Love is a Revolution: Lessons from the Revolutionaries in History
“We should always keep in mind that God loves everybody, and we need to treat others the way Jesus would treat them. We need to encourage them to be who God created them to be.” ~ John Maxwell
The Love Revolution is a worldwide movement of people intentionally spreading the love of God through simple acts of kindness every day.
It starts with you and me… in our homes, our communities, workplaces, churches…getting out of our comfort zone to help others in need every day and on purpose! It could be something as simple as holding the door open for a stranger, buying someone coffee, or more involved like reaching out to the homeless in your city.
The point is to do something!
Dr. Martin Luther King said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” When you see a way to make a difference take action.
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” – Romans 12:9,10 (NIV)
Ever wanted to make a difference in someone’s life? Be just what they needed at just the right time? By enlisting in The Love Revolution, you have the chance to do just that…in great ways or small.
No one person can literally touch every single person on earth, but think of the ripple effect we’d make if all of us did something… how many thousands if not millions of lives could be change…that’s what a revolution is!
Bottom line: The Love Revolution needs you, and you’ve got what it takes to infiltrate the world with God’s life-transforming love! Really, what’s there to lose?
William Tyndale 1494-1536
His love for even the least of these, led him to change the world. Tyndale was a scholar who was skilled in Hebrew and Greek. He became convinced that the clergy of the time knew very little about the Bible, many were unable to speak Latin which was the only language that the Roman church allowed. Tyndale became determined to produce an English copy of the Bible that ‘even a ploughboy could understand’. (It is strange that educated people in today’s society find it so difficult to read!).
He was forced to Germany to work on the translation and by 1525 he had completed the New Testament. It was printed under the continual threat of discovery and persecution and had to be smuggled into England. The Roman church worked hard to stop the Bible being circulated. They burnt every copy they could and people found with them faced death.
The Roman church eventually managed to capture Tyndale and he was burnt at the stake in October 1536. He was one of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived. Through his English translation of the New Testament and the beautiful language which he used, his influence on modern day society is still very strong.
George Muller (1805-1898)
George Müller was a thief and a liar. He stole from his own family, he was a selfish child who was only interested in himself. In his early teens he was immoral and a drunkard, spending other people’s money like water.
At the age of sixteen he was arrested and jailed. His father left him there, prisons were horrible places at that time, for three weeks to teach him a lesson. It did not work, George still spent his time lying and deceiving everybody around himself. But in 1925, three and a half years after he was released from prison, George Müller found himself in a prayer meeting listening to the Bible being taught. A few hours later, when he left the house he was a changed person. Everything that he had liked to do before this meeting no longer drew him. And he could no longer tell lies!
Müller felt the need to be involved in missionary work. He left Halle and went to London to train as a missionary to the Jews. But he was ill and went to Devon to recuperate. There he became the pastor of a small church and later married. In 1832 they moved to Bristol, and Müller transformed a local, failing Brethren church into a thriving church. In 1834 Müller set up the Scriptural Knowledge Institute and by 880 it was responsible for 72 day schools with 7000 students in Bristol as well as in countries overseas.
Amy Carmichael
When Hudson Taylor, missionary to China spoke at a Mission’s convention one of the girls in the audience recognized her calling as a missionary. nitially Carmichael traveled to Japan for fifteen months, but after a brief period of service in Lanka, she found her lifelong vacation in India. She was commissioned by the Church of England Zenana Mission. Hindu temple children were young girls dedicated to the gods and forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests i.e Devadasi. Much of her work was with young ladies, some of whom were saved from forced prostitution. The organization she founded was known as the Dohnavur Fellowship. Dohnavur is situated in Tamil Nadu, thirty miles from the southern tip of India. The fellowship would become a sanctuary for over one thousand children who would otherwise have faced a bleak future.