Merest Christianity.

1 John 3:1,11

1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

C.S. Lewis is a familiar name in your mind right? I mean, I have used several of his quotes on my blog before. He communicated his beliefs about Christianity in a series of British radio broadcasts that were edited into the book Mere Christianity. He covered the basics of Christian belief. Yet even that slim book would have seemed overly long and complex to the apostle John. John uses the simplest language of any New Testament writer - his three letters together employ barely 300 different Greek words - to express the gospel in its most distilled form.

Throughout the letters of John he defines words in relation to their opposites: light versus darkness, truth versus falsehood, life versus death. I know you've heard me mention it so many times, but the bible clearly wants us to "love one another." If you do that, you have the heart of God. (Source: Young Student Bible -Philip Yancey and Tom Stafford)

God is generous to love us dearly as his children. Sometimes we don't act like it. If somebody is a good role model, don't you want to follow in their footsteps? A person who loves God should act like it. It's that simple, or is it?

This may seem easy to do, but it's trickier to apply it to your own life. I challenge you to step out into the world with love pouring out of you each time you come in contact with someone, whether it be a friend or a complete stranger.

"If there is one virtue which most commends Christians, it is that of kindness; it is to love the people of God, to love the church, to love the world- to love all." ~Charles Spurgeon

FYI: Chances are by the time you read today's devotion, I'll be up in Tennessee. I will be up there for a few days visiting my sister, brother-in-law, along with my niece and nephews! In case you don't know, on a typical weekend I write all of the following week's devotions. So, the devotions for the rest of this week are covered. When I return back home Sunday, I expect to be busy, so don't expect a post Monday or Tuesday. Check back mid-week though :)

God Bless as always!
Tyler