06-7-15 Pastor’s Note

I’m reading an account of two teen boys
by the name of Wells, who were orphaned
and left to try to eke out an existence
where their father had built a cabin along
Beaver creek in Kansas territory. Their
first fall crop was pretty meager and they
were getting ready to abandon their little
homestead when 3 men from a cattle
drive found their cabin while looking for
help for man from their outfit who’d been
wounded. These men were part of a
cattle enterprise led by a man named Lowell. They convinced
the boys to stay on the homestead and take in stray, weakened
and crippled cattle from the many herds that would come by
within a few miles of their place. That way they could eventually
build their own herd. This would also provide the cow men a
place in the wilderness in case of emergencies. They advised
the boys to meet each successive herd and to tell them that
they knew Mr. Lowell, and that as a result they would be
treated well. Mr. Priest, one of their visitors that day to the
homestead, said to them, “With Mr. Lowell, it’s ‘Love me, love
my dog.’” This meant, anyone who had any doings with Mr.
Lowell would also be expected to embrace anyone else who
was connected with him.
That’s kind of the way it is with the church isn’t it? We who love
the Lord want to love and defend and promote all that he loves.
In Ephesians 5, we read that Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. We ought to love one another because He does.
We ought to have a high regard for our church, because He
does. We ought to love the lost because He does.
1 John 4:10-11 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that
he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.