The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Saturday, 6 August 2016 - “We love because God first loved us”
Daily Scripture: 1 John 4:7 Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. 8 Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love. 9 Here is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world, so that through him we might have life. 10 Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins.
11 Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us.
19 We ourselves love now because he loved us first. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if a person does not love his brother, whom he has seen, then he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 Yes, this is the command we have from him: whoever loves God must love his brother too.
Reflection Questions:As John wrote about how we human beings treat one another, he likely thought about himself and Jesus' other disciples. They jockeyed for position, and got angry with one another at times (cf. Mark 10:35-45). Yet as they continued to walk with Jesus, he re-shaped their thoughts and actions. John knew from his own experience that loving others with Christ’s love doesn’t spring from a naturally warm human disposition. This kind of active love comes from God, “because love is from God.”- John’s phrase “No one has ever seen God” (verse 12) feels at first like a misplaced thought. But he went on to say, “If we love each other, God remains in us.” Gordon Jensen wrote a song that says, “You’re the only Jesus some will ever see,” and that was what John was driving at. As your capacity grows to take in God’s love, to see yourself as loveable in God’s sight, how is this changing the way you see and relate to others? Do you ever tend to think of God’s love for you and your neighbors as conditional, as something that comes and goes depending on how you act? How does John’s vivid phrase “God IS love” (verse 8) point your understanding in a different direction?
Dear God, you know that it’s not quite as natural for me to love as it is for you. Please keep loving me as I stretch and grow in my ability to reflect your love to others. Amen.
Family Activity:
John Wesley’s rule states, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.” Read Matthew 5:14-16[Matthew 5:
14 “You are light for the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Likewise, when people light a lamp, they don’t cover it with a bowl but put it on a lampstand, so that it shines for everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.]. As a family, talk about Wesley’s rule and how you can apply it in your everyday living. Obtain a map of your neighborhood. Using stickers or markers, mark some places you often visit. Decide together how you can do God’s work by doing good at each of these places. Also choose one or two new places to visit this summer. How can you do God’s work in those places? Pray and ask God to guide you as you do His work in your neighborhood.
-------Insights from Dan Entwistle
Dan Entwistle serves asManaging Executive Director for The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.“Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us.”
I love the lyrics of the Jon Guerra’s song Stained Glass
Show me what You see
When You look at me
Show me what is real
More than what I feel
We have stains, it’s true
But when Your light shines through
We all look like stained glass windows to You
We all look like stained glass windows so
Shine, shine, shine
Shine, shine, shine
Shine, shine, shine
This week, schools across the metro are preparing to come back to life. In church this weekend, we’ll join together in a prayer for the children of our church, and for children across our community. This includes the children in our seven partner schools in Kansas City Kansas, Olathe, and Kansas City Missouri. Today, my prayer is that God’s love will be made real for children this school year that God will watch over them, lead them, guide and direct them. So they may learn to walk in God’s ways.
This can only come to pass when the children of our community are surrounded by adults who reflect God’s love and care to them. In particular, let’s commit ourselves to praying for those teachers, administrators and resource professionals who have committed themselves to the ministry of educating our children and preparing them for success in life. Let’s pray for parents, that they would be a reflection of God’s love and care for their children. And let’s pray that children may grow to walk in God’s ways, loving God with their whole heart and learning to love their neighbors.
We love, because God first loved us.
May it be so.
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe AvenueLeawood, Kansas 66224, United States
913.897.0120
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