Looking for the best

God is love. He is always looking for the best in us. He doesn't see our foibles and quirks. He is not keeping a list of all of our failings. He sees us as fully redeemed sons and daughters.

How many times do we have the image of a God who is like us or people we know. Critical. Judgemental. Harsh.

God is not like that at all.

May I love like my Father and always look for the best.

Love always looks for the best. 1 Corinthians 13

The LIST

Sometimes we keep a list of other peoples wrongs. We can recite it chapter and verse. It can actually be quite long. My heavenly Father does not have a list of my sins. He doesn't keep one. He is love and love doesn't keep a list. That is the truth. Anything else is a lie.

May I love the way He loves.

Love doesn't keep a list of the sins of others. 1 Corinthians 13

Never giving up

My heavenly Father never gives up on me. He loves me even when I haven't wanted to know Him. He loves me even when I wander off. He NEVER gives up no matter what.

May I love like Him. May I never give up. May I have His heart.

Love never gives up. 1 Corinthians 13

"The Message that points to Messiah on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction." ~~Apostle Paul

The way God works seems silly to those who don't know Him. For many, "Why" is the big barrier to a true relationship with God. "Why did this happen?" "Why would God work that way?"

Of course, this is the way children think as well. "I don't get it" they say. "Why can't I do X?" they ask. "I don't understand why you want let me" they protest after we have explained it 10 times. Our decisons seem silly to them.

That what God is doing makes sense to me is a sign that I am on the way to salvation. I am on the road. I must stay focused on what He is doing and not get diverted by what He isn't. If I stay focused on His wisdom, I will be more than happy.

The Message that points to Messiah on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It's written, I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots. So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn't God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—proclaiming the Message, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:18-21

Love keeps going

What is it about persistence in love? It must be something like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps going and going. But how often has my love stopped? Some offense. Some bad circumstance. Some care of this world. That is not how my Father loves. His love just keeps going.

May my love be like His. May it just keep going. Going and going with to the end.

But love keeps going to the end. 1 Corinthians 13

What is important?

Today's scripture blew me away. What is important? Not what the economy is doing. Not what I give away. Not what I get. I am bankrupt without love.

That is the focus. Everything needs to come down to this.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.Love never gives up.


Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

 

Everything

Sometimes I am stunned by the simplicity of how God speaks to us. Through Paul He gave it to us pretty straight. He didn't say, a few things or occasionally or if I feel like it. Nope.

Do everything in love. May I live this daily.

Do everything in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14 

 

 

 

Love extravagantly

There is love and then there is extravagant love. My Father loves me extravagantly. I should love the same way. He isn't reserved and holding back. Not at all. He sees me from afar and comes running. When I ran from Him he watched everyday waiting for me to return.

On seeing me a long way off, He came running for me. His heart was pounding. He embraced me. He kissed me. He brought me clean clothes, the best He has. He put His ring on my finger; the family ring He has been saving for a special time. He prepared an amazing feast for me. We celebrated. I was lost but He never stopped loving.

May I love like that!!! May I love extravagantly!!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

When I am inadequate

Paul wasn't afraid to admit that he was inadequate. Now that is something. In fact, he was scared to death.

So where did that lead him? Straight to God. He is able. Nothing is impossible with Him.  The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead was in Paul and is in me.

I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else. 1 Corinthians 2:3-5

Trust steadily

As I seek to mature in the Lord, one of the big three things to focus on is trusting Him more and more. I need to be steady in my trust. Not trusting one day and then not the next. Maturity is what I need to strive for. It is so easy to slide into trusting anything but God. That is so immature.

So it is focus and consistency. That is the key. Focus on Him who will complete everything. He is leading us toward that consummation. It is His heart's desire.

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. 1 Corinthians 13

The absurdity of God

Different cultures and religions have unique views of God. There is only one message though. That is the message of Jesus. He is everything wrapped up in something that doesn't make sense to our puny minds. The message actually seems absurd to us. It doesn't make sense to us at our human level.

God is absulute perfection and completely set apart from what we naturally know. Jesus came and has given us the key to enter into His presence.  Jesus is everything we need.

While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical  wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness." 1 Corinthians 1:22-25