By Evangelist John BJ Hall –
On January 6, 1970, I met a beautiful brown eyed girl, who I knew I would spend the rest of my life loving. She was a senior in high school and I was a freshman in a junior college. Two days after we met, I asked her to marry me. She said yes.
The only thing she knew about me was that I was her pastor’s son. I had been away in college when my father accepted the call to pastor her church. The only thing I knew about her was that she was beautiful and her brown eyes….. Well, what can I say, it was love at first sight for both of us.
We were married on May 29, 1970, less than five months after we met. Over the years, we have both said the words, “I love you” thousands of times. But there is more to love than mere words. You see, love demands action.
We have learned a lot about love over the last forty-seven-plus years. The most important thing we have learned is that love is not a noun. It is not just an “intense feeling of deep affection.” Nor is love a verb in the traditional sense of a “deep romantic or sexual attachment.”
What we have learned is that love is very active. Love is seen in a glance across the room. It is felt in a tender touch as one passes by the other. It is displayed by actions taken day after day, week after week, year after year, that say I not only love you but I respect you and honor you.
This is true of our relationship with our Lord as well. Love is not just singing a song of worship. It is more than simply listening to a sermon or Bible study.
Love is “boots on the ground” in service to those whom God loves. It is helping an elderly neighbor by mowing her grass. It is stopping by just to chat with someone who is lonely.
But most of all, just as Christ gave His life to teach us what love is, it is giving the lost a cup of cool “water of life.” It is serving a loaf of “the bread of life” to the spiritually hungry. It is telling the lost of the hope that can be found in loving arms of Jesus.
How do you show your love?
How I Love Him
How I love Him, Yes I love Him,
For He first loved me.
I will give Him; Yes I’ll give Him,
My life totally.
For He gave me; Yes he gave me,
His love on a tree.
Yes, Jesus my Savior gives love full and free.
I will hear Him; Yes I’ll hear Him,
And His will obey.
I’ll stay near Him; Yes stay near Him,
And I’ll never stray.
For He hears me; Yes He hears me
When to Him I pray.
Yes, Jesus my Savior Will ne'er go away.
I will serve Him; Yes I’ll serve Him,
With all of my might.
I will praise Him; Yes I’ll praise Him,
All through the night.
He forgave me; Yes forgave me,
Now with God, I am right.
Yes Jesus my Savior, Gives love and new sight.
© Copyright 1995 by Passages Ministries. All rights reserved.
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