LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

I thought I was going teach a bible lesson to the students of New Horizon School for children with intellectual difficulties, but they ended up giving me a good bible lesson!

Happiness, love and acceptance is the order of the day at New Horizon. There are many different forms of disability there. Some are confined to wheelchairs while others can only make muffled sounds in the form of speech. However, nobody is despised, nobody is looked down upon. Only last week, I was touched by how one little girl run to give each of her friends a hug as they came to school that morning. It didn’t matter what they looked like or how they acted, she loved them and wanted to show it! 1 Peter 4:8 came to mind: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

How often do we who are ‘normal’ constantly notice the differences of others and use those differences to criticise and create division among ourselves? Even children will not play with those who are perceived to be of a different social class than they are. Jesus told his disciples, “A new command I give you. Love one another.” John 13:34 If these are the words of the Master Himself, what have we to do but to obey!

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Pet. 1:22

THE GOD WHO ANSWERS BY FIRE!

We’ve all heard the famous story of Elijah and his contest with the prophets of Baal, and how they agreed that the God who answers by fire is the Lord! Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire—he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good." 1 Kings 18:24

I have often wondered how come time and again God is referred to as the God who answers by fire, even though there was only one incident in the bible. I was excited to find two other instances I had never noticed before the other day. God answered King David by fire on the day he repented of his sin of counting the fighting men of Israel without inquiring of the Lord. A plague had killed seventy thousand people in Israel and a prophet had been sent to David with instructions on what to do – he was to build an altar. When he did, David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. 1Chron 21:26

The other incident was after King Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord, and the Ark of the covenant was being brought in. When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 Chron 7:1

These were three men who eagerly sought the Lord their God with all their hearts, and God answered them by fire! Indeed, he is a God who answers by fire. Why will He not answer you, a man or woman who is eagerly seeking the Lord by fire as well? He can and He will do it! What impossible answer by fire do you need from the Lord today? Trust in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.