Page 22 - Contact Winter 2017
P. 22
Love does not need to speak English.
Love does not need to speak English.
Clothes
Bank
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to God is a God of relationships. We are part of
eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to God’s family and as part of that family we build
drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, relationships, not only with the folk who come to
I needed clothes and you clothed me”. church, but with others in our communities.
We love each other because God first loved us
These are not fictional words in some romantic and when we love each other within the church,
novel but these are words spoken by Jesus in that love will flow out to a lost and broken world.
Matthew 25. As followers and disciples of the Lord I thank God that He has given us wonderful tools
Jesus they are words that He still speaks to us to help us, as His disciples, to build relationships
today as individuals and corporately as His church. and “to go and make disciples of all nations”.
We could take the easy option, wrap ourselves in
a bubble and leave the problem to someone “For I was hungry and you gave me something to
else, but that is not what Jesus commanded. eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to
He commanded us to follow His example, to reach drink”
out in love to the hurting, the lonely, the hungry,
the addict, the lost, to tell them that there is hope I want to take this opportunity to thank all those
in the hopelessness of life, that Jesus offers new who contribute to our Bags of Blessings ministry
life. All people matter to Jesus. He died for all men, and to Joan McClelland, Bill Shields, Isobel Byrne
women and children regardless of where they live, and Lillian McNally for all their hard work and
the size of their bank account, what they wear, dedication. I have never known what it feels like
how they look, there are not specific boxes that to have no food in my cupboard, children crying
we need to tick for Jesus to love us. because they are hungry and I have nothing to
offer them, but the sad fact is that there are many
people in our town who face that reality every
single day. Some of them may have made wrong
choices in life but do we as a church ignore them?
I want to tell you a story, a true story. I was asked
Love does not need by Ivy Goddard to take food to a young Romanian
mum, a young woman whose husband had beaten
her and abused her. She did not speak any English.
to speak English. I gave her a parcel of food and she cried her heart
out because someone cared enough to bring her
something that we all take for granted, food. Love
does not need to speak English.
