leading w/ love: 1

Five Minus One Equals Zero

Strauch begins this chapter by retelling an experience that D.L. Moody had when Henry Moorhouse came to preach at his church. Moorhouse, 27 at the time, preached seven sermons in a row on John 3:16 to prove emphatically that "God so loved the world."

Here is a sample of what he preached:

My friends for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob's ladder and climb up into heaven and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, to tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

After Moorhouse finished, Moody confessed:

I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much.This heart of mine began to thaw out; I could not keep back the tears.

I took up that word "Love." and I do not know how many weeks I spent studying the passages when it occurs, till at last I could not help loving people! I had been feeding on Love so long that I was anxious to do everybody good... I got full of it...You take up the subject of love in the Bible! You will get so full of it that all you have got to do is to open your lips, and a flood of the Love of God flows out upon the meeting. There is no use trying to do church work without love..God's work cannot be done without love.

Moody's personal experience really says it all. And what a sweet reminder to take in. What I find encouraging is that after he studied God's Word and His Love, he could not help but to love people. He got full of it. This almost seems impossible and even scary to be someone filled with love. But the truth is nothing is impossible with God. And so what if people may think you're crazy; but if they think you're crazy because you love them that much - then praise God!

Moody's experience proves what the Love of God can produce in and through us, and it is wonderfully described in the gems we find in 1 Corinthians 13 - which is the most famous chapter on love in the Bible.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul spoke more about love than any other NT writer, and backed it up with his own personal experiences. And no where else in scripture is it evidenced than in 1 Corinthians 13. To understand the context of this chapter, we need to recognize that Paul was responding to disruptions that arose in the Corinth church regarding spiritual gifts. To correct them, Paul wanted to show them a "more excellent way." "He wanted them to know there is something far more important than supernatural gifts, something that transcends the most excellent gifts and performances, something that if absent will render all gifts worthless. That something is love." And this love that Paul is speaking of is specifically directed to fellow believers. Our Lord Himself commands us to love one another just as he had loved us (John 13:34-35)."By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers" (1 John 3:16).

My thoughts: I'm not even finished with the first 2 pages and I'm already feeling this truth pull the weeds of my heart out. If there's one thing I would like to gain from reading this book, I would like to have a similar experience that of Moody. That after studying this book on love, that by God's grace I would be that geyser of love: to be a help to others and to do everybody good for the glory of Christ.