My friend Rev. Enoch Finklea said that his first sermon as a pastor brought a lady to tears, and so he thought he had done very well.  She later told him that she cried because she felt so sorry for him!  He was so pathetic, she said!  Enoch said he had said everything he knew to say and had started on a second sermon, and he had only preached for 10 minutes.

I am tempted to preach two sermons today, but you all know I can go on longer than 10 minutes!  It is hard for me not to preach on the Philippians 3:18 passage: “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.”  It would be interesting to determine the people Paul had in mind as enemies of the cross of Christ.  I really don’t think he was talking about the Romans or non-believers.  He probably had in mind people who claimed to be Christians but whose attitudes and actions fell far short of the mind of Christ, who didn’t practice forgiving others as we have been forgiven by God, who trusted in rituals like circumcision rather than trusting in the blood of Christ, and who did whatever their passions and appetites dictated.  The greatest enemies to the cross of Christ have always been enemies within the church, not those on the outside.  Churches usually die from forces within them. But that sermon will have to wait.  I also see many points of interest – especially many surprises – in the passage from Luke.

The first surprise I see is that Jesus was befriended and warned by some Pharisees.  But I thought the Pharisees were Jesus’ enemies!  Indeed, Jesus was very hard on the Pharisees, but it was because there was a huge gap between what they said they believed and how they lived.  Their hypocrisy really troubled Jesus.  He was also troubled by their air of self-righteousness, thinking they were better than everybody else.  Their rules made religion a hardship for the average person and those same rules didn’t help carry their daily loads of care. The fact that they made a show of their faith really bothered Him.  But Pharisees did believe deeply in God and they believed Jesus was right when He spoke of life after death, whereas the Sadducees did not believe in heaven.  Many of Jesus’ early followers, most notably Paul, were Pharisees.  We make a big mistake to lump all Pharisees into one group and thinking that they were all just alike, just like the mistakes we make in lumping all members of a minority or gender or political party into one group.  All men are not just alike.  Well, maybe we are…  Jesus made a member of an ethnic minority group – a Samaritan – the hero of one of His parables, not only to answer the question “who is my neighbor” but also to challenge some people who didn’t think that any Samaritan could be trusted.  Here we have a reminder that there were some Pharisees who befriended Jesus, who didn’t fit into our preconceived expectations.  Prejudice is always a dangerous thing.

The second surprise we have is seeing how sarcastic Jesus could be!  Sarcasm is a form of humor, but it is also quite harsh usually, expressing the depth of emotion in the speaker.  Jesus sounds angry as He refers to the King as a fox and then as He says sarcastically of Jerusalem, “It is impossible for a prophet to be killed anywhere but Jerusalem.”

The term “fox” was often used by rabbis an expression of the utter contempt, and this is certainly the feeling that Jesus had toward Herod, a sly and cunning man who had made many political concessions just to hang onto his power.  He was powerless, really, to carry out his threat against Jesus without the backing of the Caesar, whereas Jesus was operating under the power and authority of God.  As Jesus told Pontius Pilate, “You would not have any power over me at all if it were not given to you by God.”  Knowing this gave Jesus peace and confidence.

In this instance, Jesus sends a message to Herod by means of the Pharisees that in essence said, “Listen, Bub, I am operating on God’s time-table and am not going to change my plans because of your threats.  There are people right here to heal in mind and body, and I am staying here for today and tomorrow.  I’ll be here until the day after tomorrow and then I am heading for Jerusalem.  If you are looking to me, that’s my itinerary.”  Jesus was calling Herod’s bluff.

We know that during Jesus’ trial, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, hoping to “pass the buck” to Herod, to make him be responsible for executing Jesus.  This is when we see first hand that Herod was a fox, lacking any real power or courage to make any decision regarding Jesus.  All Herod did was to ridicule and mock Jesus, putting a royal robe on Jesus before they sent Him back to Pilate.

Jesus was also very sarcastic in His assessment of Jerusalem.  Jerusalem, the place God had chosen as the location for His Temple, the capital city of ancient Israel, the city of King David had become little more than a vassal city of Rome.  Leading families had politicked for the right to become the high priest, and decisions were made – not based upon the will of God but based on the preservation of the Temple and the power of the priestly family.

Prophets who were sent to Jerusalem and other parts of Israel and Judah did not fare very well.  They were threatened by kings and a few were killed. Tradition states that Isaiah was martyred as was Micah.  King Joash had Zechariah son of Jehoiada put to death.  Not long before Jesus John the Baptizer had been slain, and Jesus certainly knew what fate awaited Him in Jerusalem.  Even though the list of prophets slain in Jerusalem is somewhat slim, the sarcastic words of Jesus ought to be interpreted as a prophecy about the cross: “It wouldn’t be right for me to be killed anywhere other than in Jerusalem.”

Another surprise here is that Jesus made a veiled reference to His resurrection in this passage.  Many scholars find it interesting that Jesus uses the phrase “and on the third day I finish my work” or “reach my goal.”  They point out that this phrase might have a double-meaning.  Jesus would be on His way the day after tomorrow, but Jesus would also finish His work of redemption on the third day after His crucifixion.  His goal of saving us would be accomplished on that third day, and this may be why the Disciples remembered this event and made this story a part of their retelling of the story about Jesus.

A fourth surprise is Jesus comparing the love of God to the care a hen gives to her chicks.  God is at times referred to as a roaring lion, but who would have imagined that a Jesus would use a hen as a symbol of God?  I still remember visiting my uncle and aunt on my grandfather’s farm.  Their air-conditioned place for visits was their backyard, under tall oak trees, where chickens roamed freely before they were cooped up for the night.  Sometimes I would be looking up into the sky where I would see a chicken-hawk circling above.  The hen would start clucking loudly, and out from under shrubs, bushes, and tall grass would come a bunch of little chicks, running toward their Mama.  That hen would stand up tall – do hens have tiptoes? – and those chicks would crowd together about her drumsticks – I mean, legs – and then she would squat down over them while she looked up at the hawk with a look that said, “These are mine and you can’t hurt them.”  Jesus said that God always wanted to provide His children with that same degree of love and care but His children were not willing to answer God’s call.  Just as chicks that failed to come when the hen called would be easy prey for the hawk, so are we easy prey to destruction when we don’t heed God’s call.  In the case with the house of Judah, desolation awaits them.  There is no better word to describe the utter destruction of the Temple and the diaspora – the pouring out – of the Jewish nation in 70 A.D. which was so complete that there were no descendants of Judah in that region of the world until the beginning of the 20^th Century.  Nineteen Centuries of exile is desolation, to be sure.

There is still one more surprise that may be found in this passage.  Just what did Jesus mean when He said, “I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’”?  The setting Matthew chose for this saying makes it appear to be a prediction of the Second Coming or the Return of Jesus, but Luke’s setting creates the possibility that Jesus intended this as a prediction of the Palm Sunday triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  That day, when he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the crowd of disciples began shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  This, along with His statements regarding His betrayal and the mocking He endured, as well as predictions of His crucifixion and His rising on the third day, were recognized as prophetic utterances of Jesus, assuring His Disciples that Jesus knew in advance what God was doing in His life!

It is fun to read the Bible, looking for surprises and things you’ve never noticed before!  In this passage we are surprised to find friendly Pharisees, the sarcastic wit of Jesus, predictions about His triumphal entry into Jerusalem as well as His third day triumph and the use of a hen as an object lesson!  May our worship help us to live this week as friends of the cross of Jesus.  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt

I really don’t know why we are shocked.  A day doesn’t go by that we don’t hear about another elected official who has been caught stealing, dealing drugs, or being unfaithful to his or her spouse.  Recently we have heard too much about a former candidate for the Presidency and a governor of a certain southern state. We’ve also heard about highly respected religious leaders who have skeletons in their closets: an evangelical male pastor of a huge mega-church is accused of having a boyfriend and using drugs and priests are accused of inappropriate behavior with children.  But I don’t know why we are shocked.  Deep down we know that we are all sinners who, given the right circumstances – or the wrong circumstances – might fall prey to a temptation.  Some of us who think we are without sin have just not been given the same opportunities of our fallen brethren.  We are all made of the same stuff; from dust we have come and to dust we shall return.

When I was in seminary and news of some scandal would break, some of us would take too much delight when some televangelist or high-profile pastor would fall from grace.  One of my professors – who himself was a great critic of some of those evangelists – would scold us, reminding us that we are all subject to the same weaknesses and that our attitude should be, “O Lord! Not him, too!  Him today; maybe me tomorrow.”  Considering ourselves better than someone else is in itself a sin, isn’t it?

What we hope to find is someone who is not subject to human frailties!  That’s the one we want as our pastor, our doctor, our teacher, our elected official.  Again and again we fall for the same old trick of believing that we have found him or her!  Again and again we are disappointed.  Our nation’s founders completely understood this.  They knew that no one could be trusted with absolute power.  If we found the best person on earth and gave them too much power, they would soon be changed into a lesser person of flawed character.  Therefore, the answer was to spread the power of government out to as many people as possible.

Two men met at the lunch counter of a local café and were discussing life and love.  “There were only two perfect men who ever lived,” said the first man.  “Two?” replied the second man. “Don’t you mean one: Jesus?”  The first man replied, “Him, and my wife’s first husband!”  From the perspective of 2000 years, we see the divinity and perfection of Jesus so clearly; it is shocking to us to realize that it was Jesus’ perceived imperfections that bothered His peers.  He didn’t come from the right town or the right family.  He didn’t observe the Law of Moses closely enough.  He didn’t wash His hands correctly and He ate with known criminals and sinners.  In the end, Jesus was tried, convicted, and executed, judged as being imperfect!

Of course, we 21^st Century Christians see Jesus in a very different light.  Church people have emphasized the divinity of Jesus to such a degree that we often fail to see His humanity.  The temptation narrative serves the purpose of reminding us that Jesus, during His earthly life, suffered from the same temptations that we have.  The difference with Jesus is that He possessed the strength and wisdom to escape from those temptations.  He was tempted in every way, just as we are; and yet He was without sin.  Oh no, Lord; not you too!  Yes, Jesus too.

Like us, Jesus was tempted at a time when He was already in a weakened condition.  He had spent a very long time fasting and praying about His mission and He was tired and hungry.  He had also been wrestling with temptation already when the big three temptations came His way.  One common theme seems to run through these temptations and that is the theme of power: “Jesus,” said the tempter, “if you really are the Son of God, use your power and position to make a loaf of bread out of this rock.  Let me make you the wealthiest, most powerful ruler that this world has ever known!  And here is another idea of how you could display your power: leap down from a tall building like you were a superman!  Let everybody see those angels catch you just before you crash down to earth.”  As our nation’s founders knew, power is one of the great seducers of human beings!  We would love to be in charge of everybody else for just a little while!  Not only would we straighten things out; we would fatten our own nest while we were at it.

By the way, that is the same temptation that tripped up Adam and Eve!  They were tempted to become like God, taking their lives out of God’s hands and running them their own way.  That is the root of all our sins as well.  We don’t want God to have the power over us.  We want to be gods of our lives.  And like Adam and Eve and like everyone else who falls prey to the lust for power and prestige, we often end up ruining life for ourselves and everyone else. The good folks down in Saluda used to tell me that “if we had our way in our lives, we would perish ourselves for sure.”

Above all other things, Jesus was very careful not to misuse the personal power He had been given.  Many of His healing miracles were stealth miracles!  Only the recipient and a few others actually witnessed the miracles.  And even though Jesus could have called upon the armies of heaven to rescue Him from His enemies, He refused to use His personal powers in ways that would not please God.

You and I have personal power, too.  Every day, some adults misuse their power in dealing with children and youth; we call that abuse.  Spouses verbally and physically abuse their mates, and people work to deny rights to certain segments of society.  Sometimes we give other people unsolicited and unwelcome advice, and that is a misuse of power also.

Having adult children is a fun experience for Penny and me, but it is challenging, too.  It is so difficult for us to switch off our “Parental Oversight Program” and just listen to them as they tell us their concerns and troubles.  But they are pretty good at telling us when we misuse our power and overstep our bounds!  “Dad, I don’t need you to solve my problems; I just need to talk with someone I trust.  Please just listen to me.”  Like Jesus, we need to learn to trust in the power of humility and self-sacrifice and to resist the temptation to be seduced by lust for fame, wealth, and power.

It is also interesting to me that Jesus was tempted by His physical needs, His spiritual longings, and His reasoning ability.  He was physically hungry.  Now, very few of us have ever really been starving, having gone days without eating.  I’m hungry every 5 hours or so.  In fact, I get the shakes around lunch time if I don’t get food.  Irritability soon arrives, followed quickly by downright crankiness!  There is no telling what I would be like after a forty day fast!  I think I’d be tempted to eat even fish, and that is not usually a part of my diet.  In today’s economic climate, people are being tempted to steal the basic necessities of life.  I see the desperation on people’s faces nearly every day when they come by our church, asking for help. There is no telling how many people we are keeping from falling prey to temptation by our donations to the soup kitchen and other area charities.  And each of us needs to be aware that when we are suffering from a lacking in our basic needs, we can be ensnared by the Tempter.  That is a time to take extra care.

Jesus was also tempted on a spiritual level.  The devil invited Jesus to switch His allegiance from God to Satan.  Worshiping the devil doesn’t have to mean praying to Satan or giving our offerings to him.  Just as the scripture says that true expressions of our devotion to God includes looking after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world, so the worship of Satan would include ignoring people in need and selfishly living our lives just for ourselves and allowing ourselves to become saturated by hateful attitudes and sinful activities.  Most of us would cringe at the very thought of bending our knees in worship of the devil, but most of us are tempted to give God our second best, our leftover energies, and our half-hearted worship.  Like some folks who are spoken of in the scripture, we follow Jesus from a distance.  We may be in the Lord’s army, but we keep this from being too obvious, so we join the Lord’s secret service! Jesus was tempted to distance Himself from His Father and His Father’s way of living and to accomplish His goals by sacrificing His principles, by taking sinful shortcuts toward His goals.

Jesus also encountered mental temptations.  Being tripped up by logic may be one of the temptations that have come to humans relatively recently, as our mental abilities have grown and we began using brain more often than brawn.  But have you ever noticed that something that is very logical to you isn’t quite as logical to someone else, like your wife… or husband, as the case may be?  Not all of our brains work the same way, nor do we see things from the same perspective, and that is why logical people disagree on so many issues.

The Tempter’s logic tried to get Jesus to wrongly interpret Holy Scripture.  “What did it mean, Jesus, when the Good Book said ‘no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.  For God will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’  That means that no matter what you do, you will be protected, Jesus.  So let’s go up to the very pinnacle of the Temple and jump down.”  There have been so many people hurt when their logic got twisted in such a way that even their faith got used against them.  Logic has caused Christians to let their children die rather than receive a transfusion of blood or other medical care.  Snake-handlers are following some kind of logic.  Christians have logically persecuted the Jews, holding all of that race responsible for the actions of just a few in the crucifixion of Jesus.  Slavery can be justified by using logic and scripture, as can be male dominance over women.

An elderly member of a church in Saluda often told me about his neighbors.  They spent all day, he said, reading the Bible, trying to understand it.  After six months of this activity, the couple had a nervous breakdown and are now in a mental institution, he said, and then he would conclude his story by saying, “You can do too much of anything – even studying the Bible.”  That’s not a problem many of us would have, but he was right that anything can be misused, even scripture.

Jesus countered devilish logic with Godly wisdom.  He knew that while He could depend on God’s providential oversight, jumping from a tall building was still not a good idea!  To try to back God into a corner, forcing Him to take some action, is not trusting God; it is testing God.  Praying for God’s help on a test is a good idea, but it won’t do us much good if we don’t study.  Praying for safety while you break the speed limit doesn’t do us much good either.  Praying for strength to change ourselves when we are not willing to change the places we frequent or our habits won’t do us any good either.

Not Him too!  Yes, Him too.  Jesus was tempted every day in every way you are.  He had to fight off temptation when it attacked Him, and we do too.  May Jesus, who well knows the weakness of our human flesh, empower us to overcome temptation.  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt

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A few years ago when product slogans were really in, youth began paraphrasing them to express their faith:

“God is like American Express: Don’t leave home without Him.”

“God is like Bayer Aspirin: He works wonders.”

“God is like Hallmark Cards: He cared enough to send the very best!”

What is God like?  Dr.  Ed Ellis says that most people picture God as being like their 8th grade algebra teacher! With apologies to teachers in general and algebra teachers in particular, some of us did have lulu algebra teachers!  Mine used to try to trap us.  He would ball up a wad of paper and toss it on the floor just to see who would pick it up and throw it away.  He also used to mess up the row of desks just to see who would straighten the row up before our class began!  Is God like that? Is He setting traps for us in life, just to trip us up?

According to the Bible, God’s attitude toward us and all of His creation is one of pride and love.  During Epiphany, we celebrate the various events which reveal Christ as the expression of God’s love.  But have we clarified things at all to say that God is love?  We use that word “love” so loosely that it has lost its power.  We love football;  we love to eat.

A teenaged girl came home from a date and said, “Tommy says that he loves me!”   The girl’s father looked skeptical and said,  “Tommy also says that he loves to fish.  Maybe he is just casting you a line.”

In an effort to be precise, the ancient Greek language had at least four words for love: eros – physical attraction; philia – brotherly affection; storga – comfortable love, like the love which exists between a couple that has been married for 50 years; and agape – perfectly unselfish love – Godlike love. Paul tried to precisely define agape love in his letter to the Corinthians.  In doing so, his prime motive was to stimulate growth toward maturity in the Corinthian church.  The church had people that were so proud of their spiritual abilities that they had forgotten that their abilities were all gifts from God and not their own. Paul wrote them to say that Godly love was more important in our lives than all the gifts combined, and that without this love, Christianity degenerates into a harsh, rule-oriented religion.  But even though Paul was addressing another issue, many have suggested that Paul was also giving us his definition of what God is like.  Indeed, some have even suggested that you read 1 Corinthians 13 and substitute the name “God” or “Jesus” wherever you see the word “love.”  And it seems appropriate to look at God’s love during this season, because this love of God is what Christ’s coming is all about!

What is God like?   Paul begins by telling us that God is patient and kind.  Isn’t it good news to know that God is patient!  He can wait, and wait, and wait for the appropriate time to come into our lives to change us.  Some years ago at a youth rally, I overheard one youth giving another the “third degree.” The first youth had recently made his commitment to Christ, and he was telling a friend that she must commit her life to Christ then and there or forever lose the opportunity.  He may have had a good intention; it was his means that weren’t Godlike.  Several of us interrupted their conversation and told the young lady to go on home if she wanted to and take time to think things over.  God would be patient with her and allow her to come to Him when she felt ready, we assured her.  When the pressure was removed from her, she relaxed and talked with us freely and later that same night made her commitment to Christ.

God is patient.  In fact, the Bible says that the reason that Jesus hasn’t returned is that God is patient and wants to give everybody plenty of time to come in faith to Him.  I love the children’s song that says,  “He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be.  How loving and how patient He must be!  He’s still working on me.”

And God is kind.  His love has no cruel streaks in it.  He is entirely caring, and this kindness is seen in expressions to us.  There are some people that come to mind when I think of the definition of “kindness.”  I think of Mae, a church member down in Saluda.  She was always in the kitchen in the home where there had been a death, quietly caring for the grieving family. I think of John’s adopted grandparents in Greenville, Hilda and Jimmy Bolt, who at age 70+ took their two little pre-school-aged great-grandsons into their home because they were about to be placed into foster care.  Once, when Hilda was hospitalized for severe heart troubles, the doctors had to restrict her phone calls – not the ones she was receiving but the ones she was making to other sick persons in her church!  God is kind, Paul says.  He never says or does anything that tears down or discourages His children.

Didn’t we see kindness in the life of Jesus?  When the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village that would not welcome Christ, Jesus chided them for their anger.  Destroying people was not in the mind of our patient, kind Lord!  His expressions of love are affirming and uplifting.

God is never envious or jealous, Paul says.  How do we reconcile this with the statement in the 10 Commandments that says that God is a jealous God.  One way is to say that the Old Testament statement reflects an incomplete, pre-Christian understanding of God.  If our understanding of God had been what it should have been, then Jesus wouldn’t have had to teach at all.  Another way of handling this apparent disagreement by looking at degrees of jealousy.  The Amplified Bible says “love never boils over with jealousy.”  When I observe couples whose marriage is in trouble,  I usually discover one of two extremes of jealousy.  The first extreme is a possessive distrust that makes one person a prisoner of the other: husbands that question wives if they are five minutes late in getting home; wives that show extreme anger if their husband even speaks to another woman.  That kind of jealously is boiling over and it is foreign to agape, Godlike love!  He is not possessive or distrusting of us.  But the other extreme bothers me also.  Occasionally I see couples that have no jealousy at all.  It is fine with them, they say, if their spouse dates other people.  If there is absolutely nothing considered wrong with marital infidelity, then I question that couple’s love for each other. Breach of faith by people we love should bother us!  That is the kind of jealousy that Moses spoke of.  God feels so strongly about us that He is pained by our giving anyone or anything the place in our lives that we need Him and Him alone to occupy.  Is God jealous?  Not in the possessive, distrusting sense but in the sense of desiring to occupy his rightful place in our lives.

Next, God is not boastful or attention-seeking and He is not arrogant or rude. He doesn’t insist on His own way.  The boasting, attention-grabbing people that I have known have been the most insecure people who needed constant reassurance that they were loved.  People who are secure just don’t need to brag all the time in order to bolster their public image.  God has no need to show off.   He knows that He alone in God and that He is in ultimate control of all things.  Don’t we see this aspect of God in the way He sent Jesus to us?  Only a God who was in sovereign rule of the universe would allow His only-begotten Son to be born to a peasant couple in an obscure powerless country, in a stable without a doctor or a nurse present.  And we see God’s lack of showiness in the fact that He didn’t announce Christ’s birth to anyone important but rather just to some poor shepherds.   God has no need to be boastful or showy.

God is neither arrogant nor rude.  You could say that God has exemplary manners!  He doesn’t barge into your life without an invitation. God is not self-seeking.  His love is entirely unselfish!  Like any good parent, He puts the welfare of His children  above His own welfare.  Isn’t that what the cross is all about, God willing to lay down His life for us?  He does not insist on His own way.  That is why He gave to each of us free will. His love gives us the freedom to choose whether or not we will be His followers.

Then Paul tells us something that should be liberating to people who are guilt-ridden. God takes no account of evil done to Him.  Because He loves us, He forgets our misdeeds.  Isn’t that what forgiveness is all about?  We humans tend to remember for years an evil done to us but it is not so with God who is so loving that He quickly forgives and forgets!

God also deeply cares about fairness and lawfulness – justice and righteousness.  In the Old Testament, God was said to be the advocate of the poor.  God cares deeply about our being fair with one another in our world and that we deal in honesty with each other.  That is why the Church has gotten involved with human suffering, whether it is homeless and poor in our area or Apartheid in Africa.  And I was thrilled at the news reports that gave the Church so much of the credit in bringing about change in Communist Europe that we were all excited about.  If a system of government sets out to deceive its people and to deal unfairly with them, then you can believe that God will be at work to bring about change that will lead to justice and righteousness!

Then the Amplified Bible states verse 7 in a way that makes it one of my favorites in the Bible!  Love – and God is love -  God is ever ready to believe the best of every person!  Have you ever been around a person that was ever ready to believe the worst of you?  That is what they tend to get!  But how wonderful to be around someone who anticipates goodness coming from us!  They tend to bring that out!

We used to be amazed at the effect of Penny’s grandmother on children.  In her final years, she was so weak that we hesitated to take our normally active youngsters up to see her.  But when they got into her presence, they were transformed into soft-spoken, quiet children!  She always seemed to bring out the best in people. God does too, and that is love!

A Presbyterian missionary whose theology is imprinted on my soul used to tell us that he grew up singing a song that said that God was constantly watching us, constantly looking at us when we do wrong.  Now, that little song might have the motive to make people always be on their best behavior, but it also paints a very austere picture of God.  My missionary friend said that he later learned that God was watching over us all right, but it wasn’t so that God could swoop down and punish us every time we sin.  Instead, God is carefully looking over our lives, looking for opportunities to bless us!

What is God like?  He is patient and kind with us always!  He is not possessively jealous, nor is He boastful or showy.  He has good manners:  He comes only when invited.  He is totally unselfish.  He does not remember our evil deeds for He is forgiving.  He is fair and honest in His dealings with us.  He looks for the best in all of us and brings that out.  That is what God is like, and that is what true love is like.  We see this very clearly as we look at Jesus’ life, for God was in Christ, loving the world back to Himself!  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt