Newspaper Article Week 4

~Love~

   We have spent the last three weeks looking at the candles of Advent. We have looked at how HOPE, PEACE, and JOY can come from knowing Jesus Christ as Savior.  We have also looked at how these things interact with each other.  Now we get to LOVE.  Our society thinks it knows all about love.  We have song upon song upon song upon song and then some telling us what love looks like.  We talk about falling in love, falling out of love, having a heart full of love, and having our hearts broken.  So what does it mean when we sing “Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine.”

   In John 15:13 the Bible tells us “Greater Love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  1 John 3:16 tells us “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”  Jesus came and was born as a baby in order that he might lay His life down for us.  The crazy thing is He came when the majority of the world wouldn’t have called Him a friend.  In fact we see how the world ended up treating Him.  They hung Him on a cross.  Love came down at Christmas…a love that lasts forever despite our tendency to throw it to the side…a love that is stronger than any struggle and gives a peace that surpasses all understanding…a love that fills our hearts with a joy that can’t be taken away.

   I hope that this Christmas Season you have experienced Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.  I hope that you have experienced these things with Jesus as the Lord of your life.  If not…it’s not too late!  John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die but have eternal life.”  That life eternal filled with hope, peace, joy, and love can be yours today.  Accept the gift today.