A Compelling Love

Acts 2:36-38 says, "'Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah' When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"

Our team touched down in Burundi last night and we spent all day today just getting familiar with the country and the people that we will be working with. We went to a place where women can learn to sew and also grow closer to Christ. It's a year program, so every year that we go we get to see new faces and hear new stories. This year, one really touched my heart.

I was talking with a lady name Christine who was actually a partner with the program and we were exchanging our testimonies. If we would've voted, hers was better than mine. She was raised Catholic but one of her Christian friends kept bugging her to come to church with her. Finally, an opportunity came up to go and Christine thought to herself, "I go with her, she'll stop bugging me." (Might I add, these are the famous last words of many nonbelievers.) They went together and Christine heard and responded to the name of Jesus. She said, "I knew who Jesus was, so when the pastor asked if anyone wanted to trust in Him, I already knew that I had, so I raised my hand."

Something was different about this Jesus than what she had previously learned through her own Catholic beliefs. She decided to go the next Sunday to learn more about Him. She finally got to the point in the service where she started reading the words that they were singing. Her words were beautiful and still resound with me...

I heard and read about the love of God and I just... repented of all my sin.

I was reading in Acts before we left the hotel today because I knew that if we were going to start a revival in people's hearts, we had to do it the Biblical way. After doing a study for about for a few years and looking into the original Greek and talking to Peter personally about his strategy, I have come to a conclusion. The Gospel is sufficient. I get so caught up in the different ways to share Christ and to win hearts that would be set on fire for Christ that I spend the time I should be sharing the Gospel on analytical experimentation of Peter and his message.

Truly the love of God is so compelling that when one hears it, it is prone to make a decision. When someone hears that the Creator of the universe is perfect and that he or she isn't, it has to be dealt with. When they hear that God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us, they must react. That's our part in the great commission. It's really not a bad gig. I'm just thankful that I am not responsible for the eternal future of the person I share the Gospel with.

The proclamation of the love of God is so sufficient when it comes to telling people about who God is. To truly understand the love of God, there must be a common and revealed understanding of Who He is, but once that is breached, His love is compelling. Just like Christine, thousands have been saved because of the realization of God's love for them.

Don't pass this up or look over it. We didn't pass Jesus Loves Me 101 in Sunday school, in fact, by God's grace, I'm still enrolled. I pray that we have the opportunity to find a piece of God's love. If each man and woman ever created found out ten new things about the love of God every day, with all of our life times put together and squared, a large portion of God's love would remain hidden. Some look at this and ooh and aww but never jump into the dark pit with no floor that is the love of God. I'd rather jump in fully pledged to find what I can.

Will you jump in with me? - Forsake All