Gethsemane

   The United Methodist Church of Burlington

 

 2776 Burlington Pike 

Burlington, KY  41005

     (859) 586-8250

 

 

 

Text Box: The Pastor Ponders A Devotional Message from Pastor Alan W. Jackson The Test It all seems pretty silly now. But way back then it was an important test. I was a young adolescent boy, with a crush on one of the girls in my class. Of course, being so young and naive and shy, any possibility of an actual romance with this girl was a long shot at best. But I spent a great deal of time and energy thinking about her and wondering if, by some chance, she might have some interest in me. So I turned to the test. You know the one I mean. In fact, you've probably done it yourself. I picked a flower, and pulling off the petals one at a time said, "She loves me . . . she loves me not . . . she loves me . . . she loves me not. . . ." And if the outcome was as I desired it to be I was filled with the hope that the test might really work. But if the outcome was not what I wanted I didn't pay too much attention. Or sometimes I would just pick another flower and try it until the result was to my liking. Somehow I don't see much need to do that sort of thing any more. For one thing I know that the flower test is anything but reliable. And for another thing I am now happily married to a woman who openly expresses her love to me. Every day she tells me that she loves me, so I have no need to rely on old wives tales for my assurance of her love. Somehow or other people are sometimes unsure whether God loves them. Sometimes we feel awfully unlovable. Maybe we have done something wrong and feel that God can't love us because of our sin. Or maybe we feel so insignificant that we don't feel that anyone as great and mighty as God would bother with us. But the fact is God does love us. He loves YOU. And you don't need to test that love, by the flower test or any other way. God has already told us of His love, He has sent His Son Jesus to live and die for us. And He has told us of His great love in His Word, the Bible. Someone once told me that the best way to show your love for someone is to be there when they need you. God has done that for us. When we needed His presence on earth He became human and lived among us. When we need Him at any moment in our lives He is present with us through the Holy Spirit. He loves us! He loves each one of us! Right now. We can show our love for Him by our presence too. In fact that is why we go to worship in our churches. We don't go to be with our friends, or to hear a good sermon, or even to be spiritually fed, though we gain these benefits from worship. We worship to be with God, to express our love for Him in return for His great love for us. In this special season of the year, why not make a special effort to be in church? Express your love for your God who loves you more than we can ever know. Home

 

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