“God loves you” ~ CAMPAIGN

“God loves you” ~ CAMPAIGN

    Recently my mentor Dr. Ron Cline spoke at our local church in Banning, California for the first time. Actually we were blessed with his preaching for two weeks during the month long ‘missions’ emphasis. He shared a story about three men who responded to a challenge he gave at a three day missions conference at a church in Michigan to tell people, “God loves you, and I love you”. He encouraged us to do that too. Since then I have done that time and time again. The results are very encouraging. Encouraging because every single person so far has responded in a positive way and I shouldn’t be, but am somewhat surprised.

    Here are some take aways from this process. First, Christians are so private about our faith we have become a silent majority. When I tell people, “God loves you” their responses sometimes includes them telling me something about their experiences centered in the importance God plays in their lives. This is an encouragement to me and it can be for you too. You just need to try it. Try it one time, perhaps today. Tell someone that, “God loves you” and see how they respond.

    Second, if we really believe that eternal life is centered on our accepting Jesus, the Son of God as our Savior, why not share that with someone we care about? Or even with a complete stranger? If they are interested share Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:23 and the great joy and hope we enjoy Romans 6:1. 

    I like a subtle change of only one word that CRU uses in their global outreach in sharing the gospel. It is law number one of the Four Spiritual Laws; “God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life”. The one word change is ‘offers’. It formerly was ‘plan’. I like the change because God does indeed make an offer to everyone. Yes, He has a plan but unless we accept this plan that He offers to us, it is useless. 

    I remember something Rev. Royal Blue said a long time ago. He was a speaker at a camp I attended while in High School at Thousand Pines in the San Bernardino Mountains. In front of hundreds of us, he held up and offered a one dollar bill; he said you can have it. No one moved, so he said it again and again a third time. Then someone jumped up, went to him and took the bill. He had a lot of fun with that, stressing the importance of us accepting Gods offer. What an illustration to emphasize the importance of us accepting the free gift that God offers to us. The latest change to Law number one is, “God loves you and created you to know Him personally”. Do you know Him?