Come To Dinner, forever.

Come to Dinner!

Bev and I spent the weekend with friends from a former pastorate.  Each encounter was sweet; hugs, stories, catching up on where the road has led.  I visited the grave of a man with whom I walked for just four years, but he played a pivotal part in my life at that time. I choked with emotion while standing where Dean’s body lies.  Memories of that era when we were raising our first family just overwhelmed me.  After a celebration on Saturday night, Chip wrote to me, “wish we had more time, we will have eternity.”  Then, this man’s man, wrote, “I love you,” unashamedly.  What a glorious thing to love and be loved!   We are made for relationship, aren’t we?  Just as the Holy Trinity lives in perpetual relationship, rejoicing, we are called to share our lives.

The Psalmist praises the Almighty because He "sets the lonely in families." (Psalm 68:6, NIV)  Because relationships are so critical to our spiritual, emotional, and physical health is it any wonder that the enemy of all that is good invests so much in sowing the seeds of alienation, mistrust, and hatred among humanity?  Amazing things are accomplished when people cooperate for mutual benefit. Where love exists,  life becomes beautiful. Our weekend was a celebration of love and cooperation, of people to whom we gave love and who gave love to us!  That is why the Spirit urges us, at every turn, to " live a life of love,”  and not the cheap, erotic, selfish kind of ‘love’ that replaces real love, but a love modeled after “ Christ (who) loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:2, NIV)

When we give love, we will find it.  Remember, love is the mark of the Christian; not orthodoxy, not holiness, not esoteric spiritual experiences.  Yes, we need sound doctrine, we must live holy lives, and our hearts will  overflow when the Spirit comes, but those things will ebb and flow, and eventually die, but there are only "three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13, NLT)

Before we went to church, Bev and I tuned the television to the program that featured one of America’s best known celebrity pastors.  We were sickened by his ‘sermon’ that urged the thousands listening to seek their happiness in selfishness!  His advice was to limit the ability of needy people to hinder self-fulfillment. “Tell them it’s time for them to stand on their own two feet,” he declared to resounding applause.  “Don’t let anyone control you with their needs.”  In a terrible abuse of the Scripture, he reminded us that that father of the prodigal son never went after him. He just let him go and got on with his own life. Really?  My Bible says that the father was waiting, looking down the road, longing for the return of his wayward son.  He was not self-absorbed. He was loving to the maximum.  Don’t be fooled by the lies of self-expression that insist that your best life is found in preservation of Self.  Love is the way to live – fully, joyously, and with Heaven in your heart.

When the Glorious Day comes,  our Father will call – “Come to Dinner!”   We all sit down to an eternal feast.  Take these words from John’s Revelation. Let them become an inspiration for a life of love that begins now and stretches into eternity.  "Then a voice came from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!” Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:5-9, NIV)

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Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Oh love that will not let me go

I rest my weary soul in Thee

I give You back this life I owe

And in Your ocean depths its flow

May richer fuller be

Oh light that follows all my way

I yield my flickering torch to Thee

And my heart restores it's borrowed ray

And in Your sunshine's blaze its day

May brighter fairer be

Oh joy that seeks me through the pain

I cannot close my heart to Thee

I chase the rainbow through the rain

And feel the promise is not vain

That more shall tearless be

Oh cross that lifts and hold my head

I dare not ask to fly from Thee

I lay in dust life's glory dead

From the ground their blossoms red

Life that shall endless be

Public Domain
Albert Lister Peace, George Matheson