Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8, NLT)
The professional golf tours hold weekly fellowships for the players, allowing them to study Scripture together and encourage and pray for one another while they travel. These groups of men and women can depend on each other with the friendship, support, and love they show to each other. It’s great to know this is available for these players.
Healthy small groups of believers supporting one another always look like this. I know because I see the same kind of relationships in our Links Fellowships. Our Links Players love each other spiritually and practically. From there, they reach beyond that to love the golfers at their golf clubs.
Listen to the people in your club. Find out about their stories. Earn the right to tell them yours.Not many people join a country club with Christian fellowship in mind, though most are hoping to find a group of people to share their time with. When they are introduced to those who care not only about their golf game or their social standing but also about their lives here and in eternity, it can come as a big surprise—and a good one!
I remember a great saying: “The gospel is not always taught but caught!” This possibility gets me excited about what our Links Players are doing. Their love is attractive and contagious.
I was at a Fellowship recently and one guy expressed it like this, “I played golf a lot by myself and then a Links Player invited me to play golf with him. Not only him but six others. And because of his invitation, I started coming to the Links Fellowship and now I am reading my Bible and growing in my walk with Jesus Christ!”
The passage in 1 John 4 reminds us how we are to love one another as children of God. If you know God, you will love others.
I always remind our Links Fellowships of Luke 10:2, where Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” This is a challenging verse for a lot of people. They’re afraid God is going to send them. He may have in mind for them to go far away, even to a place without a golf course.
But here’s what I’ve learned. Before God sends you far away, he is looking for you to step right outside. Your own golf club may be the very harvest field God has in mind for you. You already know the geography. Your command of the language is excellent. You understand the etiquette required. A lot of qualified foreign missionaries would have no idea how to behave at your club. But you do!
How do you start? With love. Listen to the people in your club. Find out about their stories. Earn the right to tell them yours, the one where Jesus came to rescue you from the sin that held you apart from God. When you and your believing friends at your club make a habit of loving each other and loving everyone else there, you just might do what we keep talking about: change the conversation.
—
Dereck Wong
November 8, 2017
Copyright 2017 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.