St. Johns News

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8

Constant Love

Daily Devotion – May 7, 2024

Devotion based on 1 John 4:8


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Would you describe yourself as a loving individual? If so, are you always loving toward others? We undoubtedly have our moments. Moments when we love our children and grandchildren and show up at their events and cheer for them. Moments when we are there for our spouses and family members to support them in a difficult time. Moments when we help a friend move or take care of their yard when they are out of town.

But then there are times when our love falls flat. Couples in our world fall in and out of love. Children fail to lovingly be there for mom and dad in their last years. Friends are too busy to provide a shoulder to cry on. Neighbors don’t always even make the effort to introduce themselves to each other. Love is one of those things: sometimes we have it, and sometimes we don’t.

God is different. God can’t not love. In fact, the Bible says that God is love. Our love comes and goes, but God’s love is constant. He can’t help it. It’s who he is. But God didn’t show that constant love for us in a way that we might expect. God doesn’t show us his love by turning a blind eye to our sin and giving us a free pass to do whatever we want or by tolerating anything and everything. That’s not what true love is.

Rather, God demonstrated his love for us through sacrifice. He gave up his one and only Son for us. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice on the cross to pay for all of our sins. Rather than wink at or ignore our sin, God paid the price our sins demanded. He gave Jesus to die so that we wouldn’t have to. That is true love. God selflessly looked to our needs rather than his own.

This amazing love of God is with you always because that’s who he is. God is love. And this love is something we always have through faith in Jesus.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank you for your love for us in Jesus. Comfort me with your constant love and enable me to give that same love to others. Amen.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:7 (ESV)

Loved by God

Daily Devotion – May 6, 2024

Devotion based on 1 John 4:7 (ESV)


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Do you feel loved? It feels great to be loved. It feels wonderful to be hugged by our grandkids, comforted by our spouse, and cared for by our parents. But what about the other times? The times when our spouse is too preoccupied with work to pay attention to us? The times when we work so hard to take care of our kids, and they don’t even acknowledge it with a thank you or a hug as they head out the door to their next activity? The times when the boss fails to recognize our contributions to the company? The times when we look in the mirror and don’t love what we see?

It is not easy to feel loved in this world or even love ourself. In fact, it is far easier to feel unloved, unappreciated, and unnoticed. These feelings can quickly spiral downward and lead us to despair, depression, and feelings of worthlessness.

In moments like these, remember that God loves you. The people in our lives may pay us little attention or give us no outward affections of love, but the God of all creation not only knows us, but says we are objects of his love. And he showed his love to us in a way that no one else ever has or ever could. To demonstrate just how loved we are, God sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to live and die for us. Jesus gave his life in our place on the cross and paid for all our sins, forever removing the eternal punishment they deserved. He did all this because God loved us and did not want us to be lost forever.

So regardless of how others may feel about you, take comfort in knowing that you are loved by God. And that will never change! God’s love for you is always constant in Christ Jesus.

Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, thank you for loving me and sending Jesus to die in my place. Enable me to now live in your love. Amen.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
1 John 4:19-21

God’s Way To Love

Daily Devotion – May 5, 2024

Devotion based on 1 John 4:19-21


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Most people would tell you love is an emotion. Sometimes love is there; sometimes it is gone. People think they can only show love when they feel like it. Before long, the feeling goes away. Love is gone, and so are any expressions of love.

The kind of love God talks about is much more stable and consistent than this human love. Christian love gives—it shows kindness, consideration, and patience. Through loving actions, we reflect that we are children of God. We follow God’s pattern.

For the Christian, love is not just an emotion that grows when it receives something in return. Rather, Christian love rests on the boundless love of God for us. John tells us that merely saying we love one another is not enough to demonstrate adequately what Jesus has done for us and that he is at work in us. We must show our love in tangible ways.

How do we do this? In our Bible reading today, John explains that we cannot see God. So we cannot go to him and give him some food, clothing, or other tangible, temporal goods. So what do we do? We show our love to those we can see. They give us tangible opportunities to show our love to God. If we withhold our love from them and refuse to share it—how can we claim to love God?

In other words John says, love the one who is right there with you, and you will be showing love to God. True, our brothers and sisters in Christ aren’t as kind and loving as God has been to us. But remember, God loves us and sent his Son to die for us, even when we were his enemies. Not having our love returned is all the more reason to show love, for then it is unconditional, just like the love Jesus has for us.

Prayer:
Lord, help me show love to those around me just as you have loved me, not just in words, but in action. Amen.

[Jesus said] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5

Connection with Jesus

Daily Devotion – May 4, 2024

Devotion based on John 15:5


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Lately, I seem to be getting frequent reminders that I am not as young as I used to be. The latest was a notice in the mail that my twentieth high school class reunion will be held this summer. Indeed, those twenty years can go by very quickly. Also, a lot can happen in twenty years, making it hard to stay connected with classmates. Life happens. We get married and have children. Jobs take us all over the country. When we go so long without seeing people, it is easy to lose the connections we once had with them.

It’s also easy for that to take place with Jesus. Life happens. We get married and have children. We fill our schedules up with work, sports, and school activities. We have family and community obligations. We take vacations and try to make the most of life. Before we know it, we are losing our connection with Jesus. This happens gradually, just like with high school classmates over twenty years.

Losing a connection to a high school friend is one thing. Losing our connection with Jesus is another thing altogether. Jesus makes it clear in John chapter 15 that without a connection to him, we are in trouble: we can’t produce spiritual fruit and be saved from our sins. Ultimately, no connection with Jesus means no getting into heaven. It means getting tossed out with the other dead branches into the eternal burn pile.

The good news is that Jesus will never sever his connection with those who are joined to him by faith. He is always ready and waiting in his Word to remind us of his love and to draw us closer to him.

Perhaps, for you, now is a good time to reconnect with Jesus and take steps to remain in Jesus. Recommit yourself to regularly attending worship. Join a Bible study. Expand your devotional life.

We may or may not want to attend a class reunion, but we never want to miss out on eternal life with Jesus!

Prayer:
Dear Savior, thank you for always being there for me in Word and sacrament. Bless my efforts to remain in you now and forever. Amen.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1 John 3:21-23

Love Pleases God

Daily Devotion – May 3, 2024

Devotion based on 1 John 3:21-23


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God has not only made you the object of his love, but he has also made you the subject who gets to love others. Like an object placed in a sentence that receives the action of the verb, God has placed people in your life to receive the action of your love. God calls them another, which means the objects to whom you can show your love can be anyone besides yourself.

As we talk about the objects of our love, we could talk about humanitarian aid, civil service, or random acts of kindness, but perhaps we should start with the objects of love God has placed in your home, people closest to you, likely the people to whom you have already said, “I love you.”

You can show your love in many ways to these people, but if you want to make your love visible, try doing something new. Perhaps it is vacuuming the living room or doing the dishes. It might be packing a lunch for your spouse or drawing a picture for your mommy.

I bet they will be pleased by it. I know God will. When we show our love by doing these things for one another, the apostle John says we “do what pleases him (God).” When the objects of God’s love also become the subjects who love others, God is pleased.

Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for making me an object of your love. Thank you also for putting people in my life to be the objects of my love. Help me to think of clever and creative ways to show others my love through the things I do. Amen.

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
1 John 3:19,20

Love Is a Struggle

Daily Devotion – May 2, 2024

Devotion based on 1 John 3:19,20


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The ancient Greeks considered their stomachs to be the seat of their emotions. It was their way of expressing that emotions come from deep inside us. Today, the bodily organ commonly associated with emotions like love is the heart. We imagine our hearts bursting when they are full of love and breaking when they aren’t. It is interesting that we tend to associate our emotions with bodily organs that are so easily upset and unsettled.

Your love for others is evidence of your faith in God’s love for you. Yet how often don’t you demonstrate the truth of Jesus’ statement when he said, “the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” In your heart, you know that you have not loved your neighbor as yourself or have not loved others as God has loved you. As a result, in your heart, you imagine yourself condemned.

Perhaps it is because we associate love with organs that are so easily upset and unsettled that we imagine ourselves so easily condemned. Thankfully “God is greater than our hearts.” God is not easily influenced by your struggle to love others that his love for you becomes upset or unsettled. He proved his love when he gave his son, Jesus, to pay for those sins that should have condemned you and that can still make you feel condemned. When you feel this way, remember that your forgiveness does not depend on how you feel but on what God has done to save you. Thank God he is greater than our hearts!

Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, when my heart tries to condemn me, keep me from despair and comfort me in the knowledge that you have forgiven all of my sins, even when I don’t feel forgiven. Amen.

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:18

Love Makes Sense

Daily Devotion – May 1, 2024

Devotion based on 1 John 3:18


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Writing a good sentence is an art form. You can master that art by developing an awareness of what makes a sentence work. To be sure, there are nuances to sentence structure that may take a lifetime to master, but there are also some essential elements to every English sentence that even a toddler must master. One element that must be included in every sentence is the verb. The verb denotes action, occurrence, or existence. It is the verb that brings order and structure to what would otherwise be a collection of random and chaotic vocables. Without the verb, a sentence does not make sense and has no meaning. Even in simple sentences, the verb plays a crucial role. “See Jane.” “See Jane run.” “Run, Jane, run!” Without the verb, we wouldn’t know what to do with Jane.

A sentence doesn’t make sense without a verb, and a Christian doesn’t either. Actions are essential in the life of a Christian. You can tell someone you love them every single day, but if you never show it, your words make no sense and have no meaning. Like a sentence that doesn’t have a verb, the words “I love you,” when not connected to an action, are only a collection of random and chaotic vocables. Without action, love is senseless sentimentality and a meaningless emotion.

If you want your love to make sense and have meaning, do what Jesus has already done. Jesus loved you not so that you would be simply lovable but so that you would be loving. Jesus loved you so that you would be a person of action; be a person who is engaged in works of service and is willing to make personal sacrifices.

Words are appropriate for making promises and commitments of love. But it is an action that brings meaning to those words. So, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, a sentence doesn’t make any sense without a verb, and a Christian doesn’t either. Keep me from meaningless lip service. Make me instead a person of action so that my love has meaning. Amen.