How do you use the word love? “I love this new song”, or “I love that restaurant!”. We all do this. We use love for things that we like A WHOLE lot, but we don’t really LOVE them. Well, not in the sense of what love really is.

So, what is it then?

Our culture celebrates Christmas for a lot of reasons, but Grace Church celebrates Christmas for one. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16-17).” We know, from the Bible (and we can all see from our personal experiences in life), that humans mess up. There is no way for us to be perfect on our own and we need help. Because of this, God sent His ONLY Son, Jesus. He lived a perfect life on earth and then laid it down for those of us who couldn’t (which is all of us). By doing this, Jesus took on our sin. Your sin. My sin. He defeated death and rose from the dead. Now, whoever believes in Jesus and what He has done for us, is not seen as imperfect in God’s eyes. They are seen as whole.

Love is not just a feeling. It’s action. Jesus showed us what love was when He laid His life down for us.

Thousands of years later lives are still being transformed by this love. There is a lady that goes to our church who has been a Christ follower for 8 years, but still remembers the feeling of “being dead inside.” When she was in high school life circumstances led her to a place where she was living on her own. She would burn bridges everywhere she went and would move around from home to home. Her life was in complete shambles. Dinking, drugs, you name it. She graduated from high school only because they didn’t want her to come back. At her lowest point, she was essentially homeless, squatting in a friend’s basement. She was given an opportunity to move to another state and she went because she had nothing else. Little did she know this would be the beginning of God changing her life.

She found a part time job and she started to meet other people. One day, someone invited her to church.

Someone showed her love.

The day she went to church was the day that another person decided to get baptized to declare their faith in Jesus to all who could see. This rocked her world. With no understanding of why, she wept. Eventually, she returned to Ohio now knowing there was something that she was innately missing. She had new family members who told her about Jesus.

More people showed her love.

Until finally, she realized that the thing she was always searching for was Jesus. And He passionately loved her even through her very dark days.  

The love of Jesus is what saved this girl.

The love of Jesus is what can save you.

Do you ever think “I’m not worthy of that” or “there is no way God can love me after…”? Lies. All lies. God’s love is infinitely greater than anything we can imagine. His love is not limited by the mistakes we have made and the people we have hurt. God love YOU. Jesus died for YOU.

What do we do with this?

If you are not a Christian, you can decide right now that you want to follow Jesus. There isn’t a magical prayer, just your heart to His. If you want to talk with someone about this, please reach out to us here at Grace. We would love to talk, anytime. If you are a Christian, we sit in this love and we show the world the love of Jesus through our actions.

The best life that we can live is one we give away.

How to be salt and light by spreading the love of Jesus:

• Share the online Christmas service.
• If you are around anyone who is an unbeliever, pray about sharing Jesus with them.
• Pray in front of your family for Christmas lunch/dinner.
• Offer to buy groceries for a family in need.
• Send a card to a long-lost friend or family member.
• Start a watch party for online Christmas services.
• Send Christmas cards to a local nursing home with your favorite Bible verse.
• Read the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2 as a family on Christmas Eve.
• Ask your server or cashier how you can pray for them.

This list is not exhaustive. They are just ideas. The purpose of the salt and light blogs is to show that we live our lives in a way that always reflects Jesus and we are to be salt and light wherever we go. If someone looks at you like you are weird, you are probably doing something right.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:17b-19

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. – Psalm 36:5-7