By Koay Chuan Lek
“By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples” John 13:35.
Our Lord Jesus commanded believers to love God and to love one another.
“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the Law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” Matthew 22:34-40.
“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” John 13:34-35.
The children of God exhibit or manifest this as the apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:10-11: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” 1 John 3:18: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth.”
Peter the inspired apostle wrote to encourage fellow Christian to these. “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity cover the multitude of sin. Use hospitality one to another without grudging, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” 1 Peter 4:8-10.
Paul encouraged strongly the Christians in Ephesus: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” Ephesians 4:1-3.
With all these words from God written and preserved in the Bible for our guide in our daily life to be a light and salt to the world. I take this opportunity to give thanks and gratitude to our gracious loving and Heavenly Father for blessing brother Christopher Lopez with a speedy recovery from his illness and his discharge from the Klang hospital.
The outpouring of concern from the brethren in Klangand other congregations reflect the love that we have for one another and it speaks volume as the hospital staff and the other patients were amazed at the number of visitors visiting bro Chris. I am extremely proud of you brethren for whom I thank God for such a wonderful experience of love in action.
We take this opportunity to continue to pray with application and thanksgiving to God that He will continue to bless bro Chris and his wonderful, faithful family that we all will continue to serve and bring glory to our Heavenly Father and the church.
In bro. Chris’s own words: “Heart rate is 60 and when I move around 70 to 80 which they said, is the heart rate of a healthy person, the nurses and doctor kept reminding me to slow down, I had many visitors, visiting brethren and patients. I prayed for many patients, had Bible discussions with a few, one of them an Indian man who is 38 years old. I had three hours’ study with the gentleman. We had a good discussion, one patient was happy as I joked with him, and discussed his problems. Thank God, my stay in the hospital was not boring. All praise to God; my strength, speech, memory is good. God is great and in His way has given me an opportunity to be involved in hospital ministry. All praise and glory to His Holy Name.”
We thank God our Father for bro Chris’s attitude. The apostle Paul’s words to the Philippians is very appropriate in describing Chris and many brethren for making use of any opportunity that God presents to us.
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthenth me.” Philippians 4:11-13.
Brethren let us continue to be the salt and the light to the people around us and glorify our Lord God. Once again I thank all of you for the wonderful work and love for serving one another. Praise the Lord, God bless you all.
