The Message

1 Corinthians 13 (The Message)

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If 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.

8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13But 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.

The EveryDay: Day Two

The EveryDay: Day Two

Bibical Hope

Biblical Hope, Faith, Love, Obedience, Holiness

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1. What is hope?
1. Knowledge of God and His promises?
2. Grasping the evidence that God in Jesus is who He says He is?
3. Knowing He will keep His promises. Then hope becomes FAITH
2. What is faith?
1. Do I have evidence that God is true and faithful?
2. Is there any one else that truly is?

C. Finding that is He true and faithful to me. Then faith becomes LOVE. What is love? God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because in this world we are like him. We love because he first loved us. A genuine unconditional compassion, like Jesus cares. And that I love Him because He first loved me. And I owe my life to Him. Then love becomes OBEDIENCE.

4. What is Obedience?
1. Doing the best I can in my own way? Or allowing Him to continually work all his will through me, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and doing my part in humility and love. Then obedience becomes HOLINESS. Jesus said:” As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
2. Paul said: I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. The Spirit, however, controls you, not by the sinful nature but, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if the Spirit leads you, you are not under law. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. That is Holiness

By Howdim

Alone With Jesus

Time with Him

I come to my prayer time alone.
Hallelujah!
Your Presence is here,
As you speak so clear.
Your love is so tender,
Please linger near.
I confess my sin,
And He enters in.
My heart's aflame,
And I call your name.
"Use me", Lord, I cry.
"Don't pass me by!"
"I am yours both now and forever."
Hallelujah! You are with me.
Hallelujah! I'm with You.
Hallelujah! What a blessing!
Hallelujah! I am Yours.