Many Are Looking For A Little Bit Of Love

Many Are Looking For A Little Bit Of Love

Two letters moved our hearts.

One was from a woman who said she moved to a new neighborhood and had an urgent need in her family, so she contacted a Protestant church nearby and requested that someone visit them.

No one came, so she made a second request.  Still no one came.

However, one of her new neighbors learned of her problem and came to her help.  It happened the neighbor was involved in a false cult.  Because of the kindness shown to her the newcomer was drawn into the same cult.  She said years went by before she realized the error she was in and found deliverance through Christ.

The other letter was from a prison inmate. He said that one bitterly cold night he went to a rescue mission and asked for a place to sleep.  He was a “traveling man” (a wanderer) and had no home.  But because he had been drinking and had no I.D., he was refused a bed and turned out into the street.

Later he was sent to prison.  Since that time he has been saved, but he hasn't forgotten the bitterness he felt when the administrator denied him a bed that freezing night.

We don’t know what justifying circumstances there may have been to cause Christian people to act as they did in these two situations, but we do know there are many needy people around us who are looking for a little bit of love.

How is it with us?   Are we touched with the needs of others, or don’t we care?

If we don’t love men and women whom we can see, how can we say we love God whom we can’t see? (1 John 4:20).

It seems there are more lonely people in the world today than ever before.  Some are in hospitals or nursing homes.  Others live down the street.  They may be people we talk to in stores and offices, or work beside every day.  We may even find them in church.

Some churches display the sign, “The end of your search for a friendly church.”  This draws people, for they are looking for friendliness.  They don’t want to attend a church where no one notices them, no one shakes their hands, and no one invites them back.

A preacher visiting a city hospital was asked by one of the nurse to say a word to a sick man who was lying very still.

“With pleasure, Nurse,” he replied, “but he is asleep.”

“No, he is awake,” she said “but he is dying.”

The preacher read the card attached to the bed:  “Robert Browning—age 71—no friends.”

The preacher said, “Nurse, what does this mean?”

She answered, “Just what it says.  If he dies tonight, there’s no one to notify.  Do speak to him.”

So the preacher bent over the bed and quietly quoted, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear.”

The closed eyes opened, and the man whispered very faintly, “Yes.  Jesus is my Savior my Friend.”

No one is friendless if he knows Jesus; but if Christians were more friendly, more people would know Him.

We are representatives of the best Friend a sinner ever had.  We may have the privilege of introducing people to that Friend by being a friend.

Let’s ask ourselves, 

“Do we really care?

Does God’s love really dwell in our hearts, or

do we only love in word, not in deed and in truth?”

                                                                  —R. C. Cunningham

NOTE:

From the archives of Confident Living Magazine 

Source:

Confident Living Magazine

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