Extending Love

 

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

—James 2:1-13

Do you have a favorite flavor of ice cream? What’s your favorite flavor? In every survey that pollsters have taken, do you know what the number one favorite flavor of ice cream is? It’s vanilla! Yes, vanilla. Vanilla is the number one flavor of ice cream. And, the second most favorite flavor is chocolate!

What about colors? Do you have a favorite color? Most people have a favorite color, a favorite song, a favorite food, a favorite gadget or toy, maybe a favorite car, a favorite golf course, or a favorite vacation spot. We all have “things” that we like better than other “things.” And, it is really okay to have favorite “things.”

But, when it comes to the way we treat other people—the way we talk to them, the way we look at them, they way we smile at them, the way we show kindness and love to them—we really should not have favorites.

How would you like it if your husband or wife, or your mom or dad, treated your best friend better than they treat you? If your best friend came over to your house to visit, and your spouse or parent gave your friend a big bowl of ice cream, but didn’t give you any. Wouldn’t that be really silly?

You see God wants us to show His love to other people by treating them with kindness no matter what they look like, no matter what kind of clothes they wear, no matter how rich they are, or no matter how poor they are.

God loves us very much. He loves you very much. And, He loves me very much. God loves you and me so much, that He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. God loves us exactly as we are. He loves us if we are tall. He loves us if we are short. He loves us if we are fat. He loves us if we are thin. He loves us if we have new clothes. He loves us if we have old clothes. He loves us if we are rich. And, He loves us if we are poor. God loves us exactly as we are.

And, God expects us to love other people the same way He loves us. He expects us to love them if they are tall. He expects us to love them if they are short. He expects us to love them if they are fat. He expects us to love them if they are thin. He expects us to love them if they have new clothes. He expects us to love them if they have old clothes. He expects us to love them if they are rich. He expects us to love them if they are poor.

You see, it is okay to have favorite things like flavors of ice cream, or colors, or gadgets, or toys, or foods, or golf courses, or vacation spots. It’s okay to have favorite “things.” But, when it comes to people, God wants us to love all people the same way—the very same way that He loves us.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Will you help me?

 

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

—James 2:14-18

Please think back to that time when you were a child. Did you ever ask your mom or dad to help you with something? Maybe you asked them to help you put on your shoes, or comb your hair, or brush your teeth? Maybe you asked them to take you to McDonalds or Burger King for lunch? Maybe you asked them to take you to the beach, so you could swim in the Lake?

Do you know why your mom and dad helped you when you asked them? Your mom and dad were willing to help you because they love you. You see, when we love someone, we are willing to help that person. Another way of saying that is that if we love someone, we are willing to serve that one. That’s right. If we love someone, we are willing to serve that one.

The writer of the Book of James in the Bible talks about the fact that if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, and have placed our faith in Him as our Savior, we will be willing to serve Him. That means we will be willing to help others in His behalf. We will be willing to help others, just as Jesus would help them if He were with them in person.

But, do you know what? Sometimes people get it backwards. Sometimes people try to help others, not because they love Jesus, but just because they think that by helping others Jesus will love them. And, when they do that, they miss the whole point.

Jesus already loves us. Jesus loves you and Jesus loves me. He loves us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His life in our place on the cruel Roman cross of torture. He died so that the shedding of His blood would serve as the ultimate payment for the atonement of the sins of everyone who has ever lived and everyone who will ever live. And, He rose from the grave, conquering death, so that everyone who accepts the reality of His great gift can spend eternity with Him.

If that wasn’t enough, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in the heart of everyone who believes in Him. The Holy Spirit helps us follow obediently the pathway that God lays out before us every day. And, that includes showing love to others by serving them in Jesus’ Name.

So, when people think that they can do things to help others to get Jesus to love them, they have it backwards. The only right way is to do things Jesus would want us to do for others because we love Him.

When we help others because we love Jesus, we put our faith in Him to work. That’s what James is talking about. James is telling us that: “The faith that saves, is the kind that works.” Let me state that again for emphasis: “The faith that saves is the kind that works.”

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Is it true?

 

If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

—John 14:15-17

Has anyone ever told you something that was just really hard for you to believe? You weren’t sure whether or not it was true?

I know that every one of us enjoys stories. A good novel engages us and we simply can’t put it down. Out of the hundreds of television shows, we have a few that we really follow closely. Most surely we have a favorite movie or two. In every case, we feel drawn to the book, TV show, or movie because of the story it tells. Even the so-called “reality shows” actually tell a story, perhaps a goofy story, but a story nonetheless.

We’ve enjoyed stories since those days when mom or dad read to us just before we went to sleep at night. Each one of those children’s stories had some lesson to teach us, or something fun to explain. The person who wrote those stories did so to bring joy to children.

Some of those children’s stories told us about animals that can talk. For example, in the Winnie-the-Pooh ¹ stories, A. A. Milne has created a whole forest full of animals that talk and have adventures. The only human in those stories is a little boy named Christopher Robin. And, he only appears in the stories once in a while. The rest of the time, Milne has written about Pooh Bear, Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, and Baby Roo.

I actually didn’t discover Milne’s stories until I was in college. I had hoped to write children’s stories, so I did a great deal of research about the children’s stories that had already been written. Some years later, the Connecticut Radio Information Service for the Blind (CRIS), had me read and record the stories from A. A. Milne’s books. I delighted to have the opportunity to create special voices for each of the animals in the stories.

If mom or dad read a Winnie-the-Pooh story to you when you were a child, I imagine you enjoyed it quite a lot. But, I also know that as you grew older, you realized that real, live rabbits, bears, pigs, tigers, and kangaroos don’t talk to each other in the English language. Even so, it was fun to read a story about talking animals because it helped you imagine what it might be like if animals did talk to one another.

Sometimes when someone tells us something, it is hard for us to know for sure whether or not what they are telling us is true. When we have a hard time deciding, we might say:

“I don’t believe you.”

In order to believe something, we have to have some very strong supporting indications, in order to know that it is true. When something is absolutely true, it has a way of helping us believe in whatever that something is. For example, the Bible tells us that, on one occasion, Jesus’ mother, Mary, came to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, before Jesus was born. Elizabeth was also going to have a baby. Elizabeth told Mary:

“You are blessed because you believe what the Lord has told you will happen.”

You see, an angel had appeared to Mary many months before and told her that she was going to have a baby, that his name would be “Jesus,” and that he would grow up to become the Messiah. Mary believed what the angel told her. She believed what the angel told her because in her heart she knew it was absolutely true. And she knew this, in her heart, because God gave her the ability to recognize that it was true. Her cousin Elizabeth’s declaration was God’s way of affirming what Mary already realized and believed was true.

Understanding what is true and what isn’t true is a gift from God. And, that is a really important lesson we all need to learn. God empowers the Holy Spirit—who lives within the heart of every person who believes in the life-transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ—to help us know for certain what is true and what isn’t.

 

______________________

1 Milne, A. A. Winnie-the-Pooh. New York: E. F. Hutton, 1926. Please note: the original 1926 book, Winnie-the-Pooh, is in the Public Domain in the U.S. This means the characters of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Christopher Robin, and the original descriptions/illustrations can be used for new works, such as books, films, or merchandise, without paying royalties. Though this citation is noted to be in the Public Domain, in the case of someone claiming Copyright protection of this material, please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Is It Real?

 

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

—1 John 2:26-28

If I offered to give a young seven-year-old child my car keys, do you think that child would be willing to grab my keys and take my car out for a drive? Well, a particularly bold child might just take my keys and head out the door. Yet, I am quite sure that no seven-year-old knows how to safely drive a car. Why, most children of that age couldn’t even reach the gas or brake pedals.

There are just some things in life that we have to wait until we are older before we can fully understand what’s involved. Driving a car is one of those things. And, even after a person has driven a car for decades, if that person loses the ability to use his or her right leg, that one will have to have hand controls installed in a vehicle, take 15 to 20 hours of on-the-road instruction from a government-approved driving instructor, and pass a new state driving examination, in order to obtain a restricted driver’s license, before he or she can regain the privilege of driving.

How do I know this? Because that is exactly what I had to do when a 19-year-long chronic infection in my right foot finally resulted in the amputation of my right leg below the knee in 2017. Having done all that was required of me, using my specially equipped Dodge Caravan, I can now drive myself wherever I want to go. When I arrive, I can then unload my powered-wheelchair, and proceed to go anywhere that is handicap-accessible.

Yes, there are just some things in life that we have to wait until we are older before we can fully understand what’s involved. Or, if the circumstances of our lives change, we may have to make some fundamental adjustments to the way we have always done things in the past.

Among the things that we may have to grow into is being able to tell for certain what is “real” and what is “make-believe.” Many seven-year-old children’s lives are filled with storybooks and videos and TV programs that have characters that have become their friends. The older the children get, the more clearly they will be able to tell which of those characters are “real” and which of those characters are “make believe.”

Most children might be surprised to know that sometimes adults have trouble deciding what is “real” and what is “make-believe.” Our friendships are a good example of one type of those things. Sometimes, we come to believe that a particular person is our friend. But then, we learn that person we thought was our friend is really not our friend. We find out that person has said some bad things about us behind our backs. Or, we discover that person has done something in secret that harms us in some way. So, we often have to examine our relationships rather carefully, in order to determine which of those relationships are “real” and which of our relationships are “make-believe.”

For some of us, including me, having to try to figure out which relationships are genuine can present an almost overwhelming challenge. I’ve shared on this blog previously how some experiences in my early childhood and in my teenage years have shaped the way I relate to other people. I have become very socially awkward. And, much the worse, I have increasingly found it difficult to trust other people. So many times, throughout the years of my life, I have found people, in my life, who behave in an untrustworthy manner that I have almost lost my ability to trust anyone.

Of course, there still are a few exceptions. But generally, I do not trust other people. Because of this, I am the loser. I end up not relating well to other people, especially one-on-one. And, my social awkwardness sometimes comes across to other people as if I am angry, or that I think I am better than other people, or that I am abrupt, harsh, or even cruel. Even though none of those outward appearances describe how I really feel in the depth of my being, because other people perceive me in these ways, their perceptions erect a barrier between us.

I continue to feel amazed at how difficult it can be to determine what is “make-believe.” Here’s another example.

Scripture talks about the return of Jesus Christ to earth, what people often call the “Second Coming of Christ.” One particular verse, found in Revelation 1:7, has the Apostle John writing about Jesus:

Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.

Some adults aren’t sure whether that verse is talking about a “real” event or a “make believe” one. But, I know for an absolute certainty that what that verse talks about is real. One day, maybe even one day soon, Jesus will return and everyone on earth will see Him. That will truly be an exciting day.

Because Jesus loves us so much, and because we love Him right back, we can look forward to that day when He returns to earth. Knowing that He is coming back some day, gives us joy and also helps us want to live in a way that pleases Him.

So, some things in your life right now may be “make-believe.” But, one thing you can count on—something that is very real—is that Jesus loves you, and that He has a wonderful, wonderful plan for your life. He has promised to return to earth. And, that is exactly what He will do.

Until He does return, Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to walk alongside us each day. The Holy Spirit will help us stay on the pathway that God has laid out before us. We are not alone. Until Jesus returns, the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us into the pathway of obedience every single day.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Please Listening Carefully

 

The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

—1 Samuel 3:1-10

Listening is very, very important. Tell me, what do we use to listen? Silly question, right? Of course you know the answer! When we were children, we were taught that we listen with our ears. Please let me share an illustration.

When we were in a place where it was very noisy—a place where, maybe, lots of people were talking and we tried to get our mom’s attention—we had to work quite hard. We had to raise the sound level of our voice. Perhaps we had to gesture. We had to do everything we could think of to attract our mom’s attention.

“Mom,” we would say.

“Mom,” we would say a little louder.

“Mom,” we would say more insistently.

“Mom!” We finally would shout quite loudly and tug on her sleeve.

We had to speak really, really loudly in order to get our mom’s attention. We had to speak loudly enough that she could hear us over the noise of the other people talking.

Sometimes, you see, it is really hard to listen, when we are surrounded by lots of noise.

In the verses at the beginning of this blog post, the Bible tells the story of a little boy, not much older than some of us were when we first learned about how noise interferes with communication. One night, when he was fast asleep, he thought he heard someone call his name. Well, you know this familiar Bible story, don’t you? And, if you don’t, you can read it above.

Once the young boy, Samuel, realized the Lord was calling him, he replied, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” And, do you know what happened then? The Lord and Samuel had a conversation. That’s right. They had quite a talk. And, what they talked about will be the subject of another blog post that we will share together sometime.

Why do you suppose that God waited until nighttime to talk to Samuel? God waited until night had fallen because He knew that, in the dark of the nighttime hours, it was very, very quiet. God knew that, when it was very quiet, Samuel would be able to listen better. Samuel would be able to clearly hear God’s voice.

In the first part of Psalm 46:10, the Bible quotes God saying:

“Be still and know that I am God.”

One of the hardest lessons to learn is how to be quiet and listen. That’s right. It is really, really hard to be quiet and listen. No matter how old you are, it’s hard to be quiet and listen. But, if you work at it, you can learn to listen. Listen to each other. And, listen to what God might want to say to you. Listen with your natural human ears. And, listen with your supernatural, “spiritual ears.” Then, take careful note of what God may say to you in the deep recesses of your heart.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Submission

 

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

—Matthew 26:36-46

Today, I want to write about what it means to “submit.” Now I realize that the word “submit” is not a very popular word. It is not a word that most people really understand, at least not with clarity. And yet, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I think it’s very important to a person’s development of Christian spiritual formation to know what it means to “submit.” Please allow me to illustrate by sharing a true story with you.

When I was a little boy, I really did not like to eat peas. My mom told me that peas were good for me. But, when I looked at a pile of peas on my plate, all I could think of was how mushy and squishy they would be when I took a spoonful of them into my mouth and began to chew.

So, when my mom would give me some peas, I would take my spoon and push the peas over to the side of the plate. I would be very careful that all the peas stayed together in that little pile. Then, I would eat everything else on my plate and hope that, by saving the peas to the very last, maybe Mom wouldn’t make me eat them.

But, do you know what? My strategy never worked! She would make me eat them every time.

Now sometimes, I would sit there and not eat those peas for a very long time. My mom would say, “Dean! Eat your peas!”

And I would say, “Yes, Mom.” But, I wouldn’t eat them.

In a little while, my mom would say, “Dean! Eat your peas!”

And again I would say, “Yes, Mom.” But, I still wouldn’t eat the peas.

Finally, my mom would say, quite sternly, “Dean! Eat your peas. You cannot leave the table until you eat those peas!”

So, finally, reluctantly, very, very slowly, I would eat the peas. The moment I began to eat those peas, I began to “submit” to my mom. You see, finally—in spite of how much I procrastinated making the only correct decision—I did what my mom wanted me to do.

That’s what it means to “submit.” We submit, when we do exactly what someone trustworthy wants us to do.

God want us to do what He tells us to do in His written Word, the Bible. He wants us to submit to Him because He loves us and because He always knows what is the very best thing for us to do. God is certainly trustworthy. He’s someone worthy of our trust. And, He has given us power, through His Holy Spirit, to enable us to submit to His will. The Holy Spirit empowers us to bend our foolish, selfish, stubborn human will to God’s divine and perfect will.

It’s important for us to remember that Jesus, God’s Son, gave us a beautiful example of what it means to submit in the Garden of Gethsemane, as recorded in the Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post. On the very night that Jesus was going to be arrested on false charges and ultimately crucified in our place on the cruel cross of Calvary, He asked God in prayer to spare Him. But, and this is the really important part, He ended His prayer with the words, “Not my will, but Your will be done.” He purposefully and willingly submitted to His Father’s perfect plan.

Make no mistake about it. Jesus knew what pain He would endure. He knew how humiliating it would be to hang naked on the cruel cross of Roman torture. He knew that the agony that would grip every aspect of His being would be excurciating, as He bore the penalty for all of the sins that humans had ever committed and for every sin that humans would ever commit in the future. He knew that He would pay a terrible price for submitting to His Father. Every one of Jesus’ four human modalities—emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical—would be stressed to the breaking point. Nevertheless, because He knew that His Father’s perfect will was for the best, Jesus submitted His will to the will of His Father.

Because Jesus knew what it meant to submit, and because He willingly submitted His will to God the Father, we received forgiveness for all of our sins, through the shedding of Jesus’ precious blood. And, because He rose again from the dead, He gave assurance to everyone who believes in Him that he or she would have eternal life. Even as Jesus ascended to the heaven from which He came, and sat down at the right hand of His Father, He secured for us the reality that heaven would ultimately be our home for all eternity.

The lesson for us is crystal clear: whenever God reveals to us exactly what He wants us to do, our loving response—in full obedience—is to submit to God’s divine and perfect will. Faced with untold challenges in this life, as followers of the Great King Jesus, we can make no other reasonable choice, but to submit to the will of the One who knows us best and loves us the most.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Jesus Loves You!

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

—John 3:16-17

If I say to you, “Jesus loves you,” I know that won’t surprise you at all, will it? As long as we have attended church, many, different people have told us that “Jesus loves us.” We have heard it from our Sunday School teachers. We have heard it from our pastors or priests. We may have even heard it from our moms and dads, or from our grandmas and grandpas, or from our uncles or aunts, or from some close friends. “Jesus loves you” is a wonderful, wonderful truth. And, all of us know this is so.

There are some people in our community who don’t know that Jesus loves them. As sad as it is to realize this, we can take joy from knowing that God has given us the wonderful opportunity of being the ones to tell them that Jesus loves them, too.

Sometimes, before we can tell people that Jesus loves them, we have to get their attention. We also have to be sensitive to needs they might have and try to reach out to them and meet those needs.

Have you ever considered participating in a special event at your church? I’m talking about the kind of event that invites all of the people in your neighborhood to come to your church for an occasion where you offer them some food, some entertainment, and a chance to share with them—in a very non-threatening way—that “Jesus loves them.” This kind of an event is really a way of getting their attention and trying to meet some needs they might have, so you can have the opportunity to share with them the good news of Jesus’ love.

Imagine with me a table on which rests a large tray of very special treats. They really look good, don’t they? These treats have really captured our attention. In the same way these treats have captured our attention, a special event at our churches will capture the attention of the people in our neighborhoods.

Underneath each of the treats, imagine that I’ve tucked a note written on a very small piece of paper. Can you tell me what you think the note says? That’s right: “Jesus loves you.”

And, you know, He really does love you, He loves me, and He loves every person that He calls to Himself. That is a truth worth sharing. Isn’t it?

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}