The Love of God

Tonight was a very interesting night at bible study. One of the things we were talking about was loving your neighbor as yourself, one of the two greatest commandments. One of the main things my youth pastor was talking about was getting past that initial first image of someone and really seeing them as a child of God and realizing that hey, God loves them just as much as he loves me, or Billy Graham, or even John the baptist. Why can't i do the same? Too often are we stuck on the initial appearance of someone whether you see their cocky attitude, their body size, their handicap whatever it is. It's so sad that appearance is what hinders us from truly loving and reaching out to the hurting around us. Not only their appearance, but too often we worry about our appearance. We take our sacrifices into consideration rather than the sacrifice the other person will have to make for not hearing the wonderful news of Jesus! We need to just break down those barriers and forget about what others will think about us if we show the love of God. Which brings me to another point. We are always so worried about what others will think if we help that handicapped person or really take time to listen to someone who's hurting. But really, if we do help that person, most likely the observer will be more likely to admire or be totally impacted by those actions than they would be to make fun or think any less of you. Just by showing the love of God to that one person you help, anyone who sees that action also gets a glimpse of how vast and incredible the love of God really is! We need to be forced out of our comfort zones and really reach out to those in need. Without being forced out of our comfort zones, we begin to wallow in the area of self. And personally, i do not want to be in my own little selfish world. I want life to be about God and spreading his amazing love! How deep, how wide, how vast and incredible is the love of God that he died for us all! Every single person out there. Unfathomable, unbelievable, but very true!! How Great is our God!