JOHN SHIRK – In the Year of Exploration, today’s Reason to Believe is the capacity to love in extraordinary ways.

There are different kinds of love that we express. Some ways are more extraordinary than others. For example, Jesus said in Luke 6:33, “If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.”

But what about love for our enemies? Or what about showing compassion to someone when it’s not convenient? Or what about giving to someone when it involves personal sacrifice? Jesus knows about that kind of love and demonstrated these expressions of love when He went to the cross. He is the author of true love, and He shows us the way of love by His example and through His teachings.

First John 4:19 says “We love because he first loved us.” And Jesus said to His disciples in John 13:35, By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The capacity to love in extraordinary ways is a reason to believe in God’s good news.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com