Website Design, Hosting, Maintenance and SEO Provided By
Sparks Fly Internet Services
Sparks Fly Internet Services
Here's our text for Sunday, March 9, 2008:
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you."
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
In these several sentences are the hardest, and simplest, words of Jesus. They have been ignored, stomped on, laughed at and slandered since He said them 2000 years ago.
And they are still the Words of Jesus.
In the last 108 years only 2 persons have become well known for loving enemies, not just people that were hard to love. Mahatma Ghandi, a Hindu who studied the Bible while in Oxford, and Martin Luther King, Jr, who taught it as a Baptist Pastor.
Both were assassinated because of the overwhelming success their strategy, Christ's strategy, of non-violent resistance brought them. Some reward, 'eh?
Stephen, as recorded in Acts 7: 60, said as he was being killed for his faith, "Forgive them!"
And they too were the Words of Jesus at His death.
Do you have any enemies? Not just people you'd like to ignore? But people who, if they could, would find some way to harm you?
We all do...somewhere. Otherwise we would all, if we could afford it, sign up for vacations to holy Jerusalem, beautiful Tehran, or ancient Samarkand, (Israel, Iran, and Afghanistan).
This week we conclude our study of love with the hardest kind there is. Love of our enemy.
Come to Hope Church this week ONLY if you dare.
Loving You,
Pastor Ken
NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, all Bible verses quoted in this website are from the New International Version (NIV). Any words from those verses that are in "red" are words spoken by Jesus.
Pastor Ken sends a Weekly Newsletter that includes his devotional message for the week and an update of the current happenings at Hope Church. If you would like to receive his newsletter, just click below and he'll add your email address to his list of subscribers.