2/23/2021
Pastor Mark Applewhite's Office Hours are 10-12NOON, Tuesdays
41 more days to EASTER, Sunday, April 4th
CHRIST'S WELCOMING OPEN ARMS
"Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.....But we urge you, beloved to do so more and more ( i Thessalonians 4:9)." It is God's own undertaking to teach such love. All that human beings can add is to remember this divine instruction and the exhortation to excel in it more and more. When God had mercy on us, when God revealed Jesus Christ to us as our brother, when God won our hearts by God's own love, our instruction in Christian love began at the same time. When God was merciful to us, we learned to be merciful withone another. When we received forgiveness instead of judgment, we too were made ready to forgive each other. What God did to us, we then owed to others. The more we received, the more we were able to give; and the more meager our love for one another, the less we were living by God's mercy and love. Thus God taught us to encounter one another as God encountered us in Christ." Welcome one another, therefore, just as Chris has welcomed you, for the glory of God." (Romans 15:7)
Dietrich Bonehoeffer's LIFE TOGETHER, General Editor, Wayne Whitson Flloyd Jr. Minneapolis, MN: FORTRESS PRESS, 1996, p. 33-34