Golden Love by Eric Elder www.theranch.org One year ago this weekend, I was headed to the African country of Swaziland.  Eighty of us from the U.S. were on a missions trip to  work side-by-side with the people of Swaziland to plant thousands of  vegetable gardens near their homes. On the trip, I met a man who helped me see what it takes to live a  life of sacrificial love.  He was a pastor who had worked with this  organization for over a year, helping to plant gardens throughout the  country with dozens of teams that had come over to help. One day, I was looking at a map of Swaziland with him.  The map  showed which areas of the country had already been planted, and which  areas still needed to be planted.  We were planting in one of the  last areas remaining in the country, but I noticed there was still  one more area yet to be planted.  I asked him about it, and he said  that the one remaining area was the village where he lived. I couldn’t believe it.  I turned and looked at him and said, “You’ve  been bringing teams over here, helping people plant all over the  country, but you haven’t brought a team to help you plant in your own  village yet?�?BR> He replied, “We have a saying here in Swaziland:  ‘We would rather  starve than let our guests go hungry.�?�?nbsp; He went on to explain:  he  wanted to make sure that all of the other areas were served first,  then he would bring a team to his own area.  I about burst into tears  on the spot.  It still makes my eyes water just thinking about it. There’s a verse of scripture in the middle of Matthew chapter 7 that  people refer to as “The Golden Rule.�?nbsp; (And it’s not, “He who has the  gold makes the rules�?)  Jesus included these words in his sermon on  the mount, saying that they sum up the teachings that God had given  up to that point: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,  for this sums up the Law and the Prophets�?/FONT>  (Matthew 7:12). Do to others what you would have them do to you.  It seems like such  a simple thing...and sometimes it is.  If a storeowner gives you too  much change at the store, you can hand back the extra change, because  that’s what you would want a customer to do if they came into your  store.  Or if you notice someone who needs money for a worthy  project, you might give it to them because you know that if you  needed money for a worthy project, you’d want them to help you. But sometimes it’s a much harder thing to do.  Sometimes, as in the  case of this pastor from Swaziland, allowing others to go ahead of  you can literally mean death for someone you love.  How can anyone  live that kind of life?  How can anyone have that much love for  others, that they would let someone in their own family perish so  that someone else might live? How?  God gave us the ultimate example of just such a love when He  allowed His own Son, Jesus, to die in our place.  When Jesus called  us to “do to others what you would have them do to you,�?He was  calling us to do something that He Himself would soon be doing to the  fullest extent, giving of His own life so that we could live. Last time I mentioned that God wants us to be willing to live for  others.  This time, the call is to be willing to die for them, too.   Jesus calls us to be willing to do both.  When our hearts are at that  point of willingness, we’ll know that we have achieved the greatest  love possible. We’ll have a love like that of Christ Himself who said, and then  later exemplefied for us, these words:  “Greater love has no one than  this, that he lay down his life for his friends�?(John 15:13). -------------- Prayer:  Father, help me to do for others as I would have them do for  me.  In Jesus�?name, Amen. -------------- Today’s Scripture Reading:  Matthew 7 http://www.biblegateway.com/       A Bee Bg