Dears in Christ, may you have a blessed lent season as we look to our dearly beloved Christ with undimmed eyes and unclouded minds.

As I was praying on the promise verse to deliver for the month of March, I was impressed to write on two things.

Love each other deeply

Much has been written in the Bible about loving one another. Jesus gave it as the greatest commandment. Apostle Paul wrote about it. Apostle John wrote about it. Again, in the book of Revelation a church is warned not to forget their first love.

Lately I had become callous and hardened. Every interaction became just another job that needed to be finished. All my relationships started looking like a transaction. It is easy to shut out our emotions or rather have negative emotions take root in us, but it is quite difficult to love one another as Christ loved us. In a Russian novel, a monk tells his junior, “Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants and love each separate thing. If you love each thing you will perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once you perceive this, you will thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal, by the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbour actively and indefatigably. In as far as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbour, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul. This has been tried. This is certain.”

Let us strive to actively love one another as Jesus did. Crossing over an ocean to release a man possessed by demons and following the father of a dying daughter just to raise her up. Burdened about the soul of a woman who came to draw water from the well and changing her life. Every day that Jesus ministered on earth was an expression of love of the Father. Let us make it our priority to show love in action.

Your transgressions are forgiven

If there is one particular theme that runs across the entire Bible, it is that our sins are forgiven.  The book of Psalms chapter 103, verse 12 states that, As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. One commentator writes that even the very residue of guilt of sin is cleansed from our hearts through faith in His forgiveness of sins. Are you burdened by your past lifestyle or your choices? Does the mistake of the past still haunts you and is robbing you of your life? Do you feel far off from God because of your sins? Are you in a place where you have given up on God and do not want to associate yourself with Him? Have you tried again and again to overcome some bad habit only to fall off on it the next day? Dears, God says to you, “Your transgressions are forgiven, as far as the east is from the west” This is to denote the maximum distances from one point to the other. Be of Good cheer; come back to God with rejoicing and a pure heart! Yes a pure heart! He has forgiven you, because He has chosen to actively love us.

In this lent season, let us look at Jesus and may we love Him again with a renewed passion. God bless.

Bro Gideon Paul Rufus

God’s love missions family

**please write back to us so we can share your joy in testifying the Lord for His mercy**