| Good Morning Everyone, Our theme for this month: “You are loved” Our Bible verse for today: “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (CSB) Our thought for today: “It’s up to you” We began this devotional series about experiencing the love of God more than five weeks ago with a discussion about how difficult it sometimes seems to experience God’s love in real and tangible ways. I used the illustration of a young man I know who was concerned that the love of his girlfriend often seems more real to him than does the love of God. I explained to him it’s because his girlfriend is a flesh and bones person who he can see and hold, but God is a spirit. Since then we’ve also learned that the most common way in which God expresses His love for us so that we can experience it in a palpable and easily perceived way is through the actions of other Christians. He uses us as a vessel through which His love flows to others. That being the case, it means that other people are depending on you for their experience of God’s love. That’s why so many of the Bible passages about love focus on how we are to love each another. In 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter), Paul provided numerous descriptors illustrating how God’s love manifests itself through us. There is no envy in it; there’s no boasting, arrogance, or rudeness; it is not self-seeking; and it keeps no record of wrongs. Instead, it rejoices in truth, it willingly bears hardships, it is filled with hope, it endures, and it never ends. Those are all descriptions of human behaviors based in God’s love, and it is how God wants us to interact with each other. Yesterday we all sat around the campfire, held hands, and sang the song, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love”. (Okay, we didn’t actually sit around a campfire holding hands but admit it, you sang the song in your head as you were reading the lyrics). And that’s good because it really is true that what this world needs now is a whole lot more of God’s love being shared among people. I encourage you to go out there today and allow others to experience God’s love coming through you. To a large degree it’s up to you whether or not others will have a tangible discernable experience of God’s love. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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