Show Them Love, Lead Them Home:

Show Them Love, Lead Them Home

 On Saturday, August 20, 2011, I was in prayer and Bible study when I heard the Lord speaking to me. He had a message for the church and He gave it to me. In this blog, I’m passing it along to those of you who read this blog.

  “Tell My people that I have always tempered My message of judgment with My message of love and forgiveness.  Tell the Church that they too must always temper their messages with My love. Remind them that it is not My will that any should perish, but all should live. Tell My Church that the message should not be so forceful in My coming wrath and judgment; the message should be that I stand ready to forgive them, save them and love them.

  Tell My Church to place more emphasis on love, forgiveness and the salvation offered to everyone who will accept My Son as their Savior. I don’t want a single soul to be lost and as My Son commanded: ‘love the Lord your God will all your heart, mind, soul, body and strength; and your neighbor as yourself.”

  Love them and lead them to Christ before it’s too late. Love them as I have loved you and show them the way to forgiveness and to the peace that passes all understanding. Show forth the love of Christ until He comes.”

  After the Lord gave me this message, I began to think about the many people I’ve read blogs from and the many speakers I’ve heard over the past few months. One of the things that stood out to me was the very thing the Lord was speaking of here. I hear so much about the wrath of God, about His vengeance to come and about the judgment, but I’m not hearing that message tempered with the love of God toward those who don’t know Him. I hear a strong message about the doom, but very little about His compassionate heart, His willingness to save any and everyone who will ask His forgiveness.

  To my brothers and sisters who are active in the ministry, to everyone who is witnessing and trying to point souls to Christ; as you’re sharing about the coming doom and tribulation or about how God is going to pour out His wrath, never forget that this is only half the message. It does little good to tell them that they’re going to hell if you don’t explain to them how to become a Christian. If we don’t tell them about the forgiveness they can receive as a Believer in Christ, we’re doing them a tremendous dis-service. We’ve got to show them and tell them about the love of God that’s reaching out to them; we’ve got to tell them about the sacrifice of Christ to pay the debt they never could.

  Folks, we’ve all got to be careful to make sure we give them an opportunity to come to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We’ve got to go the whole way and do our best to win as many souls as we can to Christ and then help them get started in their new walk of faith.

  As always, please know that I love each of you and I look forward to one day meeting you, if not here on Earth then on the streets of Heaven as we give praise and honor to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

A servant of the King,

Dave

Believe, Expect and Love

  I was in a bit of a quandary today. I was moments away from my Internet radio broadcast going live and I didn't have a thing to say. I had not heard from the Lord on what I was to talk about, what songs I was to play or anything else. In the past when this has happened, the Lord would often simply tell me to do a music program so, I was preparing to do that. As the clock was ticking down the final ten minutes or so, I heard that still small voice.

  My best friend gave me a Bible called "The Scriptures." I highly recommend this version of the Bible to anyone who is a serious student of the Word. This Bible is always close at hand and the Lord told me to look up 1 Corinthians 13:11-13. For many people, this is a very familiar passage, ofter called the "love passage." As I read this passage for the first time in this version, the eyes of my understanding were opened as I read the 13th verse.

  " And now belief, expectation, and love remain - these three. But the greatest of these is love."

    As I read that verse, the faith walk became so clear to me. For years I've struggled with the faith teaching and how to exercise the faith that God has placed in my being. Like so many others, I've heard a lot of faith teachers teach, but could never quite put all the pieces together in a way that made complete sense to me: those days are now OVER.

  Jesus died on the Cross to seal God's complete and total COVENANT for you and me. By doing so, Christ Jesus became the Lamb that bought back our dominion on this earth and sealed the promises of God for all those who believe in God and are Christians.

  There are a lot of people who believe there is a God, but many who don't believe IN God. Rather than just believe there is a God, we have to believe IN God. We have to look at what His Word says and take it for what it says. We have to place our trust in the fact that God will do what His Word says He will do. If you and I will step out in faith and do our part, then God is bound by His covenant, His blood covenant to do what He said He will do. We just have to believe in what He said and, believe it in our hearts.

  Next, we have to set aside the doubt and the fear, set aside the words of those who are stuck in religion and stuck in disbelief and begin to expect God to answer our prayers and petitions. We need to make our requests known, then we need to run out into the front yard and start looking down the street expecting the answer to show up. If you're praying for lost loved ones to be saved, plant your prayer and love gift to God, then start expecting that the phone will ring any moment with the news that they got saved. If your need is physical, financial, spiritual or whatever; you've got to put your faith in gear and expect God to do what He said He would do and answer your prayer.

  Lastly, we've got to love as God loves. We've got to stop talking about people, stop criticizing people and love them. We've got to stop looking down our religious noses at the lost and look at them with eyes of compassion and great love. We've got to pray for those who don't treat us right and just love them any way. When someone comes into our churches who isn't dress right or who isn't as clean as we think they should be; don't shun them in favor of someone who is dressed better or looks cleaner. We've got to go to that person and welcome them and show them the same love and respect that Jesus would show them if He were in the room.

  Let me say something that may shock some who read this. If you'll run up to a person wearing expensive clothes, a Rolex watch and driving a fine ride, but you won't turn around in your pew to offer your hand to that person who is dressed in rags or hasn't bathed, you are sinning. You're showing favoritism to rich person and rejecting the poor person. You could be rejecting a soul in need of someone to show them the way to the Lord, a soul seeking a place where they will be loved and led to the feet of Jesus. Who knows, you could rejecting an angel sent from God to test your congregation to see if they're worthy of a spiritual promotion.

  Friends, it's time we took this verse to heart and believe, expect and love more than we ever have before. It's time that we do the Word, and not just read it.

  I love you all and thanks for taking time to read this message. I hope God will use it to bless you.