Tuesday was Valentine’s Day. For many it’s a day to celebrate their love for each other… Some give and receive gifts… some go out for a quiet meal… some exchange sentimental cards. However, some haven’t really experienced love… ever… from anyone… and for them Valentine’s Day was just another day to feel unloved.
This is the case for many of the women at Hope Gardens and on Skid Row. This year, however, Deed & Truth, did something to alter all that.
Valentine’s Day fell on chapel day at Hope Gardens where 70 single-mothers with their families are experiencing homelessness and seeking God’s help to find life transformation. The quality of the love they have seen includes self-gratification, manipulation, and abuse.
The Valentine’s message I preached was from Romans eight about the Quality of God’s Love. There were three simple points…
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He didn’t spare his own son for you… There are NO LIMITS to God’s Love
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He intercedes for you, he’s got your back… NO ONE can condemn you in Christ
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Nothing can separate you from God once you are his… There’s NO WAY he will ever abandon you.
No Limits, No One, No Way… and the blood of Christ is all the evidence you need!
I brought Phillip with me. He’s one of our URM grads who lives on our singles wing. I’ve been discipling him. At the end of the message I asked him to hand out a Red Rose to each of the women attending chapel as a symbol of God’s love for us.
Afterward Phil told me, “I’ve never given a women a flower before in my life and today I gave out four dozen!” He experienced the joy of expressing kindness and brotherly love.
He enjoyed it so much we went back to the flower district downtown and bought Red Roses for all the women at the Mission on Skid Row who attended our evening service.
This Valentine’s Day Deed and Truth enabled some forgotten people to experience the joy of Receiving & Giving God’s Love.
– Pastor Dan