Friends

^{John 15: 12-17} 

^{Fruit That Will Last}

¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

One of the most tender and beautiful passages in the Gospels, is this not? We are no longer servants, but intimate FRIENDS of Jesus whom he has CHOSEN and with whom he has shared his all. No wonder people over the centuries have been inspired  to dedicate their entire lives to him and go to the ends of the earth to invite others into a relationship with him. May the grace of God enable us to carry out the mission to widen the circle of friends and produce this blessed, everlasting fruit! Let us begin right where we are to "love one another."

Bro. Rene