“The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; ..” Jeremiah 31:3 NAS
Years ago I had the privilege as a young missionary, to serve in gospel ministry in South India with the great Pastor Philip Papabhatani, and his lovely wife and my dear friend, Lily-ama. They took me in to an already overcrowded household of their own 10 children, 15 orphans and the various groups of pastors and church workers who would show up daily. They opened their arms and hearts and embraced me so warmly and with such love that I instantly became the eldest daughter of the family. I was still in a cast from my time in Nepal and could not yet so much as get up and down stairs without help. Without a bat of an eye, I was embraced, loved, laughed with, and given opportunities to serve, plaster cast and crutches and all. They made me feel as if I were the most beloved person who had ever come to stay with them.
I was bowled over by their unselfish generosity, and I allowed it to knit into my soul. This loving expression of the heart of Jesus to me, a stranger, injured, virtually penniless who seemingly had nothing to offer them except more work to do. “For I was a stranger, and you took me in…” Matt. 25:35.
India was a dark and challenging place for Christian ministry, filled with governments and other faiths who opposed them, sometimes violently. But despite that, I saw in this family a kindness and love that shone through the bright smiles of each and every child in that house. There was joy there, joy released by living God’s life in a poor, dark, and often dangerous place to be a Christian, but not allowing the darkness into their hearts. For OUR hearts, in Christ, have an unfathomable light that cannot be blotted out, if we do not permit it. That is the greatest lesson I learned from them. That joy, love, peace, these things are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and that fruit can abound in the most trying of circumstances.
The first time Pastor Phillip invited me to give the message at a public crusade, before thousands of people of many faiths, he quietly instructed me, ‘Sister, you do not need to preach against Hinduism and the worship of idols. You do not need to preach against Islam. You do not need to preach against anyone. You only need to lift up Jesus. You lift up Jesus and tell the people how much God loves them, and believe me, they will come. Because sister, Jesus is for the Hindu and He is for the Muslim. He is not against them. He loves them. He came to die for them and offer them all that heaven has for them. So, we must not be against them, sister. Because Jesus loves them.’
These were powerful words that the Holy Spirit inscribed upon the tablets of my heart at the tender age of 26. God’s love is FOR the peoples of the earth no matter their background or where they were born. His heart beats for them. How great is this love, that is the love of God. That love never fails.
~ Debbie Ecker
