HOW CAN IT BE POSSIBLE FOR CHRISTIANS TO FAIL WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE?
In the past I have told the story of moving from Houston to the heart of Texas. We had seen hundreds saved and many who were saved at that time followed the Lord into ministries. Today, even their children are in the ministry and are living out the legacy of something that started in our hearts at an altar long ago. As I was driving out of Houston, with my U-Haul hitched to the bumper of our car, the Lord ask me a question that I refused to answer for 20 or so years. I had just passed 59 North traveling West on Loop 610, when I he asked me a question. As I was looking at the city of Houston in my rear-view mirror, I was thinking, about the people who God had wondrously touched. I wondered out loud about who would pick up the mantle and work with those who God had saved and had become a part of our lives like family. I laughed at the thought of how the boys, most of them Mexican young men, were angry when we adopted Kyle and how they concluded he was just to white. I thought about the long nights in the inner city and days when I would come home at night and Gay Nell, Krista and Kyle would already be in bed for the night. The other side of this is that by morning I would be gone back to the school to meet them and have a prayer meeting with 50 to a hundred young people in the cafeteria for prayer. This all started one day when Gay Nell and I were driving to church on a Sunday afternoon and a prayer came out of my spirit. I prayed, “Oh God, give me that school”, by which I meant give us a revival in the school. To my surprise God spoke to me and said, “Son, I have given you that school.” Gay Nell said, what did you say and I said, God just spoke to me and said, “I have given you that school.” The result was that after going to the principle and asking him for permission to do an assembly. He obliged and the Lord confirmed His word to us. Dale and Barbara Dailey joined us and lived in the house and worked with us in ministry for the next 5 years. You can’t do a lasting work without God giving you people who share your passion and love for God. In all they worked alongside us for eleven years in all.
Gay Nell and I had started a youth ministry and a core group of two to three hundred young people would meet with us every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday Night at the place we called the SALT INN. It was a place where we all knew one another’s names. Church life became the culture, which impacted dis-enfranchised youth; latch key kids and the loneliest boys and girls you would ever meet.
I had followed my father in law as pastor of the Oaklawn Church and loved the people that we served. Then God spoke to me to move away from Houston. I wrestled with it like it was a devil who was talking to me, only to find out it was really God that was leading us in a new direction. I was as I was leaving Houston God asked me this question, “Did you love me as much as what I gave you to do?” I chose never to allow myself to love what I was doing from that day forward. I was thinking about this and these thoughts came to mind.
Ephesians 3:16
New Living Translation
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
Are You Aware That It Is Our Responsibility, to make others feel loved?
When Christ makes His home in our hearts, as we trust Him. Our roots grow down into God’s love and keep us strong. Where does divorce and separation come from? How do couples and children and parents drift apart? I think we discover the answer herein. Their roots don’t grow down into God’s love. It is a painful experience for the partner that no longer feels the love or their spouse, husband or wife. I had never thought about something I read recently, flawed roots produce feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, worthlessness, anger, a fear of intimacy and so much more. The opposite is what a healthy root system produces in self-esteem, confidence, and selfassurance, just as God’s love produces a sense of wholeness in your mate and or your children. As a pastor I have seen to many people who do not realize that they are the problem in their marriage and the negativity in their own children who they dearly love. Strong roots systems require:
TIME TO GROW
To the degree you put your roots deep down in the love of God to that degree you will experience a greater love for your husband, wife and family.
PROTECTION FROM WHAT CAN KILL
You need to recognize what can kill your love and keep your roots from going down deeper into the love of God. I have seen marriages end because the root system in God was faulty and weak.
THE NEED OF A DEVOTIONAL LIFESTYLE
What would happen to you if you only ate one meal a week? Your adversary knows when you are weak and he preys on the weakest in the herd. Maintaining an intimacy with Jesus is necessary for you to be all He desires for you to be. Remember Jesus told Peter, “Satan has desired you to sift you as wheat.” Remember Christians fail when it comes to love because their roots quit growing deeper in the
Love of God. My prayer for you today is:
Ephesians 3:16,17 NLT
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
IS CHRIST AT HOME IN YOUR HEART?
THIS CHRISTMAS LET’S MAKE SURE HE HAS ROOM IN OUR HEARTS WHEN THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR HIM IN THE INN.
THANK YOUR FOR MAKING THE CONFERENCE SUCH A HUGE SUCCESSS. TIME AN ETERNITY WILL WRITE THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO DID MORE THAT JUST HEARD THE WORD THEY ACTED ON IT.
I BELIEVE IN YOU,
Pastor Cleddie and GayNell Keith
P.S. Thank you for your prayers of faith for GayNell she is out of AFIB and getting
stronger each day.