Devotional
Strong Love
“As the sun.” Judges 5:31
What a majestic body in the heavens the sun is. It contains about 99.87% of the entire mass in our solar system. It burns up some 4 million tons in weight every second, generating estimated temperatures deep inside it of 36 million degrees centigrade. It is the source of all the heat and light in our solar system. Deborah concludes her song with the following striking words: “But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.” The Christian is a person who loves the Lord, and this vivid metaphor teaches us something about the nature of that love.
Spiritual love is no weak, sentimental, vacillating thing. It has a strength about it: “As the sun when he goeth forth in his might.” Think of the fierceness of the eastern sun burning in the heavens! This is a love that is strong. True love for God will cause us to hate all that God hates and to stand against all that God is against. The apostle of love, John, was also a son of thunder. John, who so wonderfully expounds to us the love of God, exhorts us, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (I John 4:1). Love for Christ and strength of character go hand in hand. Paul’s prayer for the Philippian saints was “that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ” (Phil. 1:9,10). Let us pray for such a love.
Quote: “In the resurrection morning, this, I believe, will surprise us most: that we did not love Christ more before we died.” J. C. Ryle
Daily Devotions are from the book “Footprints of Faith”. Copyright Let the Bible Speak 1989.
Children's Church
Although Sunday school classes have concluded for the summer, we would like to have Children’s Church for kids 12 and under on July 9, July 30 and August 20. The children are invited to be dismissed from the morning service during the third hymn just before the pastor preaches. A rotation of Sunday school staff will share God’s Word with them downstairs until the morning service has concluded.
