Will You Choose to Be a Life Saver Today?
- Imagine you only had one last letter, one final note, or one solitary essay to write before you died. You have a terminal disease, and the brevity of time looms large.
- Now, also imagine this one final writing is written for a specific audience who faces the unsavory fate that their terminal disease will shortly take their lives.
A Terminal Disease Makes Every Word—Every Line—Every Sentence—Every Composition—Preciously Important.
- If today were your LAST day, what would you write & to whom would you send your writing?
- What would your LAST words focus upon if you knew they were just that?
- What would your audience want to read if they knew they were reading your LAST?
This is the lesson I taught my students yesterday. We were leaving behind one published essay and leaning into the next, upcoming essay, one that called for them to analyze a piece of literature. As class began, I spoke to them about the candy “Life Savers” and about the truth—Their lives will make a mark on the world & Their lives will leave an indelible impression on every single person they will ever encounter. Then, I ended with the question: Will You Choose to Be a Life Saver Today?
- This is the month when we typically focus on the single-most overused word: LOVE.
- This is the day when we usually spend money, trying to reveal to another: LOVE.
- This is the time when we receive the opportunity to show the world: LOVE.
The apostle Paul wrote within his first letter to the Believers living in Corinth, a letter written to a group of individuals who lived in a place surrounded by sexual immorality and ungodly pagan love, a people surrounded by Greek gods and goddesses. In his closing lines of his letter, Paul wrote—
“Let all that you do be done in love.”
(The 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 16: 14 NASB)
- We encounter people daily.
- We, who believe, know what they need.
- We, who are followers of Christ, know WHO they need.
Sharing the Gospel can be scary, but how can we be stingy with so great a LOVE?
How can we keep to ourselves such a GREAT LOVE that JESUS GIVES?
We cannot & We should not!
We, who know JESUS, also know how one simple question may open the door to a conversation about JESUS.
How can we keep to ourselves such an AMAZING LOVE that JESUS OFFERS?
We must be witnesses of HIS LOVE!
JESUS CHRIST, the One who LOVES us too much to leave us as we are—reminds us why we are able to LOVE!
“We love, because He first loved us.”
(The First Letter of John 4: 19 NASB)
- GOD LOVED THE WORLD SO MUCH THAT HE GAVE HIS SON TO DIE (for each one of us)!
- JESUS CHRIST LOVED US SO MUCH THAT HE GAVE HIMSELF ON THE CROSS (for each one of us)!
- THE LORD HAS WILLINGLY GONE TO GREAT DISTANCES SO ALL WILL COME TO KNOW HIM!
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved,
(The 2nd Letter of Peter 3: 8-10 NASB)
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord is not slow about His promise,
as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you,
not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
in which the heavens will pass away with a roar
and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat,
and the earth and its works will be burned up.”
- To Love our brothers and sisters—
- To Love our neighbors—
- To Love those we will encounter today—
We Must Choose This Day, to Be a Life Saver!
Jesus Himself said to his disciples, and He speaks these same words to us—
“This is My commandment,
(The Gospel According to John 15: 12-13 NASB)
that you love one another,
just as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this,
that one lay down his life for his friends.”
Will You Choose to Be a Life Saver Today—to Share the LOVE of JESUS?