One Million Acts of Love
Jesus drew large crowds wherever He went. Yet time after time, He would pull away to touch that one person with His sacrificial love. Whether it was walking all day, going without food, or staying up all night, Jesus sacrificed to minister to that one person. Then, after washing his disciples' feet, He painted the ultimate picture of sacrificial love by giving His very life for those who did not deserve it. Love propelled Him to sacrifice.
"God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan only things we can do by ourselves."
A. W. Tozer
He passed this legacy of love on to His followers when He told them, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35).
And that is exactly what the early Church did. For the first 300 years of our faith, even though Christianity was illegal, His early followers constantly sacrificed to express Jesus' love. They adopted abandoned babies, bandaged the wounds of soldiers--even those who had tortured believers--and rushed into cities ravished by plagues, risking their own lives to minister to the sick. After 300 years of sacrificial love, these heroic believers changed the entire Roman Empire.
This is our heritage. This is how our faith was born. When the first believers signed up to be a follower of Christ, they knew it meant a lifestyle of sacrificial love.
Now it's our turn. It is not enough to just say we love people. Jesus' love always involved sacrifice.
This summer, you can take up the legacy of Jesus' love. But it will take sacrifice: Giving away part of your summer, raising money to get there, eating food that is very different, maybe sleeping on floors, and working long hours for people you don't even know. Will you do it because you know how highly He values them?
Jesus sacrifice is our standard. Christ showed humanity again and again what God's love looks like. He came to the least noticed, the most desperate, and the people that society overlooked and shunned. He is the most powerful thing in the universe--a love that marks us for eternity!
