After the preaching I spoke to... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

We love him because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19.

After the preaching I spoke to a young man. He gave me to understand that he was deaf; so using sign language I told him, "God loves you." He shook his head and explained, "That's not true. He hates me. I know, because I've been told that He will cast me into hell for not living righteously and holy and not keeping God's commandments. Since I heard that, I haven't touched a Bible: I'm afraid of God."

I told him that I knew the reason why he was there that evening, even if he hadn't understood the preaching. He was to hear that God loves him. Then I stood beside him, opened my Bible and pointed to two verses in the Bible that we both read:

"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

"God is love. We love him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:16.19).

He looked puzzled, wondering whether that was true and applied to him. But then I noticed that his fear disappeared and joy replaced it.

People can also be spiritually deaf: they fail to hear when God speaks to them. Yet it is true: God loves us. He revealed His love in giving His Son. Jesus Christ died for us. He has "no pleasure in the death of the wicked". If He had, Christ would not have had to die. God wants "the wicked to turn from his evil ways and live" (Ezekiel 33:11).

Today's reading: Leviticus 11:29-47 · Psalms 57:1-11