Saturday, February 10, 2007
As we quickly approach February 14th and think about red hearts, love, candy and saying “I love you” to those who mean the most to us, do we take the time to stop and think about what’s on God’s heart? What does the Sovereign LORD GOD care about?
We turn to Scripture, the Word of God, to learn more about God’s heart. There we find several characteristics of God’s heart but let’s focus on just three of these--love, compassion, and holiness.
I John 4:16 tells us, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” God is the very essence of love and His heart beats with love for His children--both those saved and lost. As the song says, God’s love was written in red--the red blood of His son, Jesus.
Psalm 145:8 states, “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” God is a God of compassion. Over and over again in scripture, Jesus is moved to act because of His compassion for people. God cares about people who are hurting, hungry, lost, feeling hopeless, weary, sick, and He cares about you.
God’s heart is also holy. “I am the LORD, your Holy One..” Isaiah 43:15a. God is a holy God and He calls us to also be holy, to be pure and set apart so that He can use us to accomplish His purposes. “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” Leviticus 11:44a. The same message is echoed in I Peter 1:16: “for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”
As we pause and think about God’s love, compassion and holiness this month, perhaps the question we need to be asking ourselves is: “What would God want from me for Valentine’s Day?” Would He want me to be more loving, more compassionate more holy? Maybe all three? Spend some time seeking the answer from the Lord and give Him the best Valentine’s gift of all--your heart.
Blessings to all of you, our partners,
Melinda & John
p.s. Ministry update:
191 prayer partners (64%)
$6726 pledged for start-up costs (11.4%)
$18,605 pledge in annual support (21.1%)
Check out CornerstoneFMC.org for details of the benefit band concert coming to Cornerstone at 578 Killian Rd. in Akron on February 25th. The doors open at 6:30 PM. All proceeds will go to help us with our start-up costs. You can also go to www.barefootprophets.com for more details.
Come and help us get one step closer to Liberia! :-)
February prayer requests:
1. Pray for safety and health as we travel the remaining weekends to Hilliard, Columbus, and Rogers, Ohio, to speak to our extended church family.
2. Pray also for our car to run smoothly during the traveling we will be doing in the months prior to leaving. It’s our only vehicle so we definitely need it to be healthy too! :-)
3. Pray for God to continue to open the doors He has chosen to be partners with us on this journey. We know everything is in His hands and we continue to seek His will.
4. Pray also for the hearts of everyone involved in this journey, both in America and Africa, to have a spiritual world vision and see people as Jesus does.
