Week 9

Well, we have finally arrived.  This week we will complete 1 Corinthians 13. I hope that you are proud of yourself for this accomplishment.  I am proud of the commitment that we have made to take this journey together this year.  Remember, we are not doing this to be able to say that we learned 100 verses of scripture.  We are doing this to hide God's word in our hearts.  Then, we will learn to love Him more and let His word live through us each day. 

1 Corinthians 13:11-13
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  And now these three remain:  faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love.

Week 8

I don't know about you, but this week has been a challenge for me.  I have had a sick child for most of the week, which has given me plenty of opportunity to practice the qualities of love.  You know what I mean.  It is not always easy to be patient, kind, and not easily angered when you've tried everything to please them and they are still unhappy because they do not feel well.  After about day number 4, I began quoting these scriptures to myself as a reminder of how I should love.  After all, I am not always easy to love myself.  I know there are many times when the Father is probably tired of having patience with me, when He could easily be angered, when kindness is undeserved, and yet in His great mercy He loves me.  Isn't that an amazing thought.  God loves me with all of these enduring qualities of love even when the last thing I am is deserving.  Even when I whining and complaining and the cause is my own sin sickness, He loves me.  Just thinking of that should make it so much easier to love those around us.
This week we continue with the next few verses of 1 Corinthians 13.  We're almost there.  Only a few more verses and we will have memorized the entire chapter.  Keep up the good work!

1Corinthians 13:8-10
Love never fails.  But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

Week 7

Love!  What a wonderful thing.  Everywhere you turn seems like there is always someone talking about love.  How to find it, how to keep it.  Everyone seems to have an opinion on what love really means.  The true meaning of love is clearly summed up for us by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians.  We have already learned that even if we possess a great spiritual gift, but do not have love, we really have nothing.  This week we will continue in the passage to see some of the enduring qualities of love.  A word of warning, the list can be very convicted.  Often we like to think of love as a warm, fuzzy feeling.  But what we see here is love being patient, kind, selfless, and true.  Most of all, love is a commitment.  This week, let's renew our commitment to love those around us and to love Christ more and more every day.  Remember, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us."  (Sound familiar?)  Because he first loved us, let's show His love to the world today.

1Corinthians 13:4-8a
Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is no rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.

Week 6

Can you believe that it is February already?  Where is the year going?  This month seems to bring out the loving emotions in us.  We celebrate our love for each other and use this opportunity to tell those around us how much they mean to us.  With this in mind, we will focus our attention this month on what has often been called the "love chapter."  Over the next few weeks we will strive to place 1 Corinthians 13 into our memory.  Let's pray and ask God to give us a greater love for Him and for each other.  After all the scripture says that if we do not have love, "I am nothing." 

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."