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Romans 11-12


There is a very powerful verse about love in our reading today.  It is Romans 12:9.  If your translation is the King James Version, it reads “Let love be without dissimulation.”  Perhaps your reaction is, “I’ve never dissimulated anyone in my life.”  The ESV makes it a little more clear when it states, “Let love be genuine.” 

Love must be sincere, not faked; it is without hypocrisy.  It is without play acting.  It is real.  This is the kind of love that is not in words only, but in the actions of love also.  It is love at work.  It is not talking cream and living skim milk 

For love to be sincere, it must be a giving, sacrificial, unselfish, unconditional love.  It’s the kind of love seen often from the believers who are the Mount Vernon Christian Church.   

I read about this kind of love in action near the South Pole.  Love is not confined to any particular geographic location.  Here is a memorable story that help us focus our thoughts and direct our actions to real love.

A group of explorers was trapped on the frozen wastes near the South Pole.  A heavy snow had fallen and their progress was slow.  It was doubtful that they would make it back to their base.  Their food supply had dwindled, and each man had only a few biscuits in his knapsack.  That night as they were sleeping, the leader stirred uneasily and awoke, for he had heard a movement and was afraid someone was sick.  He lay with his eyes almost closed, but watching.  Then he saw his friend stretch out his arm very carefully toward the knapsack of the youngest member of the party.  The leader was shocked.  He knew they were all desperately hungry, but had they sunk so low that one of them had become a thief?  That to an explorer was a bad as murder.  However, his fears quickly vanished as he saw the man take half a biscuit out of his own bag and place it very quietly in the other’s.  Apparently he had observed that the youngest in the party was getting very weak, and he thought he might be too proud to accept someone’s rations.  The leader said it was a though a fire had been kindled in the deadly cold of that Antarctic night.  Sacrificial love had filled that snowy shelter with a warm glow.

Let’s pray that God will give us opportunities for sacrificial love to fill snowy shelters with warm glows. 

Paul Thompson

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