high price for serving those who had nothing to return to Him; He was criticized over and over again for mixing with the wrong crowd, the sick, the poor, the uneduca ted, the harlots, and the outcasts. Then, in obedience to God, He died on the cross for the sin of mankind. Even while He was dying on the cross, He still loved those who were putting Him to death: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Just as Paul the Apostle said, "God shows his love for us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). This is the genuine "in spite of" kind of love in all its fulness and purity. Christ's love is not a theory or a teaching but a concrete demon stration. It is not just an example given us two thousand years ago but love is still available to each person who wants it. Jesus did not stay dead. God raised Him from the dead; and Jesus Christ is alive today, very near you as you read this, able and willing to love you with this "in spite of" kind of love. I do not have to argue about this. If you will simply say, "I want this love from Christ more than any thing else right now and I will ac cept it humbly just the way I am," you will know in your own expe rience today that this is real. If you have never consciously and deliberately accepted this "in spite of" love of Cod offered to us in Jesus Christ, will you accept it now and pray a prayer of thanks giving to Him this very minute? If you have already accepted this love from God, will you commit yourself to become a messenger of this love? Will you tell about this
love of Cod to some one? Will you love some one in the name of Jesus Christ in spite of what he is? With some one person you know in mind, will you commit yourself before God, through a silent pray er right now, to speak about this love or to practice this love? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Masumi Toyotome was born in Ja pan and educated in the United States since the age of ten. He received his B.A. (1939) and M.A. (1941) in physical chem istry from the University of California at Los Angeles, B.D. (1945) in systematic the ology from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and Ph.D. (1953) in relig ion from Columbia University. For five years he served as Assistant Professor in Christianity and Director of Religious Life and Program at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. In December, 1957, he was one of the principal speakers at the International Student Missionary Convention in Urbana, Illinois, sponsored by the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. From 1959 to 1963 he served as the exec utive secretary of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society in Los Angeles, Cali fornia. He has given series of lectures on Christianity at various universities in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Aus tralia, and the Far East. Among his w rit ings are M anual of the Nameless M ove m ent (a training manual in personal evan gelism), A Training Course In Personal Evangelism (an instructor's supplement to the above manual), Have You M e t Him Yet (an evangelism booklet), and Poetic Images and Forms in the Sayings o f Jesus (Ph.D. dissertation). He is the founder and director of Missionary Strategy Agency, Los Angeles, U.S.A. Since 1965 he has conducted more than one hundred train ing workshops in fourteen countries in Asia besides U.S. and Canada, as well as seminars in missionary and evangelistic strategy. He is married and has four chil dren.
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