Small acts of great love

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “What the world needs now”

Our Bible verse for today: “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Small acts of great love”

One time, when I was on a mission trip in the Carpathian Mountains of the Transylvania region of central Romania, I spent a Sunday in a small gypsy farming village. There was a little Baptist church in the village with a small congregation of faithful believers. The pastor had invited me to preach an evangelistic sermon on Sunday morning, since many unbelievers would be coming to see the preacher from the USA. Then I spent the afternoon visiting in the homes of some of the church members. Then my assignment on Sunday evening was to preach/teach a message of encouragement to the small group of believers who were attempting to reach their village for Jesus.

The gypsies are a difficult culture to penetrate with the gospel. They are a despised minority in Eastern Europe and they are treated very badly by ethnic Romanians and by the Romanian government. That has caused deep-rooted resentment in the gypsy community and their hearts are often hard and cold. But Romanian Christians work hard to share Jesus with them. They serve the gypsies in the name of Jesus by showing them the love of Jesus.

That evening, I preached a sermon and led a discussion about sharing the love of Jesus in word and deed (I will share elements of that sermon with you in the days to come). One of the passages I referred to in that teaching session was Matthew 25:31-40 where Jesus instructed us to love the world on His behalf and to do so by means of small acts of love and kindness. In that passage He used as His examples giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, housing for the homeless, and clothing for the naked. He referred to visiting the sick and those in prison and He said that those small acts of love and kindness are so important to Him that when we do them, He receives them as if we had done them for Him personally.

That’s how important and effective small acts of love and kindness are in our efforts to introduce people to Jesus. In yesterday’s devotional I referred to the song “What the world needs now is love sweet love …” That really is true and what Jesus was teaching in this passage was that the love of Jesus, expressed by the followers of Jesus, in thousands of small ways every day, is one of the most effective methods of reaching someone for Christ. Mother Teresa of Calcutta instructed her students to remember, “There are no great acts of love, only small acts done in great ways.”

To illustrate that point for my audience of gypsies that evening, I told them a story about a snowmaking machine in the mountains of Southern California. I’ll tell you that story tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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