Whoever
Claims
To
Love God
Yet
Hates A Brother Or Sister Is A Liar.
Scripture
1
John 4
20
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.
For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have
seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
Observation
God
is love. Every person on this planet is made in the image of God
including you and everybody else. Anytime we choose to put down,
anytime we choose to put ourselves above, anytime we choose to
marginalize, or anytime we choose to discriminate against people
because of the color of his or her skin, we are living out 1 John
4:20.
I
grew up with a very, very prejudiced Dad.
One
day one our church buses broke down and I asked my Dad to help me get
it back to our church. This was back in the early 1970's when our
country was dealing with a lot of civil unrest, lots of riots, it was
the time of school integration, etc.
At
this very moment in time our church's bus ministry was reaching
hundreds of children, teens and adults from all over our city.
As
we drove to get the bus my Dad said to me, “Why is your bus in this
part of town?” I immediately replied, “Dad, these people in this
part of the city need Jesus too.” “Well”, he said, “You
should build them a church on their side of town.”
1
John 4:20 comes to my mind when I think of the hard heart that my
Dad had towards people that simply had a different color to their
skin!
Red
and yellow, black and white, they are all precious in God's sight! I
am so glad that I am a part of a church that is very color blind!
Friend,
I am not interested in, or concerned about, the color of your skin. I
am very interested in and very concerned about, the condition of your
heart! God's love transcends and outshines prejudice!
Application
I
will support people and stand up for people when they are
discriminated against because of the color of their skin. How about
you?
Prayer
Heavenly
Father, it is so easy to hate. It comes natural for us. Our old
nature loves to hate. Don't let me judge someone simply because the
have a different color of skin than me or speak a different language
than me. Help me to guard my heart. I want to love people the way You
love them.
Daily
Bible Reading: Jeremiah 16,17; Psalms 96; John 16; 1 John 4
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