Dear Ones,
Hope you are having a good day. We are home now and so beautiful out my window with the colors. This morning I got downstairs for donuts and made stew and cookies and bars and blueberry bread and Ann came for an early lunch. Shortly we will be having Bible Study so we are back into our routines again. Thankful to be home again after all the miles on the road.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
What would happen in our world if we demonstrated God’s love and took seriously His command to love others as ourselves? Would the world be changed?
Recently I read an article by writer Melissa Nordell, founder of Strategic Prayer Command Ministries, who shared about the Jesus People Movement that began in Orange County in 1965. It was a dire time during the Vietnam war with riots, anti-war demonstrations and protests. But it was also a time when millions were saved all across America and the world, and huge changes came to churches as barriers were broken down. Hippies in their flowered shirts and bare feet sat next to those in suits and fine gold as they worshiped together. Music also changed, and instead of organs and hymns there was contemporary music with guitars, drums, and keyboards. It all began in CA when Kay Smith and Pastor Chuck Smith started demonstrating love for the hippies. They were welcomed into the life of their church and agape love was spread and lives changed.
We remember those days as Al had completed seminary and we went to our first church in Edina in 1970-1973. Al had no prior experience working with youth, but it began as we met with 3 of the teen girls in the basement and prayed that God would work in hearts.  Our parsonage walkout basement came to be known as Pitstop and we had gatherings each week for the Jr High, High School and college kids. What happened was only the work of the Holy Spirit as young people came to the Lord, got off drugs, and began witnessing to their friends. There were times we had 100 kids in our basement all singing worship songs, and wanting to know more about the Lord. It was truly a sovereign work of God.
But just think of how the Jesus Movement began with just two willing Christians who opened their church to welcome all people with God’s love. His love makes all the difference! The Apostle John wrote in I John 4:7-8 (God’s Word), “Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love.” We can’t know God if we don’t love!  God’s love is unconditional and the choice is ours to love and show it with our actions. Let us take God’s command to heart and then watch as His love changes everything.
Challenge for today: Ask God to show you, where selfishness gets in the way of sharing His love, and repent. 
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy