SCRIPTURE: Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. Matthew 24:12 NIV
THOUGHT: The frost line predicts to what depth the groundwater is expected to freeze. In the far northern U.S., it can be as deep as 100 inches along the border between Minnesota and Canada. Think about how hard it is to dig in soil like that! Deep in southern Texas, however, the line is only zero to five inches.
Matthew 24:12 is the end of a list Jesus gives to the disciples to answer their question about what the end will look like – and it’s an ominous list containing hatred, betrayal, war, famine, earthquakes, deception, and persecution. But it ends with Jesus’ prediction of a frost line in human hearts that looks like the Minnesota/Canada border in the dead of winter. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. That’s more frightening to me because I can’t do much to control the rest of the list, but how deeply I allow the Spirit to transform me with the fruit of love is up to me.
Love is God’s first and greatest commandment as well as the new commandment Jesus gives his disciples (“love each other as I have loved you” John 13:34). It’s fair to say love is critically important to God. As we survey all that’s going on around us, let’s not forget that. Pay some attention to the frost line in your own heart, and remember that the same Jesus said (immediately after his prediction of the love of most growing cold), “but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
SERMON: I got to preach on this text a few weeks ago if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8NZY8mXelA&t=2s
PRAYER: Keep stoking the fires of love in me, God of Love. You have managed to love through the worst humans could do to you and the son you loved. Put that spirit in me to its full, and help me live out of a frost line that looks more like southern Texas than northern Minnesota.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
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