love your enemies.

hey y`all! today was amazing of course, i love new hope baptist!! Pastor Chad-great sermon this morning. i loved it. David-you did GREAT! i loved your sermon too, & it really helped me. Crystal-you sang that song beautifully! Mr Allen-we miss you! Mitchell-amazing on guitar, as always. Willie-thanks for singing with us, we'd be off without you. haha. Robbie- you of course always help us:] i may not be at church next sunday morning b/c i have a competition but i hoping it will be in between morning service & band practice that way i can make both, so y`all please pray that its from 11-3 somewhere in there. so, my devotion last night :] i read in John, 14:19-25. and these verses stuck out : "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me and I in you. He that hath my comandments cand keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." John 14:20-21. these verses tell us that if we are in Jesus Christ, and keep his commandments he will show himself through us. like i said last night, we need to set examples. and like Pastor Chad has said many times, we need to make other people realize we're part of something bigger & so that they will want to be part of it too. 2 more verses that stuck out were John 14:23-24 which say, "Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make ourselves abode with him. He that loveth me not keepth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine but the Fathers which sent me." If we listen to Jesus, and do what he taught us to do, God will love us. He tells us, while he was here as a man, it wasnt him speaking, it was God speaking through him, much like God speaks through us. we need to let God reach out to the lost through us. and something else i've said alot and i've been thinking alot, is loving those who we dont necessarily like. i struggle with this, i've had quite a bit of drama in my life, and even if i've forgiven the person who caused it i have a hard time loving them. now my recent drama, i didnt have a problem with that one. but for older drama, and a few girls that have caused it, i really did have a horrible time trying to love them and forgive them. i've forgiven savannah, the girl that caused alot of drama last year and the begining of this year, and i love her in Christ. but theres a couple girls that i finally forgave tonight after Davids sermon, but i still have a really hard time loving them. and im going to pray about this and work on it :].
i love you all!
God Bless!
- crystal jade