Weekend Words

From Our Daily Bread...

Artist: Abbot Fuller Graves - American painter (1859 - 1936)

Love Beyond Boundaries - Read Psalm 103:8-17

"So great is his love for those who fear him." - Psalm 103:11

"God has been so good to us!  I want to thank Him for our anniversary."  Terry's voice was steady, and the tears in her eyes showed her sincerity.  Those in our small group were deeply moved.  We knew what past years had held for Terry and her husband.  Though a believer, Robert suffered from the sudden onset of severe mental illness and had taken the life of their four-year-old daughter.  He would be institutionalized for decades, but Terry visited him, and God did a beautiful healing work, helping her forgive.  Despite profound heartache, their love for each other grew.  

Love and forgiveness like that could only come from one source.  David writes about God this way, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve ... As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:10, 12).

The mercy God shows us comes through His expansive love: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love" for us (v.11).  Love so profound compelled Hm to go to the depths of the cross and grave to take away our sins so that He could bring all who "receive him" (John 1:12) home to Himself.

Terry was right.  "God has been so good to us!"  His love and forgiveness reach beyond unthinkable boundaries and offer us life that never ends.

- James Banks

From In Green Pastures...

Artist: William Kay Blacklock - British painter (1872 - 1924)

Serving Christ in His People.

When we lay our lives at Christ's feet in consecration, and tell him that we want to serve him with them, he gives them back to us again, and bids us use them in serving his people, our fellow-men.  In the humblest and the lowliest of those who bear Christ's image Christ himself comes to us.  We do not know when he stands before us in a lowly one who needs our sympathy or our help.  It would be a sad thing if we turned him away unfed from our doors some day, or neglected to visit him in his sickness.  Let us not say we love Christ if we are not ready to serve those whom he sends to us to be served.