By pastorbillwalden
Jesus Christ stands between the lover and the others he loves. I do not know in advance what love of others means on the basis of the general idea of love that grows out of my human desires- all this may rather be hatred and an insidious kind of selfishness in the eyes of Christ. What love is, only Christ tells us in His word.
Contrary to all my own opinions and convictions, Jesus Christ will tell me what love towards the brethren really is. Therefore, spiritual love is bound solely to the word of Jesus Christ. Where Christ bids me to maintain fellowship for the sake of love, I will maintain it. Where his truth enjoins me to dissolve a fellowship for love’s sale, there I will dissolve it, despite all the protests of my human love.
Because spiritual love does not desire but rather serves, it loves an enemy as a brother. It originates neither in the brother or in the enemy but in Christ and his word. Human love can never understand spiritual love, for spiritual love is from above, it os something completely strange, new, and incomprehensible to all earthly love.
By pastorbillwalden
Our church just finished a week of prayer and fasting. The week began with a great message from my friend, Pastor Daniel Fusco, as he preached at our church, his sermon being entitled “The Ministry Of Withdrawal”. Give it a listen and prepare to be challenged.
Some people in our church put great forth great effort in fasting from food and certain beverages. Others fasted from media, i.e., T.V., Facebook, etc. What was withdrawn from was up to each person. Time was set aside to seek God. Unnecessary things were set aside in order to seek God. We met each night from Sunday-Thursday, and joined other churches via webcasts, and we prayed, worshiped, and took communion.
I was greatly blessed by withdrawing from certain things. For me, they are things not needed, and at times, are wasteful. I believe that the greatest hindrance to the American Church is what Jesus called “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches”. (Matthew 13:22) There is much unfruitfulness in the Body of Christ in America. I include myself in that statement.
This week I was blessed to taste more deeply of the Lord, and I was refreshed and reminded that He is indeed good.
I pray for myself, our church, and every Christian I know, that we would withdraw from that which us from Jesus, and which does not satisfy, but rather, leaves us thirsty. Recreation and entertainment is fine to a point, but we are over saturated with the temporal and suffer leanness in things spiritual.
As far as I can see, prayer is neglected, holiness is a concept, and Jesus is our “bro”. I want that to change in my life.
“Father, bring revival to my heart and the hearts of every Christian I know. Save us from materialism and the addiction to entertainment, and cause us to be hungry for you as never before. We do not ask you to empty us out. We ask you to help us empty ourselves out. We ask that you would break our hearts over our carnality, that we would empty ourselves out, that you may fill us”.