LOVE FOR GOD
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
—Jude 21
3217 When Excess Is Good
On his 99th birthday, Carl J. Printz, for many years the Commissioner from Sweden to Canada, stepped quickly onto the television stage, his keen eyes expressing wisdom and understanding of his years. He was asked for rules by which such a long and useful life might be achieved. He replied:
“I would suggest one definite rule and that is, one must be temperate in all things.” Then he added quickly, “perhaps I should say all but one, for in the Bible you can read the commandments to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. These are the only things we can rightly do to excess.”
3218 Love Makes Obedience
Love makes obedience a thing of joy!
To do the will of one we like to please
Is never hardship, though it tax our strength;
Each privilege of service love will seize!
Love makes us loyal, glad to do or go,
And eager to defend a name or cause;
Love takes the drudgery from common work,
And asks no rich reward or great applause.
Love gives us satisfaction in our task,
And wealth in learning lessons of the heart;
Love sheds a light of glory on our toil
And makes us humbly glad to have a part.
Love makes us choose to do the will of God,
To run His errands and proclaim His truth;
It gives our hearts an eager, lilting song;
Our feet are shod with tireless wings of youth!
—Hazel Hartwell Simon
3219 He Chooses To Be Seraphim
It is said that the young son of Bishop Berkeley once asked him the question, “Papa, what do the words, “Cherubim and seraphim” mean?”
The bishop took time to tell the little questioner that cherubim was a Hebrew word meaning knowledge, and the word seraphim stood for flame, explaining that it is commonly supposed the cherubim are angels that excel in knowledge and the seraphim are those who excel in love for God.
“Then I hope,” the boy said, “that when I die I will be a seraphim. I’d a lot rather love God than to know everything.”
—Evangelistic Illustration
3220 Loving Him Better
As Gustave Dore was putting the finishing touches on the face of Christ in one of his paintings, an admiring friend stepped quietly into the studio. She looked with bated breath upon the painting.
Dore sensed her presence and said graciously, “Pardon, madam, I did not know you were here.”
She answered, “Monsieur Dore, you must love Him very much to be able to paint Him thus!”
“Love Him, madam?” exclaimed Dore, “I do love Him, but if I loved Him better I would paint Him better!”
If we loved Christ better, we would indeed serve Him better.
—Selected
3221 She Was Not A Pro
I remember one precious experience with Henrietta Mears when we were having a sandwich in a hotel restaurant in St. Louis during a Christian bookseller’s convention.
She began to reminisce about the wonderful things God had done in her life. She talked of the Lord Jesus as simply and genuinely as a new convert possessed by first love.
The tears flowed down her cheeks. It was thrilling to be with a Christian worker who had not become a pro. She really loved Jesus Christ, and she lived to make Him known.
—Russell Hitt, Editor of Eternity
3222 “We Too Love Him”
An aged countryman visited London for the first time. In a great art gallery, he looked at different paintings. He was especially impressed with a picture of Christ dying on the cross. As he gazed fixedly upon it, a deeper love for the Saviour flooded his heart. With great feeling, he exclaimed, “Bless Him! I love Him! I love Him!”
Those standing nearby heard him. They saw tears glistening on his careworn face as he stood completely oblivious of the presence of others. Four of them came close to him and said, “We, too, love Him, brother.” Though strangers to each other, they were drawn together in love and adoration for the Saviour.
—Walter B. Knight
3223 All His Strength
A little boy declared that he loved his mother “with all his strength.” He was asked to explain what he meant by “with all his strength.” He said: “Well, I’ll tell you. You see, we live on the fourth floor of this tenement; and there’s no elevator, and the coal is kept down in the basement. Mother is busy all the time, and she isn’t very strong; so I see to it that the coal hold is never empty. I lug the coal up four flights of stairs all by myself. And it’s a pretty big hold. It takes all my strength to get it up here. Now, isn’t that loving my mother with all my strength?”
—Gospel Herald
3224 Best Motive In Christian Work
Hudson Taylor was interviewing some young people who had volunteered for the Lord’s service. He asked several practical questions to find out how well qualified they were for the life they were anticipating. “And why do you wish to go as a foreign missionary?” “I want to reach others across the sea because Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” one replied. Another said, “I want to go because millions are dying without ever having heard of Jesus, the only One who can save them.” Others have similar answers.
Hudson Taylor looked at them thoughtfully for a moment and then said. “All of your motives are good, but I fear they will fail you in times of severe testing and tribulation—especially if you are confronted with the possibility of having to face death for your testimony. The only motive that will enable you to remain true is stated in II Corinthians 5:14. Christ’s love constraining you will keep you faithful in every situation.”
—Our Daily Bread
3225 “God, France, Margaret”
Louis IX of France, when he was young, married the princess Margaret of Province. On his wedding ring was engraved: “God, France, Margaret”, and he used to say, “I have no love outside that ring.” This was the secret of his being known to history as Saint Louis.
3226 “Let Me Die”
It was a daring prayer offered by Augustine when he said, “Lord, hast Thou declared that no man shall see Thy face and live?—then let me die, that I may see Thee.”
—Stanford
3227 Not Pastor But Old Woman’s Words
Dr. Alexander Maclaren used to tell of a man of great intellectual power whom he longed to win. To do so the famous preacher preached a whole series of sermons dealing with intellectual difficulties. To the doctor’s delight, the man came shortly afterward and said he had become a convinced Christian and he wanted to join the church.
Overjoyed, the doctor said, “And which of my sermons was it that removed your doubts?” “Your sermons?” said the other. “It wasn’t any of your sermons. The thing that set me thinking was that a poor woman came out of your church beside me and stumbled on the steps. When I put out my hand to help her, she smiled and said “thank you” and then added, “Do you love Jesus Christ my blessed Saviour? He means everything to me.” I did not then, but I thought about it. I found I was on the wrong road. I still have many intellectual difficulties, but now He means everything to me, too.”
—Leslie D. Weatherhead
3228 “They Never Love Back”
Four-year-old Martha, hugging a doll in each of her pudgy little arms, looked wistfully up at her mother and said, “Mamma, I love them and love them and love them, but they never love me back.”
—Jeanette W. Lockerbie
3229 When Pastor Couldn’t Give Benediction
On one occasion Mr. Flavel preached from these words: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha.” The discourse was unusually solemn, particularly the explanation of the words anathema, maranatha—”cursed with a curse, cursed of God, with a bitter and grievous curse.” When he rose to pronounce the benediction he paused, and said, “How shall I bless this whole assembly, when every person in it, who loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ, is anathema, maranatha?”
The solemnity of this address deeply affected the audience, and one gentleman, a person of rank, was so much overcome by his feelings, that he fell senseless to the floor. Fifty-three years afterwards the memory of this sermon was blessed to the conversion of a man who had heard it, named Luke Short, in his hundredth year of age. (I Cor. 16:22).
—Selected
3230 Epigram On Love for God
• God wanted to possess me, not merely my possessions.
—James C. Penney
• Adolphe Monod, the famous French evangelical preacher, who died in 1856, said before dying: “I have strength for nothing more than to think about the love of God; He has loved us—that is the whole of dogmatic; let us love Him—that is the sum total of the ethics of the Gospel.”
See also: Dedication ; God, Love of.