By Doug Apple Manager, Wave94

Love Rushes In

A bunch of young people came over yesterday to eat us out of house and home.  Suddenly a call came in that someone needed help, the all-hands-on-deck kind of help.  Well we certainly had the hands.  All we needed was the rally cry, so I gave it.

And then I repeated a line that I have used many times.  “When someone shows you how to love them, and you can easily do it, then just do it.”

Sometimes loving people is complex and challenging, but often it is quite simple.  When the need is obvious, you don’t even have to think about it.  Just leap in and do it.  It’s like antibodies in our bloodstream.  When bacteria enters our bloodstream, antibodies rush in to deal with it.

{sidebar id=1}And that’s what we do when we love people.  When the alarm is sounded, love rushes in.

Yesterday the Ronald McDonald House in Tallahassee celebrated its 20th anniversary.  In case you don’t know, the Ronald McDonald House is a place where family members can stay for little to no money while their children are receiving serious medical treatments.  That’s a great example of love rushing in to meet a need.

In Luke 10 Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.  This man was traveling down the road, minding his own business, when suddenly he saw a man beside the road who had been robbed and beaten half to death.  The Samaritan saw the obvious need and rushed in to meet it.  He cared for the man’s wounds, carried him to an inn and paid the man’s expenses.

The Good Samaritan is a great example of love rushing in.

Probably the greatest example of love rushing in is Jesus dying for us.  First John 3:16 says, “This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down His life for us…”

And then the verse closes with this admonition.  “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Jesus had a lot to say about love.  In John 13:34 He said, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

In the very next verse He said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

He said it over and over again, just like in John 15:17, “This is my command, love each other.”

In Matthew 22 Jesus said the greatest commandment in the law was to love the Lord, and the second greatest commandment was . . . “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 12:10 says, “…love is the fulfillment of the law.”

First Corinthians 16:14 says, “Do everything in love.”

Chapter 14 says, “Follow the way of love…”

First Peter 1:22 says, “….love one another deeply, from the heart.”

As a Christian, I am to grow in many virtues, but Colossians 3:14 says, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  We are each a part of the body of Christ, and listen to what Ephesians 4:16 says, “…the whole body….builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Don’t miss the connection there, the connection of love and work.  Yes, we build each other up in love, as each part does its work.

Galatians 5:13 tells us to “serve one another in love.”

First Thessalonians 1:3 uses this phrase, “…your labor prompted by love…”

One popular Christian song says, “Love is a verb.”

Yes, love is an action word.  First John 3:18 tells us not to just love with words, “but with actions.”

This is what marks us as Christians.  People will know we are Christians by our love.

So how do we love people?  Well one way is to just keep our eyes open.  Opportunities to love people will make themselves obvious.

And like I always say, when someone shows you how to love them, and you can easily do it, just do it.

Because that’s the way love operates.  When someone is in need, when someone is hurting, or even when someone is just lonely, this is what love does.

Love rushes in.

Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.

This article originally published on November 23, 2009.

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