LOVE… the best way

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance… Love will last forever!.

Day after day, thousands of Jesus’ followers toil in foreign lands to bring relief and the love of Christ to the severely afflicted and to the poorest of the poor. Through the context of their work, many of these laborers witness brutalities and suffering beyond huan comprehension.

In Africa, many people I meet are devoted to coming alongside the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40). They tell me they were moved to action by a pastor or speaker they heard, literature they read, or the lyrics of a song that opened their hearts and minds to the struggles people around the world face.

Upon entering the lands of the oppressed and the impoverished, these laborers testify that they are sustained by private devotion and corporate prayer. Worship music of deep spiritual truth also inspires these compassionate men and women to press on in their efforts to extend God’s justice and provisions to those who suffer. First Corinthians 13: 7-8, however, beautifully describes the best motivation of all for serving the needy – love. These verses aptly say, “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance….Love will last forever!”

It’s possible you have heart 1 Corinthians 13 applied only to marriage. Today, consider how you might also apply this verse to loving the destitute. For example, how might you:
-protect someone who is experiencing a form of abuse?
-Trust God to meet your financial needs when you continue to give generously to the poor?
-Display hope as you spend time with someone who is suffering?
-Persevere in serving even when you’re feeling weary?
-Show love – unfailingly, even to someone whom you find difficult to like?

Prayerfully consider how you might display these forms of love to someone you encounter today. – Roxanne Robbins

Does truth still work?

When I attended a Christian college back in the Paleolithic Era, one of the key maxims that was drummed into our shaggy heads was this:
All truth is God’s truth. In other words, anything that is true and dependable is from God. God is truth, and therefore the essence of what is factual and knowable and truthful stems from Him alone.

For instance, marriage is a foundation of society because God originated it in Genesis between a man and a woman. Later, Jesus honored it with His presence at a wedding. Clearly, God presents marriage as a basic bulding block of a righteous society. Marriage is good because God says it is.

Or this: Lying is wrong. God included this teaching in codification of His rules in Exodus 20. And He repeatedly had Scripture writers tell us that lying is wrong. God says lying is wrong, so there is no question that it is.

Some people think this kind of thinking doesn’t work anymore. Postmodernists refuse to consider something to be true just because God said it is. They want truth to be whatever a person finds truth to be.

If you tell a lie and it gets you a promotion, and no one finds out, then it’s okay – if worked. If you can get your accountant to cheat on your audit – and the authorities don’t find out – you’ve earned some extramoney.

It doesn’t take a degree in philosophy to recognize that this create-your-own-truth world is a dangerous place. No set boundaries, no moral restrictions, and no basis for an organized society. And most dangerous of all-no need of God.

Look for the truth. It’s another way of seeing that God is there, and He is at work in the world.

-Dave Branon- [taken from ODJ 2008]

Read Psalm 40:9~12
Let Your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me (v.11)

MORE~
Teach me Your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to Your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor You. - Psalm 86:11 –