One Heart Devotionals

FOR GOD SO LOVED.......

Ladies, I hope you don't mind that I have shared something my husband wrote again.  This is something that has been on our hearts a lot lately & John could not keep it bottled up!  I hope it blesses you as much as it blessed me:)

The wages of sin is death. That is a statement not just for some sin, but all sin.  The best part of that scripture is God’s gift, which is eternal life through Christ our Lord.

I have noticed lately that Christians are becoming extremely critical over what they consider sin.  We seem to have become judges of individuals and group we consider sinners. Christ did not use condemnation to deal with sinful people.  He showed love to them and gave them an alternative to that sin.

One of the latest examples is the boycotting of a local box store for their stand on hiring and promoting homosexuals.  I find this interesting. I happen to work for this company and so does my wife.  Our individual store has many more Christians than homosexuals.  I have noticed that we are all sinners and are searching for something.  In my life, I  prefer Loving to condemnation, hate and judgment.

I am a retired Law Enforcement Officer from Florida and my wife is the best homemaker ever.  When it came time to retire, God moved us to Tennessee to minister the gospel of Christ.  My thought was doing outreach in a local church or working in a youth camp.  There were so many opportunities that we believed were in our future.   So what did God have for us?  We both went to work for that home improvement center.  God decided that our ministry field was the employees and customers that need God’s love in their lives.  For the past two years we have had opportunities to minister to drunks, drug addicts, adulterers and even homosexuals.  The one thing I am certain of is God loves them all and that no one sin is worse than the others are .

One of the young women had spoken to my wife.  She said I know that you are a Christian can I talk to you.  She asked my wife if her lifestyle offended her and went on to tell my wife that her mom told her she was going to hell for being a homosexual because God hates homosexuals.  This is obviously a person who is searching for something other than what they have.  Homosexuality is not the problem here.  Sin is the problem.  God giving us Jesus as the example of true love is a much better response than pointing out sin, which she already knows she has.  She wanted to know about a God who loves her not one who wants her in hell.  I am not saying sugarcoat sin but showing that there is a way out of that sin with a bonus of eternal life with Christ.

I was a good sinner.  I drank, smoked and ran around all night.  My life was a mess.  When I found God He met me in that place.  I was drunk at that time. He didn’t care.  He took me as His own with all my faults.  As time went on He helped me change.  He has never loved me more than that night.  Whether in sin or not, God loves you.

My final thought is…..  For God so loved the world that he gave……  Why don’t we try to give some of that Love,  We all need it!