Read
In the late 1800s D. L. Moody began a Sunday school on Illinois Street in Chicago. One child who attended would walk each week from halfway across the city, which was a large city even in those days. He would pass church after church until he reached the Illinois Street Sunday School.
One day a superintendent of one of the Sunday Schools he passed asked him, “Why do you go all the way out there? Why don’t you come here? It is right next door to you.”
Looking up at the superintendent, the lad said, “I go where they love a fellow.”1
Reflect
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)
Respond
God created us for fellowship and at the heart of true fellowship is the expression of God’s type of love. This is also a need in the lives of each of your students. How can you express God’s type of love to the children in your ministry this week? To their parents? To others with whom you minister?
Your thoughts?
Remember
“Real fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives.”2
1Hyman Appelman, “Paralyzed People,” [July 1946], Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning. (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 121.
2Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishers, 2002), p. 140.