Too Much "Love"

There once was a hunter that decided that it was time to grab his gun and go shoot some game for dinner. While he was out in the woods, he tripped, dropped his gun, and accidentally shot himself in the gut.

He made it back to his truck and drove back to his house where his family was awaiting his return. Even though he was bleeding rather badly from his wound, he managed to get inside his house.

When he asked his wife how bad the wound looked, she realized that it would embarrass him terribly to acknowledge that it was the result of his fall. So, because she loved him so much, and didn't want to hurt his feelings, she told him, "That really doesn't look too bad. It's a very small hole. I bet it'll heal right up in no time."

So, he endures the pain and stumbles out side and sits on the porch. A passing neighbor sees the wound and asks him wwhat happened. After the hunter explains things, the neighbor, filled with love and compassion, tries to encourage the hunter.

"People get hurt like this all the time. In fact, I shot my own foot once, and I can relate to the pain you're feeling. Just be strong--it'll work out just fine."

By the time Sunday came along, the hunter was very pale from the wound. Even with bandages, there was still a lot of blood being lost, and the beginnings of infection were well set in. As his family made their way to church, several people saw the condition the hunter was in. But, because they loved him, they wanted to respect his privacy. "He must know what is wrong", they whispered amongst themselves. "He's on the fast track to death. You just can't miss that." And so, they gave him plenty of space. After church, the pastor came up to the hunter and told him, "You know, we must each make our own choices in life. So, I wouldn't dare to offer medical advice. But, your church family loves you, so we took up a collection and bought you a new shirt."

Monday morning, filled with pain beyond description, the hunter went to see the local doctor. The doctor, recognizing the hunter from a distance, realized that there was no way the hunter could afford the treatments the doctor would perform. So, out of love and respect for the hunter and his family, the doctor said, "It might just be best if you go to the park and have a seat on a bench and just rest. The problems will be over very soon."

As the hunter sits in the park, feeling his life slip away, he realizes just how fortunate he was to have so many people that loved him so much.

And then, he died.

CHRISTIANS! Wake Up! Just because we have eternal life doesn't mean that we can just sit back and wait for the end without doing the Lord's work NOW!

How many people are we "loving to death?" How many people are being so well-respected that they are falling into the flames?

Now, as we all know, God will have those that He chooses to have. Jesus will have all that are given unto Him to have. This isn't about people being lost because of our actions.

It's about our actions being the method of those people being lost!

Do we really wish to be the clay pots that deliver eternal judgement and damnation? Or, do we desire to be the clay pots that deliver the hope of eternal life, as found in and through the Word of God, Jesus Christ?

We have the ability and the unction to perform a type of miracle just as Jesus did.

"He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave [them] to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men."
Mark 6:38-44

Jesus made five loaves of bread and two fishes feed five-thousand, with twelve baskets to spare! So, I tell you:

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
John 6:35

So, get out there, and start sharing that Bread of Life! You'll never run out, you'll never fail to see people fed, and you'll be doing the job that Jesus intended us to be doing as we occupy until the end!

Grace and Peace....