James Arendt
Through His children, God is trying to show the world what He is like. Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21). Jesus came to love the world and He calls us to do likewise in every facet of life, in every way-to give God's love to others. The only way that others will ever find His joy and peace and love and happiness and Heaven is through us. No matter where we are from, if we have Jesus, we are now His ambassadors and represent the King of kings, the One who runs the universe.
What was Jesus' last message to His disciples at the Last Supper, just before He was arrested, taken to jail, beaten, and killed? "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). He talked about love, that love was the most important thing.
Wouldn't it have been enough for His disciples to simply tell others about the love of Jesus? Couldn't the Lord just as well have said, "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you preach My message"? Evidently not. It's not good enough to just talk about love. Jesus said His disciples had to have love; they had to live love. He knew that there would be no denying that example.
May we always be known by our love!
And those first Christians turned the world upside down with the love of God. The way they lived convinced others that their faith was real. Even their Roman persecutors marveled. "Look at how these Christians love one another!" "Who is this Christ?" they asked. "And how does He make you so happy? Even though you have nothing, you've got everything! How can I find this kind of happiness too?" And within two hundred years, one out of five people in the Western world were professing Christians.
Today, nearly two thousand years later, the heart of man is still the same. So many people are searching for love, but seldom, if ever, finding it. People everywhere are looking around for some little ray of hope, some salvation, some bright spot somewhere, a little love, a little mercy, someplace where they can find some relief. We who have found God and His love have what others have been searching for all their lives and need desperately, and if we can show them that love exists, then they can believe that God exists, because God is love.
Even the little things you do can mean a lot. The light of your smile, the kindness of your face, the influence of your life can shed light on many and have an amazing effect on some of the people you think might be the least likely to be impressed. When they feel your love and you tell them it's God's love, they think, Maybe Somebody up there does love me! It can change their whole outlook on life and give them a new start.
May we always be known by our love!
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
On September 24, 2023, I had an accident and broke the bone of the tip of my left elbow. A boy ran in front of my motorbike less than 2 meters from me as I was leaving home. I stopped suddenly and my front tire slid on the sandy concrete road which caused me to fall. I did not hit the boy. On October 18th I had surgery done on my elbow. The doctor put in titanium rods to hold my bones together. The entire procedure including an entire week in the hospital was roughly $4000 USD. This was done in the Philippines where my wife and I have been living since June this year.
It would be a super blessing to us if any of the visitors of this website can help us cover this expense!
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