plants die easily in my care, including silk ones. You think I’m kidding. I received a gift of a beautiful plant in a ceramic holder a few months ago. I put it on my coffee table and was so grateful that the giver had chosen an artificial plant for me. A few weeks later I returned from a long trip to discover that the leaves had turned black. I can’t even tell real plants from fake ones.

I have a raised planter at the side of my house that I was determined would hold some vegetable plants this year. I make this determination every year. Friends have built a new house on that side, and so my garden of weeds is making me a little self-conscious, as my new neighbors will be able to look down into it from their upper deck. I read that we shouldn’t tend our gardens until the temperature is above 50 degrees, so as to not disturb winter pollinators who take refuge in dormant gardens. The world’s bee population is being decimated by insecticides and climate change, and we all need to do our part.

When the temps rose, I went out to really study it and see about taking down all the weeds so I could plant some tomato plants in their place. Lo and behold, my “garden” of weedy wild flowers is full of bees. I have decided to just neaten it up by trimming the edges, and I may put a sign in the middle that says “Bee Garden.” Perhaps the kindest thing I can do is just let the bees have it…I don’t think I can kill them if I just leave them alone. If I can’t grow plants, maybe I can grow bees!

In our passage from the fifteenth chapter of John, we see the image of God as a Master Vineyard Keeper. He lovingly removes unproductive branches and trims the remaining ones to produce more fruit.

John 15 (Common English Bible)

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. ²He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. ³You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you.

People-branches are trimmed by the word of God. When we read scripture and allow it to take root in our lives, our behavior changes accordingly. We stop doing unproductive things and engage in activities that grow our faith and pollinate the world with God’s message.

⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. ⁵I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.

John reminds us that apart from God, we can’t do anything. Did you get that? Apart from God, you can’t do anything. I know people who are very proud of their self-reliance, as though everything they have achieved and everything they possess is by their own hand. Yes, hard work and perseverance are part of success, but apart from God, we have nothing. God calls us to remain in him and he will cause us to produce much fruit.

⁶If you don’t remain in me, you will be like a branch that is thrown out and dries up. Those branches are gathered up, thrown into a fire, and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified when you produce much fruit and in this way prove that you are my disciples.

Today is a good day to be humble and thank our Master Gardener for everything that he provides. Our true vine is our source of all things! Let us take root in his word. Thanks be to God.

Perfect Love

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Betsy

Think for a moment about someone that you can’t stand. Dare I say, someone you actually hate. It might be a family member, politician, celebrity, boss, neighbor…people do things that make you want as much distance from them as possible. Being in their presence makes your stomach churn. Hearing their voice makes you cringe. You get the idea. When your enemies and adversaries are loud and present, your feelings of revulsion and fear are often well-earned.

Now consider this. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

So what do we do with our hate?

1 John 4 (New Revised Standard Version)

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Can hate live in the same space as love? Does our enemy deserve our love, or is hate just a way of protecting ourselves against further harm?

¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

Here we have a clue about what to do when we truly hate someone. John makes the case that God is love, and love has been perfected among us so that we may have boldness on the day of judgement. And who is the judge? God. That assures us that our adversaries and enemies will answer for their actions against us before God’s judgement seat. Our boldness in love is a reprieve for us…we don’t have to judge, just love. And then let it go.

When we unpack our feelings about our enemies, we may discover that fear informs our reaction to them. We fear the power they have over our peace and our happiness. But perfect love casts out fear, which frees us up to allow God to be God. HE will hold your adversary accountable.

¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

This is a hard teaching, friends. But scripture is clear. Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. So let God do the work of redemption, and in all things, just love…even your enemies.

Just Love by Abby Johnson

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The Power That Brings the World to Its Knees

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