We are aliens and pilgrims before You.: Oh how lovely it is.

I am glad to call this wonderful young lady my friend.

The Lord has been showing me how great and how lovely it really is when brethren dwell together in Unity. I am privileged to talk to some girls from Coatesville about Jesus every single week. This girl right here, her life is so much harder then mine, yet she smiles and laughs every week. The things that these girls go through makes me sometimes feel sick with sorrow. It's unimaginable to me what they go through, but every Thursday, I see their troubles, however great they are, melt away, because of the Love that we have for one another, because of the Love that God has for us. No matter what struggle we enter in this life, nothing can steal the joy that comes from having fellowship with our brothers and sisters, and even more so fellowship with Christ, fellowship with God. THE ABBA FATHER! A pastor from England recently shared at our church, so of coarse I was there and attentive! He taught from John 17, and during his sermon I was greatly reminded of how important unity is to God. Here we have Jesus praying for the church, he says:

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;

that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one

in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have

given them, that they may beone just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be

made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them

as You have loved Me." John 17:20-23

Jesus took this opportunity to pray for the church, He could have prayed for many legitimate things... like the persecution He knew the church would go through, or the temptation that he knew we would face. But the first thing He prayed for wasn't all those things, He prayed firstly for unity. Whether we like each other or not, we are brothers and sisters. It is love for one another that has the power to get us through persecutions, and strengthen us to stand against sin. Jesus understood that Loving one another, and being one with Him was they key to facing all things. Unity doesn't mean we compromise, Unity gives us the strength to stand against compromise. The greatest thing on earth, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is being compromised. The true church needs to stand together. We need to Love one another! The last verse says that God loves us, AS HE LOVED HIS SON! I can't imagine that if I sacrificed my own child, to save someone else from their own sins (sins my child didn't even commit), that I would in turn love that person as much as my child, whom I sacrificed. But God does! So who are we to NOT love one another?

When words aren't enough to change hearts, love is. When we love one another, that is a testimony.

Love is a lot of things, in fact, it's the greatest gift. But What I have learned, and what I never want to forget, is that the Love of God saves. The Love of God sent Jesus to the cross, that Love, it's power unto salvation. That Love saved us, and that love guides us, it gives me strength everyday. When I get discouraged, and when I think there is nothing left in me, when every footstep seems to turn into a stumble, at the end of the day God still loves me as He did his only son.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is