God of Love
Christmas Sunday 2025
6th Ave Global Methodist Church
Everyone does the list of words through Advent in a different order.
Most normally, you will see the order of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love.
I have seen the word Faithfulness go first and then Hope, Joy and Love.
Some in their liturgical ordering put Love on the 3rd Sunday and end with Joy.
Yet another group will put forgo all of the words we know and speak of Prophets, Shepherds, Angels and Magi. There really is no wrong way to go about celebrating the season Advent. But, the one thing we can do wrong is to leave Love out of the picture altogether.
And, if Magi is the 4th Sunday, then we see Love being expressed in its greatest way.
Traveling from so far away, they bring gifts that will help the Savior's family make the long trek into Egypt for safety until the boy is old enough to return after the death of Herod. What would you be willing to give in order to bless a family you don't know or have never met before in your life? Love is the ultimate expression of who God is. None of us have met God. And, yet, we seem to have the unexplained connection to this faith and the God it speaks of.
Nicodemus was a man who knew of the unexplained. It is the whole reason he comes to Jesus at night. He can't get past this nagging feeling that there is something more than what he has been taught to believe and what he himself has taught others to believe. How many of us know how to nod our heads at the correct things to believe? How many of us have been following the correct beliefs in our Christian faith? How many of us truly know what Love is? Jesus shows us what true love is.
Last week we covered joy and we talked about the need to look beyond ourselves in being able to share Joy. Love is another step. If we have Hope and we can share in that with others, good. If we have found Peace because of what we share, good. If we can take the next step into Joy and begin to focus on the well being of others, then we are ready to move into Love. It's what God does with us. He sent his One and Only Son into a world with no Hope, that needed to find Peace, lacking in Joy, all of which could be found in the Love that only God can express. Can Merriam- Webster truly define it?
One of those stories happened when we were living in an old, dilapidated home on a hill, in a small town in Kentucky. We had just put our house in Michigan on the market to sell, sold all our possessions except for what fit in the smallest of moving trucks, and moved south in one of the boldest, bravest acts my husband and I ever did. Our three children were ages 6, 4 and 18 months, and weeks after moving we celebrated the news of yet another baby on the way. Some said we were fools to make that move with no money to live, and no money to pay for seminary, but we were convinced God had led us down that path, and we chose to act in faith to see it happen. We lived in that town for three years, and we believe God chose to reward our act of obedience with His supernatural provision on many occasions.
One instance is the day of the yard sale. Our water bill was due, and we did not have enough money to pay it. We needed $89.45, if I remember right. So, we gathered up a few things and decided to have a yard sale. We were hoping to profit several hundred dollars, because we always needed money in those days. We prayed earnestly that morning, presenting our need before the Lord. At the end of the day, we totaled up the dollar bills and change, and we earned exactly $89.45. Not a penny less, and not a penny more. We knew that God arranged that, and our faith was strengthened that day.
Another time, we had just started on a trip with the four children back to Michigan to visit family. We lived at the top of the hill, and we started praying as soon as we all got buckled in and headed down the hill to leave town. We had no extra emergency money, and we had an older vehicle, and it was a long 10 hour trip ahead of us. So, we prayed for God’s mercy, for God’s provision, and for the car to run well. We didn’t even get to the bottom of the hill, and the van stopped working. Before we left town. And, it was a Sunday. However, God was in the business of answering our prayers, and there was a mechanic at the bottom of the hill, and he happened to be home, and he accepted payment plans. We pulled in, and the next morning, we re-started that trip. We thanked God because if that van had stopped working after we left town, we would have been in a quandary, and unable to pay for the repairs. But God knew, and He chose to bless us that day.
Another story took place several years later, after we had moved to Cheboygan. We were looking to buy a home, and I won’t go into the details of all of that, except to say that on the day we needed $5,000 to secure a down payment on a mortgage, a check arrived in the mail for that exact amount from a great aunt of mine, who had meant to send the check a year earlier, but she had gotten sidetracked with life and was prompted to mail it out that week. She knew nothing of our need, but God certainly did, and He once again proved to be our Provider, affirming our decision about our offer on a home.
These are just a few of my stories. But, they aren’t really my stories. They are God’s stories. His love stories. Because His faithfulness and His provision are part of who He is to me. Because of His love. - Cheboygan Daily Tribune "God's Love Stories" Feb 4, 2021
Can you gather how difficult it is to define something as exemplary as Love? Much of what we read above centers on the human emotion. Eros is the Greek word which has to do with the human carnal affection. Phileo is a word from the Greek that focus on our human desire to reach out. Agape is the word we use to talk about the Divine. John 3.16 is all about the Agape. God is reaching out to the world. He wants to bring the world close to him. This world doesn't handle change very well, however. Maybe that's why he comes in such a quiet unsuspecting way where just a few people bothered to pay attention or listen. Too often, that how Love slips past us unnoticed. Our ears and eyes and hearts and minds miss the drawing in from God's Love. Our nature is on an intransitive plane with God. We don't share Love in the same interests or areas. There are times where we need to be shaken and moved.
Let the Love of God move you in this Christmas season. Let is shake you out of complacency into a devotion that moves beyond yourself. Move out into the world and share what God has done for you.
Blessings, folks
Be a blessing to someone else
Jeremy
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