Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… If you have got a friend you love very much, you will like anybody who is like your friend. You will say sometimes, "I quite like that person, she is so like my mother; he is so like my friend." You will love other Christian people, because you can say of them, "They are so like my Jesus, so like my God. I will love them therefore." So you will like poor people. I will tell you why. I will tell you a little story, I do not know whether you ever heard of it. There was a gentleman who always used to say grace before dinner, and he used to say, "Be present at our table, Lord, Be here and everywhere adored:"and his little child, his little boy, said, "Papa, you always ask Jesus Christ to come and be present at our table, but He never comes. You ask Him every day, but He never does come." His father said, "Well, wait and see." While at dinner that very day, there was a little knock at the door, given by a very poor man indeed, and he said," I am starving; I am very poor and miserable. I think God loves me, and I love God, but I am very miserable; I am hungry, wretched, and cold." The gentleman said, "Come in; come and sit down, and have a bit of our dinner." The little boy said, "You may have all my helping." So he gave him all his helping; and a very nice dinner the poor man had. The father — after dinner — said, "Didn't Jesus come? You said He never came. There was that poor man, and Christ said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me!' Christ sends His representatives! What you have done to that poor man, it is the same as if you had done it unto God." Then I am sure if you love people very much, you will love to work for them, and you will not mind how hard, because you love them. If you love God, you will love to do something for God. Like Jacob felt about Rachel: "He served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." I will tell you one more thing. If you love a person very much, and he has gone away from you, you will love to think he is coming back again. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. |
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