As I think about the divisive negativity among many American adults, how can you and I demonstrate genuine love? Is it possible to be loving toward a sarcastic critic of everything that has been established as good? I’m having a difficult time sorting it all out, but I can think of many conversations in the school setting with individuals who were full of cynicism. Negative mindsets among students seemed to want a two way discussion that generates hope, faith, and acceptance. Some adults have become calloused to seeing any good as they bought into the click bait, debate, hate syndrome. I’m working on my conversation changers. I want to say, “I have chosen to not dwell on the evil trends in our culture. For my own sanity, I’m focusing on the Scriptures, on the changes lives I’ve seen, on the transformation of families and communities through world missions. I want to find ways to participate in what God is doing.”
“Salvation through a new, loving attachment to God that changes our identities would be a very relational way to understand our salvation: We would be both saved and transformed through attachment love from, to, and with God.” - Jim Wilder, Renovated
“Two purposes are given for Christ’s death on the cross: that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9) and that He might be the propitiation for our sins (v. 10). His death was not an accident; it was an appointment. He did not die as a weak martyr, but as a mighty conqueror.
Jesus Christ died that we might live “through him” (1 John 4:9), “for him” (2 Cor. 5:15 NASB), and “with him” (1 Thess. 5:9–10). A sinner’s desperate need is for life, because he is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). It is something of a paradox that Christ had to die so that we may live! We can never probe the mystery of His death, but this we know: He died for us (Gal. 2:20).” - Excerpt, Be Real (1 John) by Warren W. Wiersbe
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