Joe & Becky Cruse

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” Hal David and Burt Bacharach wrote that very familiar song. It was released on April 15, 1965, and reached number seven on the music charts in May. It’s a popular song that has been recorded again and again by various artists. The song’s message and its popularity reveal to us the heart’s cry of the world for love.

During the night of the Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples to love one another. It was so important that He told them this three times in the same evening (John 13:34; 15:12; 15:17). John was consumed with the love of God, and wrote about it profusely in his epistles. Paul and Peter also admonish us to love one another in their epistles. Loving one another is good, but we need to go a step farther.

One day a Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus which commandment of the law was of principal importance. Jesus answered him by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as (you do) yourself” (Matthew 22:37-40). Well, we know we should love God with all of our being, but Jesus said we are to love our neighbor just like we love ourselves. We can love ourselves and take care of ourselves pretty good, and we need to extend this same love to our neighbors.

But who is our neighbor? Our family? The people who live in the same neighborhood? The people we work with? Jesus took love to a whole new level, and said that we should love even our enemies and pray for them (Matthew 5:43-48). It’s easy to love people that we like, and people that treat us right, but Jesus said to love our enemies as well. This can be a hard truth to swallow, but God loved us when we were His enemies. When were we God’s enemies? When we were in sin without God. And yet He loved us anyway, and reconciled us to Him through the death of His Son Jesus (Romans 5:6-10).

This is how the world will come to salvation. There’s another song from the sixties: a Christian song that said, “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we are Christians by our love.” It’s a tall order, but the love of God flowing through us is still the answer to the cries of the world.

So, what is love? How do we love? How does love act or respond in different situations? The following is an excerpt from Sparkling Gems From the Greek by Rick Renner. It is an “expanded interpretive translation” of I Corinthians 13:4-8 based on his intense studies in the Greek. It’s a little long, but well worth reading and meditating on:

Love patiently and passionately bears with others for as long as patience is needed:
Love doesn’t demand others to be like itself; rather, it is so focused on the needs of others that it bends over backwards to become what others need it to be;
Love is not ambitious, self-centered, or so consumed with itself that it never thinks of the needs or desires that others possess;
Love doesn’t go around talking about itself all the time, constantly exaggerating and embellishing the facts to make it look more important in the sight of others;
Love does not behave in a prideful, arrogant, haughty, superior, snooty, snobbish, or clannish manner;
Love is not rude and discourteous – it is not careless or thoughtless, nor does it carry on in a fashion that would be considered insensitive to others;
Love does not manipulate situations or scheme and devise methods that will twist situations to its own advantage;
Love does not deliberately engage in actions or speak words that are so sharp, they cause an ugly or violent response;
Love does not deliberately keep records of wrongs or past mistakes;
Love does not feel overjoyed when it sees an injustice done to someone else but is elated, thrilled, ecstatic, and overjoyed with the truth;
Love protects, shields, guards, covers, conceals, and safeguards people from exposure;
Love strains forward with all its might to believe the very best in every situation;
Love always expects and anticipates the best in others and the best for others:
Love never quits, never surrenders, and never gives up;
Love never disappoints, never fails, and never lets anyone down.

You might read this and think that you could never love this way. I know I come up short. But God is faithful to complete the work He has started in us. We can meditate on these things, and ask Him to work this love in our lives and in our hearts towards others.

Hey friends, just checking in to say hello and to let all of you know we are soon wrapping up another year at Institute for the Arts. It is really hard to believe that we have graduated students for seven years and it only seems that we have just begun. Of those students finishing the program, 75% of them have gone on to full or part time ministry and for that, we give God all the glory.

For us, it can be hard to let the students go..especially when they have been with you for three years but we know that God has called us to “equip and release” and that is just what we must do.

Here are some dates you might be interested in knowing about:

May 6 IFTA Night of Worship @ 6:30 pm (everyone is welcome)
May 7 Spring Recital 11 to 1 pm (everyone is welcome)
May 13 and 14 Final Juries for all students (students only please)
May 21 Third Year Banquet (graduates, their guests, and pastoral staff and faculty)
May 22 Alumni Reception @ the new property (09 graduates and all alumni, faculty, and guests)
May 23 Graduation @ Mt Olive Lutheran @ 2:00 pm (Commencement Speaker is Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff Everyone is welcome)
May 24 Sunday services with Marcus and Cindy Ratcliff ministering in the 8:30 and 11:00 services (Everyone is welcome)

For more information on these dates and Institute for the Arts, go to www.instituteforthearts.com

Join us as we celebrate these students and acknowledge their accomplishments! PB

To all our friends and partners of Worshipworks Ministries International, we want to take this opportunity to update you on a few of the great conferences and crusades since January and those coming up as well:

Rosenberg, TX

What a privilege to be with Fellowship of Fort Bend and Ps Joe and Nancy Cruse for some great nights in the presence of the Lord. For many in the church, it was their first opportunity to experience the ministry of WMI, and there was such receptivity to the worship and teaching. God is doing a mighty work in the church and we are blessed to be a part of the fresh move of God there.

Corpus Christi, TX

We just finished an awesome revival at Journey Church with Ps Jane and Dean Bearden. The church was filled every night to capacity, with hungry people pressing in to the deep things of God. Lives were touched and changed as we saw many return to their “first love”. There was a great sense of faith as we laid hands on those for healing and miracles and many saw a breakthrough in their finances as they stepped out to sow seed. The ministry was personally blessed by the giving of the church and also received a much-needed vehicle to continue to take teams on the road. To God Be the Glory!

Hamilton, Ohio

We covet your prayers as we head up north to Covenant Christian Center, Hamilton Ohio with our friends Ps Jim and Dianne Mullins, (calvary-hamilton.org) April 24th-26th. We have great expectancy and believe God will do mighty things.

Bangkok, Thailand

Every year the WMI team travels abroad in missions effort around the world. This summer we will be joining our friends Ps Varun and Da Laohaprasit and the River of Life churches in Bangkok Thailand for a great crusade during the week of June 23th-30th. Please pray for the meetings and for the finances to cover the airfare costs for the team. We will also be providing worship/music training for worship teams during the day.

We want to keep you posted as to the evangelistic arm of this ministry and we ask for your prayers as we move forward to build the Kingdom of God at home and around the world.

Ps Becky Cruse