Do YOU Love Me? Really... Do YOU?

John 21:15-17 (paraphrased)
Jesus said to Simon, “Do you truly love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus asked Simon.
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time Jesus asked.
He answered, “Lord you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”



How many times have we told God these three words, “I Love You.” ? Uncountable right? These words are often used and misused. Couples exchange “I love you” as often as they exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen (if you learn science) but do they truly mean it with their heart? Judge for yourself.
We say we love God. We sing songs that say “I love You, Lord.” but do we???

What does it mean to love God?

ONE THING.

Love His people.

It has bee too long a time we have seen people come to church and leave and never want to come back again. It has been too long a time we have seen newcomers come to a church event and never want to come back because they feel unwanted.

IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG A TIME WE HAVE BEEN HYPOCRITES...

We say we love God but we don’t love His people. We say we want to spend time with God but we don’t even want to spend time with His people. We say we want to know God more but we do not take the initiative to know His people more. How can this be ? ? ? ! ! !

You can’t say you love God if you don’t love your friends, your brothers and sisters – who have been made in God’s likeness! You can’t possibly love God who is UNSEEN when you can’t even love the people around you who can be SEEN! Hello? Am I getting through?!

You can’t possibly say you desire to spend time with God who is UNSEEN when you don’t even care to spend time with that lonely friend of yours who can be SEEN.
You can’t possibly say you want to know God – who is UNSEEN – more when you don’t even care to know that quiet girl who can be SEEN? Again I ask, am I getting through? If not, then I suggest you should probably stop reading this post now.

Now straight to the point... What I’m trying to tell you is that we must FIRST learn how to love others before we can truly claim that we love God.

There are a lot of people out there who wants to be loved. Especially in YE, there are new-comers and also old timers who wants to feel that they are part of YE. These people want to know that they are loved. Mix with them. Get to know them.
STOP HAVING CLIQUES and START MIXING AROUND.
STOP CHOOSING YOUR FRIENDS and START MAKING FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE.

I have a testimony. I want to thank God for Poh Leong. He is a really really great guy! I owe him A LOT! This was what happened: when I first joined YE I had no friends and I felt left out and really didn’t look forward to coming back to YE ever again. BUT God sent an angel in the form of Poh Leong, he befriended me when no one wanted to befriend me. He talked to me when no one wanted to talk to me. He wanted to know me more when no one wanted to know me. And we built a strong friendship back then. I can tell you that it was because of POH LEONG that I am here today tying this blog post for you all to read! Imagine that Poh Leong didn’t want take me as his friend back then (about 3years ago), I can tell you with a sure heart that I will not be coming to YE again.
THANK YOU POH LEONG... I LOVE YOU BRO !

One person that I would want to bring your attention to is Jolene Tan. She’s not a frequent Ye attendant because her parents wouldn’t allow her to come. Jolene is a Christian. She may not be a strong Christian, she may not know how to pray powerful prayers, she may not know how to lead people, and she may not be a matured Christian who knows the Bible well BUT she has a heart that MANY Christians DO NOT HAVE. I say this with no apology; many of us do not have a heart of LOVE. I may not know her much but I have known her well enough to know that she has a heart that goes out to love each and everyone of God’s children the same. When asked about her ambition, she said “Doctor” but that wasn’t all, her answer shocked me, “Doctor, because I want to help people, especially the poor people.” (I can’t remember what she said exactly because it was last June but it’s something like that.) You see, many people would want to be a doctor because of the good pay but I have not heard of an answer like hers, she did not talked about money at all. Ok ok you may say that maybe she’s just pretending to be loving. Judge not for I know her.

Another person that I would like to mention is Janielle Beh. She has a heart that goes all out for the left-outs. SHE LOVES THE UNLOVABLES. For those who know her I guess that you know what kind of person she is.
Cerdwin Yap is another living testimony of God’s love. She willingly goes to the orphanage and old-folks home to clean the house, do gardening, teach school lessons, etc WITHOUT being told or even paid. How touched I was when I heard of what Cerdwin has been doing all these while!
I want to tell you that you are really blessed with this kind of people.
They are people of love. Genuine love. They can come before God telling Him “I love You, Lord.” without feeling guilty because they had rejected someone.

So from today onwards, let us start loving one another. Love everyone the same regardless of race, color, language, religion, age, personalities or creed. How do we show love? Start by getting out of your cliques and start talking and mixing with them... That is an act of love, simple but powerful, Poh Leong did it. So can you.

Matthew 22:39
Love your neighbor as yourself.

John 13:35
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Agape,
Zlwin Chew

This is Jolene Tan. She looks a little weird here but it's ok, still cute and her heart's still as loving.

This is Andy Darrel Gomes my beloved bro. You may not see us mixing much in church but in school we are like couples haha. He's a great guy and very loving too. But why do some people still reject him? I don't get it...

This is Cerdwin Yap Ching Woon, Adrian Yap Chin Loon's girlfreind. Well, he wished haha. Cerdwin's the only TEENAGE girl I've known so far that sacrifices her time to go do housework and gardening at the Grace Home, it's an old folks home. Cerdwin rock!

Janielle Beh! Lover of all! This pic was taken two years ago during our mission trip to Sarawak.

Janielle, keep loving!

Is that me??? Oh my gosh i think it is...

Yea, love your neighbors like how these people love me!!! haha!

This is Jirene Beh, Pastor John's youngest daughter, and her sister Janielle, i call Janielle Sister-in-Law... You get what I mean la... Haha... Just kidding... =) Pastor John, I'm just kidding ok... haha.

BLEUK!!!