Our neck of the woods, this morning, was dreary with rain coming down and thick fog all around us.  We could see the sun trying to burn its way through, but it didn’t look hopeful.

This afternoon we are blessed with sunshine, calm winds and a comfortable 60 degree temperature.  Nice change.

Carla has most of her garden debris burned and now we are just waiting for the ground to be dryer so when Josh rototills it we won’t have many clots.  We are planning on that to be done next Saturday, hopefully.

We are seeing more hummingbirds visiting our feeders; those that left last fall are starting to migrate through to the north and we will have a few join those that wintered here until next fall.  I enjoy watching them.

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1 John 3:16 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” KJV

Living in Christ means sacrifice; even if it means our own life to save another.

To tell you the truth, I am not too sure just what this means, or how we go about it; but it shows one of the reasons that we must be careful about taking verses out of context. 

1 John 3:17-18 “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” KJV

There may very well come a time when we must give up our life for another Christian, circumstances could be that we are in a land where to be a Christian is forbidden and when we are found out we are told to either give up others or they will torture and kill us – by the way, that is a real reality for many Christians in other parts of the world.

But the whole Chapter of 1 John 3 deals with ways we must treat and look after our fellow Christians who are in need.

God expects us to help others, particularly those that are fellow Christians.  When we see a need and it is within our power to assist them, God expects us to act, not just talk.

Being a Christian has certain expectation from God.  We have agreed to accept Christ’s blood as the redemption from our sin.

However, it also requires we follow Him; do as He directs and as He did himself when He walked on the earth.

To many of us are ‘Sunday Christians’ meaning we go to church worship and pray and then the rest of the week we disregard anything the Holy Spirit is telling us – in particular ignoring the needs of others.

Lord help me open my heart to the Holy Spirit and follow both your Word and your Spirit as I go about my everyday life.

Later, Art (-: