Love

Love

He Did It Without Regret
United States Senator Jake Garn of Utah did something most of us admire-and perhaps should consider doing ourselves. He donated one of his organs to save a life.
A recent survey says 73 percent of Americans approve organ donation. But only about 20 percent actually sign donor cards and make arrangements for our corneas, kidneys, or other organs to be used when we die.
In Senator Garn's case, however, he did not wait until his death to donate his left kidney. His 27-year-old daughter, Susan Garn Horne, suffered from progressive kidney failure due to diabetes. Her condition deteriorated, and doctors determined that she needed a kidney transplant immediately.
Jake Garn and his two sons were all found to be compatible donors. The senator insisted that he should be the one to give the kidney. "Her mother carried her for nine months," he said, "and I am honored to give her part of me."
So, on September 10, 1986, in a Washington, D.C. hospital, a six-hour surgical procedure was performed to remove one of his kidneys and to implant it into his daughter.
The radio news broadcast a story on Garns, and in it was a comment from the doctor who put the donated kidney into Susan's body. At a press briefing at Georgetown University Hospital, the doctor said, "The senator is awake, has a bit of a grin on his face. He seems very self-satisfied, and happy and peaceful."
The senator had to be in pain at that moment. The incision through which his kidney was removed goes from his back to his front ribs. There were tubes in him, needles yet to come, and several weeks of recuperation lying ahead. But he was smiling!
That grin on Jake Garn's face could have meant only one thing: no regrets. Love makes it possible for a person to do the most difficult and dreaded of things without looking back.
Think for a moment about what Jesus did to save you. He left the worship of angels to be born in a stable. He accepted the limitations of human form, suffered indignities of the greatest magnitude, and shed His lifeblood to purchase your redemption.
The most astounding thing about all He did is that there is not a word in the Bible which indicates that the Son of God regretted doing it. On the day of His ascension back to the Father, there may have been a bit of a grin on His face.
His only regret would come if you refused His gift of life.

Love and Actions
"I love Thee, I love Thee
and that Thou doest know;
But how much I love Thee,
my actions will show."

Puncture-Proof Heart
Some of these newfangled inventions are great-especially the puncture-proof tire. If you are driving along with ordinary tires and a nail goes through one of them, whis-s-s, you lose all the air. But a puncture-proof tire is different-if a nail goes through, there is some stuff inside that runs around and stops the hole and the air stays in.
The heart of a Christian is like that puncture-proof tire. An ordinary heart may be filled with love, but when someone does something to puncture that heart, all the love runs out and hatred and hard feelings take its place. But a puncture-proof heart is different. It is filled with the Spirit of Christ and when someone, through their words or deeds punctures that heart, immediately the hole is stopped up tight and the love stays in."

Love One Another
Joseph M. Stowell shares this memory:
"When my parents moved to southern Florida, they sorted through some of the family treasures and divided them among the children. My dad brought me a little box and said, 'Joe, I want you to have this.'When I opened the box and pulled back the cotton, there was an old pocket watch-one of those round ones that usually hangs from a fancy gold chain with a watch fob on it.
"I have a few antique clocks, so I was somewhat aware of the value of old timepieces. That watch did not have a famous maker's name on it, or a brass or gold or sterling case; it did not have a fancy gold chain or watch fob. In fact, it really was a common old watch with a leather thong tied to it. As a watch, it was not something of great worth.
"But my dad said, 'This was the first watch I ever owned. My dad gave me this watch.'I remembered that he and I used to fish the St. Joe River every summer, floating down the river and fly fishing in the evening. This was the watch he used to pull out every once in a while to see what time it was.
"You know, if my dad had taken that watch to an antique store, they would have told him it was worth little, if anything. But all the money in the world could not buy that watch from me. That watch is precious to my father, and since it is precious to him, it is precious to me.
"That is what people are like. That is why God in essence said, 'Love Me? Love people!'"

Service Over Showing Off
There is a story told about Sam Rayburn who was Speaker for the House of Representatives longer than any other man. One of his friends lost a teenage daughter and early the next morning Rayburn knocked on his door. "I just came by to see what I could do to help." The father replied that there was nothing to do. "Well," Rayburn said, "have you had your coffee this morning?" The man replied that they had not taken time for breakfast. While Rayburn was working in the kitchen, the man came in and said, "Mr. Speaker, I thought you were supposed to be having breakfast at the White House this morning." "Well, I was, but I called the President and told him I had a friend who was in trouble and I could not come."
What a different world this would be if we would learn to become more and more unselfish.

What Is Adoption?
A small girl recently gave her definition of the word "adoption." "It is when you love someone and you ask them to come and live with you." Simplicity is still the best way to say a thing, is it not? God loves us too, and He wants to adopt us as sons and daughters-how about it? Would you come and live with Him?

Love for People
Then there's the man who said, "Lord, maybe Charlie Brown is right when he says he loves mankind, but it is people he cannot stand. You see, I love people in general more than I do individually.
"Lord, it is like the joke about the father who yelled at his kids when they walked in the wet cement of his sidewalk; he can love them in the abstract, but never in the concrete.
"Maybe I need to see a little more of You in them. And maybe I need to see a little more of You in me."

Love Your Enemies
An Armenian nurse had been held captive along with her brother by the Turks. Her brother was slain by a Turkish soldier before her eyes. Somehow she escaped and later became a nurse in a military hospital.
One day she was stunned to find that the same man who had killed her brother had been captured and brought wounded to the hospital where she worked. Something within her cried out "Vengeance." But a stronger voice called for her to love. She nursed the man back to health.
Finally, the recuperating soldier asked her, "Why didn't you let me die?" Her answer was, "I am a follower of Him who said, 'Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you'" (Luke 6:27).
Impressed with her answer, the young soldier replied, "I never heard such words before. Tell me more. I want this kind of religion."

Orders to Go
When someone asked a missionary if he liked his work in Africa, he replied: "Do I like this work? No, my wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonably refined sensibilities. We do not like crawling into huts through goats' refuse. We do not like association with ignorant, filthy, brutish people. But is a man to do nothing for Christ he does not like? If not, then God pity him. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to 'go'and we go. Love constrains us" (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Love Needed
Some years ago, Dr. Karl Menninger, noted doctor and psychologist, was seeking the cause of many of his patients' ills. One day he called in his clinical staff and proceeded to unfold a plan for developing, in his clinic, an atmosphere of creative love. All patients were to be given large quantities of love; no unloving attitudes were to be displayed in the presence of the patients, and all nurses and doctors were to go about their work in and out of the various rooms with a loving attitude.
At the end of six months, the time spent by patients in the institution was cut in half.

Lesson in Love
As a group of college students toured the slums of a city, one of the girls, seeing a little girl playing in the dirt, asked a guide, "Why doesn't her mother clean her up?"
"Madam," he replied, "that girl's mother probably loves her, but she doesn't hate dirt. You hate dirt, but you don't love her enough to go down there and clean her up. Until hate for dirt and love for that child are in the same person, that little girl is likely to remain as she is."
Until hate for sin and love for the sinner gets in a person, he will do little about the plight of the lost.

Love That Sacrifices
During World War II, an enemy submarine approached a fleet of ships in the North Atlantic. The captain of one vessel spotted the white mark of a torpedo coming directly at his ship. His transport was loaded with literally hundreds and hundreds of young soldiers on the way to the European front. He realized they would not have time to maneuver to avoid the torpedo. He grabbed the loudspeaker and cried out, "Boys, this is it!"
Nearby, though, a little escorting destroyer also observed the torpedo. The captain ordered, "Full speed ahead." His ship steamed into the path of the torpedo. The destroyer was blown up; it sank very quickly. Every man on it was lost. The captain of the troop transport ship sadly commented, "The skipper of that destroyer was my best friend." Now one verse in the Bible has an even deeper meaning for that captain: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend" (John 15:13). A Good Teacher and a Great Teacher
"Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go" (Matthew 8:19).
A number of years ago a Johns Hopkins University professor asked his graduate students to locate 200 boys, ages 12-16 and research their family backgrounds. The assignment was then to predict their future. The students were sent to the slum area of the city to find the boys. The conclusion reached by the graduate students was that 90 percent of those researched would spend time in jail. The final chapter of this study would not completed until 25 years later.
When the 200 original students were sought after, some 25 years later, John Hopkins sent the researchers into the slum area again. Some of the group still remained in the slums, others had moved away, a few had died. In all they were able to locate 180 of the original 200. What they found amazed them. Only four had ever been to jail (remember the prediction had been 90 percent of 200)!
What caused this figure to be so low when all indications pointed to a larger number? When the researchers began to ask this question they found that they were getting the same answer, "Well, there was this teacher...." Pressed further, the researchers found that the teacher in all cases was one and the same. The boys had all been influenced by the same teacher.
The graduate students traced down the teacher, now living in a retirement home, and inquired about her remarkable influence over a group of boys who were headed for a life of crime. She really could not think of any reason why she would have this kind of influence. She did mention that "I truly loved my students."

Pleasing Christ
A love desire to please Christ is not something extra for the Christian. It is basic to Christian sanctity. It is not a dessert, but the main course-not a sideshow, but the main tent. It is not a motive to which we can resort to when convenient; it is a controlling force to which we have committed our lives. We have abandoned everything else. In time, applause and pleas of the world have a hollow ring. We are marching to a different drumbeat. His smile is singularly our greatest delight! This is the lifestyle of love.

God Is Love
A certain farmer had an unusual weathervane on his barn. Inscribed on the arrow were these words: "God is love." A passerby turned in at the gate and asked the farmer, "What do you mean by that? Do you think God's love is changeable; that it veers about as that arrow turns in the winds?" "Oh, no," replied the farmer, "I mean that whichever way the wind blows, God is still love." The Time to Trust
When nothing whereon to lean remains,
When strongholds crumble to dust;
When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,
That is just the time to trust.

He Never Stops Loving Us
The minister was retiring, and had delivered his last sermon from the pulpit where he had preached many years.
One of the faithful members stopped as she went out the door and asked, "Do you know what is the most important thing you said in all these years?"
"What was that?" the minister inquired, so he might learn of one way he had helped someone.
"You told us we cannot do anything to get God to stop loving us!" was the quiet reply.
The most important thing that you can learn in life is that God never stops loving you!
-Peter lied about being one of the disciples, but God loved him (Matthew 26:70).
-The mothers and their small children were a problem for the disciples, but God loved them (Matthew 19:14).
-The woman refused to give Jesus a drink of water from the well, but God loved her (John 4:9).
No matter what your life has been like, He still loves you! How much do you love God? No Greater Love
From the days before ready access to vaccines comes this story:
The doctor looked down at the little girl in the hospital bed. He knew that her only hope was to receive blood from someone who had recovered from the same disease.
Quickly the doctor found the anxious family, and knelt beside a small boy. "Johnny," he said, "your sister needs your kind of blood to make her well. Would you be willing to give your blood so that she can live?"
Johnny's eyes grew big. The doctor watched them well with fear, but the little boy hesitated only long enough to swallow the lump in his throat.
"Sure, Doctor, I will do it," he replied.
After the needed amount of blood was taken from Johnny's small arm, he remained quiet for a few minutes as he had been instructed. Then he stood up, and asked softly: "Well, Doctor, when do I die?"
Only then did the doctor realize the extent of the child's sacrifice. Johnny had offered his life to save his sister, Jesus declared that there is no greater love.
Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). A Kind Teacher
F. W. Farrar tells how, when Dwight L. Moody was an ignorant, ragged, shoeless boy in the streets of Chicago, he found his way to a Sunday school by one of those unseen providences that men call chance. He was shy and sensitive and very nervous lest the other boys would laugh at him because he could not find the places in the Bible. The teacher observed his embarrassment, and with gentle, silent tact saved him from his shame by finding the places for him. But for that little nameless act of love and sympathy, a career of memorable beneficence might have been lost to the world.

Warmth of Love
Have you ever seen a tailor place a piece of absorbent paper over a spot of grease and press down on it with a hot iron? Why does he do it? The heat melts the grease, and the paper absorbs it. Real love absorbs the spots in the lives of others, making them feel the warmth of our own hearts for them. The Christian Grocer
A Christian grocer was in financial difficulties because his customers thought they could run up their bills indefinitely. They felt that such a saintly man would never press them for payment or take them to court. Their ready excuse was, "We don't have money to pay our bills." "How can I pay my creditors, if the people I have trusted do not pay me?" puzzled the grocer. What should a Christian do in such a case-believe all things and all men and go bankrupt? A novel idea came to him. He posted the following notice on the bulletin board in front of his store: "On this bulletin board, thirty days from now, will appear the names of all persons who have been indebted to me for one year or more and who, after repeated requests, have refused to pay! Some have told me that they are unable to pay, but they are able to build homes, drive cars, and have other things that I could have if I had the money due me. I hope I don't have to put any names on the board, but I won't be put off any longer!" Results followed immediately. Many paid their old accounts, while others promised to do so on the next payday. This grocer's action was wholly consistent with Christian love. He refused to believe the falsehoods of others and by so doing didn't allow them to continue in deceit and dishonesty. Love believes all things that encourages honesty and virtue in others. Love does not believe lies but endeavors to correct them.

Parental Love
A young man who had committed a crime was sent to prison without his parents knowing about it. When he finally wrote and told them where he was, they hastened to the distant city to see him. Sullen and stony-faced, he greeted them in the visiting room. Braced for their recriminations and anger, he was completely unprepared for their loving concern. "I thought you would never forgive me-that you would disown me!" he cried. "Why should we do that?" asked his father. "You're our son, and we only want to help you." The fact that their love toward him had not changed was the beginning of that young man's redemption.

Blind to the Truth
A wife whose husband had embezzled thousands of dollars simply would not believe it of him. She loved her husband. So did a close friend, but this friend had to appear in court for the truth's sake and witness against him. The man was pronounced guilty by two courts and sentenced to a jail term, but his wife still refused to believe the truth. Was her kind of love of any help to his sinful and eternal condition? No, it only encouraged him to persist in perpetuating a lie. Real love is not blind to the truth. It does not reject truth for fear that it will not survive the blow. It accepts truth as the basis of the redemptive work of love. No Burden
An American missionary who was walking down the streets of a Chinese city was greatly interested in the children, many of whom were carrying smaller children upon their backs and managing at the same time to play their games. "It is too bad," the American sympathetically said to one little fellow, "that you have to carry such a heavy burden!" "He is no burden," came the quick reply; "He is my brother." "Well, you are chivalrous to say so!" said the man, and he gave the boy some money. When the missionary returned home he said to his family, "A little Chinese boy has taught me the fullest meaning of the words, 'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.' " He recounted his interview and added, "If a little Chinese boy can carry and care for his brother and refuse to consider him a burden, surely we ought not to think it a burden to carry our brother, the weak and the needy ones, who look to us for help. Let us rejoice as we carry one, and say, by our actions, 'He is no burden; he is my brother.' " An Act of Love
Let us imitate the barber who one week noticed that there was a good increase in his business. When he tried to find out why, he discovered that his competitor, another barber in the village, was ill. When the week ended, he took all that he had made above his average earnings and carried it to his competitor with his Christian love and sympathy.

They Killed My Brother
I vividly remember an incident that took place at our Greek Keswick in Macedonia one year. The Lord had just opened the door for a special ministry among the Turks. After I announced it, a devout Christian woman came up to me, placed some Greek currency in my hand, and said, "I want this used to win Turks to Christ. They killed my brother, but I want to be the first to contribute to their cause." There will be a special reward for that woman at the day of judgment for believers.

Encouraging Friends
One winter in Chicago, a young man of dissipated habits was happily converted to God. His life was so radically changed that not a soul who knew him doubted the depth and genuineness of God's work of grace in his heart. He lived like a Christian for many months. One stormy evening in November, after business hours, he was on his way home when he was delayed by an open drawbridge. A large, brilliantly lighted bar stood right at hand. He had often frequented such places before his conversion, but never since that time. This evening, however, as he waited for the bridge to turn and let him through, he stepped into the bar for no other reason than to get out of the pelting sleet. Suddenly, all the familiar temptations closed around him, and almost before he was aware of his danger, he had ordered a drink. One drink led to another, and before he left the place he was partially intoxicated. Before he reached home he despaired of his salvation. "My family, my friends, the church, will all know about it," he groaned within himself. "No one will have any confidence in me. I am disgraced, lost."
But two young men from his church who had seen him leave the bar came up to him and said, "Charlie, don't go home tonight. Come with us and we'll take care of you. We promise that no one in the world shall ever hear from us a word of what happened tonight." They encouraged him, saying that God would forgive and restore him. Next morning he was himself again. They knelt together in earnest prayer, and when he rose from his knees it was with the glad assurance of pardon and God's favor restored. This young man never again yielded to such a temptation and went on to become a successful minister of the gospel. The Valuable Picture
When a certain wealthy man died, his will could not be found. Since his wife and only son had preceded him in death, his possessions were sold at auction. Everything was disposed of except a picture of the son. Nobody seemed to want it until an elderly woman approached and pleaded with the auctioneer to let her have it for the few dollars in her possession. When he gave her the picture, she hugged it to her heart, for she had been the son's nurse in his infancy and boyhood days. Attached to the back of the painting she discovered an envelope addressed to an attorney. Taking it to him, she was astonished to hear him exclaim, "Woman, you have a fortune! This is the man's will, and in it he has left a large sum of money to anyone who loved his son enough to buy the picture."

Christian Love
That great blind preacher, George Matheson, adequately grasped the idea of Paul when he wrote: "Christian love is the only kind of love in which there is no rivalry, no jealousy. There is jealousy among the lovers of art; there is jealousy among the lovers of song; there is jealousy among the lovers of beauty. The glory of natural love is its monopoly, its power to say, 'It is mine.' But the glory of Christian love is its refusal of monopoly. The spiritual artist-the man who paints Christ in his soul-wants no solitary niche in the temple of fame. He would not like to hear anyone say, 'He is the first of his profession; there is not one that can hold a candle to him.' He would be very sad to be thus distinguished in his profession of Christ, marked out as a solitary figure. The gladdest moment to him will always be the moment when the cry is heard, 'Thy brother is coming up the ladder also; thy brother will share the inheritance with thee.' "

Love Demonstrated
A class of little girls was learning to spell. They spelled a number of small words, such as "pig," "cat," "dog," "cow," and amused themselves by imitating the sounds that these animals make. Then little Mary was asked to spell "love." She didn't stop to give the letters, but ran and threw her arms around the teacher's neck and kissed her on the cheek. "We spell 'love' that way at our house," she said. The girls laughed, but the teacher said, "That is a beautiful way; but do you know another way to spell 'love'?" "Oh, yes," cried Mary, "I spell love this way," and she began to put the books in order on her teacher's desk. "I spell love by helping everybody when they need me."

Punishment Necessary
A young man speeding along a highway crashed into an oncoming car, and the resultant chain reaction caused the death and crippling of several innocent victims. Yet the judge, after only five minutes deliberation, let him go free. The ensuing public uproar caused a re-opening of the case and a conviction-although ultimately the sentence was suspended. The public outrage in this case, and in similar instances where justice is flouted, shows that men have a built-in recognition of the fact that, where wrongdoing goes unpunished, the law-abiding are threatened and the innocent victimized. Parental love cannot allow disobedience to go unchecked or let continued rejection of authority go unpunished. To do so would be to encourage anarchy and to discourage those who are trying to do what is right. The doctrine of love that the Lord Jesus Christ preached was no wishy-washy affair of permissiveness, of "anything goes," but was balanced by stern warnings about sinning against God and man.

Love in Deed and Truth
A young man spent an entire evening telling a girl how much he loved her. He said that he could not live without her; that he would go to the ends of the earth for her; yes, go through fire for her, or die for her. However, on leaving, he said, "I'll see you tomorrow night if it doesn't rain." How often we say we love God yet deny it by our actions. Christ will give His crown of life only to those who love Him in deed and in truth. Be Merciful
J. H. Evans said, "I believe that God often permits me to be chastened by my sin, because I do not make use of my mercies." We often lose our mercies by loving them too well, as the ball of snow is melted by the heat of the hand that holds it, or a rose is spoiled by pressing it too tightly. Theophilus Gale very well said, "Whatsoever I thankfully receive, as a token of God's love to me, I part with contentedly as a token of my love to Him."