March 14, 2010

 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

  Love, Trust & Belief  

1 Corinthians

If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be?  And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody.  If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.

Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  Love does not demand its own way.  Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.  It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear.  Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little!  But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.

It's like this:  When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does.  But when I grew up, I put away childish things.  Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.  

There are three things that will endure--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.  

***

Thoughts...

So often we go through life believing that what we have for another is love...deep, true, abiding love, when all we really have is love for ourselves, or puppy love.  We may say we love, but are we IN love with another?  We do not need to be IN love with everyone, but we must love all as Christ loved us, which is a love that surpasses everything human.  He loves us with a deep, true, abiding love.  And he instills in us the ability to be IN love with another.  It, too, exceeds everything we as humans are capable of in a spiritual sense, but allows us also the human side of touch, passion, serenity, and oneness with another.

The marriage vows that the Christian world uses to unite two people usually states a coming together between Christ and the people marrying.  A communion, if you will between Christ and the churches....the man and woman.  So, in order to marry in the Christian sense, both people must believe in and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Many times, he is just a name.  Sometimes a religious organization will give a brief overview of who Christ is, ask the non-Christian if they will accept him, and most of the time they do to be able to get married, not to receive the fullness of all that he is, and all the love he offers, and wanting to know how wonderful he is.  Nor wanting a relationship with him other than what his name provides for the instant to satisfy the whims of the Christian who wants a Christian marriage, while knowingly, but blindly wanting to marry the non-Christian.  And we wonder why marriages do not work.  We know why they don't.  Christ does not abide in the midst.  

Paul speaks to us in todays scriptures given for today and everyday about what love is in its basic sense:  "Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  Love does not demand its own way.  Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.  It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  Love will last forever." 

But then he goes on to say:  "It's like this:  When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does.  But when I grew up, I put away childish things."  I liken this to youthful love...puppy love vs. mature abiding Christian love.  A mature Christian sharing mature abiding Christian love, loves for and with Christ when loving another, then the other.  They give the kind of love they have received from him, forgiving, understanding, self-sacrificing, fully and completely.  They do what Christ calls us to do in scripture...to do all things right.  And there is an order for things for a reason.  And they are to receive that kind of love, also.  Are you in a relationship with the Lord?  If not, I am sorry you are not able to be fully loved or loving. 

Love is not the only thing that enters into a relationship.  Trust and belief are paramount.  Let's look at how these two words are defined in Encarta World English Dictionary.  

Trust: 1. Reliance:  confidence in and reliance on good qualities, especially fairness, truth, honor or ability.  2. position of obligation:  The position of somebody who is expected by others to behave responsibly or honorably.  3. hope for future:  hopeful reliance on what will happen in the future.  4.  care:  responsibilty for taking good care of somebody or something.  5.  responsibility someone has or has been entrusted with.  6.  holding of anothers property.  7. arrangements to manage anothers property.  8.  credit.  9.  cartel:  a combination of corporations with purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices.

Synonyms:  faith, belief, hope, conviction, confidence, expectation, dependence, reliance. 

Believe:  1.  accept something as true or real.  2.  accept somebody as truthful.  3.  credit somebody has, a particular quality or ability.  4. Think or be of the opinion of that something exists or is a reality, expecially when there is no absolute proof of its existence or reality.  5.  have trust to be confident that somebody or something is worthwhile.  6.  Think something or someone is right or beneficial.  7.  have a religious faith.  Comes from the Old English belvfan, alteration of gelefan, and Germanic "to love, trust".  

Ok, so that's a lot to take in.  But read them in the context of God's, Jesus' and Holy Spirit's love for us.  Looking at 'trust', the property in 6 & 7 would be our bodies...our lives.  Have we got good credit with our Lord?  He sure has good credit with us.  Number 9 works for me in regards to eliminating Satan and keeping the price Jesus paid for us as the only price he will ever have to pay.  Surely 1-5 applies to our Lord, too, in regards to us.  If we love him, we can rely on him and have confidence in him, and we know his death is his obligation to us in his offer of eternal life.  Truly he has proven to us that he is responsible and honorable and has given us hope for our future and we can rely on him for such.  

Now switch this from looking at Jesus and he looking at us with and in love to looking at how we love others around us and how we are loved by others.  Does the definition of 'trust' hold up in how you love and how you are love by another?  If not, are you sure you love for the right reasons?  Are you even being loved by another?  You must look, you must know truth.  You must make right decisions....enter a mature knowing.  Do not waste your life and throw it away.  You must put away childish things and reasoning.  God cannot work through you if you are not accepting his journey for you, but instead are walking on your own path, in the way of God who wants to bless you with all good things including mature, abiding, selfless love.  You are worthy you know, of being fully loved.  You must open yourself to him and that love.  Close all doors that do not lead to Jesus.  They are not fit to walk through...with...and be lost in.

Now, let's look at 'belief'.  My goodness, sure sheds light on how wonderful Jesus is.  Look how he sees us, as we apply the definitions of belief from Jesus' eyes about us.  He died with number 4...he did not even know we existed yet he 'fived' us while 'sixing' us.   Hah...made you look!   Can you say you have done the same for him?  Are you worthy of belief from your loved one?   Is your loved one worthy of belief?  Is your loved one worthy of trust?  Are you?

Love should not be a battle of wills.  Love should be humbling, bowing down,  lifting up, honoring, passion filled, knowing, serving, enrapturing, trusting, trustworthy, believing, joyous, safe, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, compromising, and self-controlled.  Does love for the Savior make you sing?  Then it should make you and your heart sing for another you say you love.  And they for you as well.  

In a poem I tried to find to share with you, but was unable to, I recall a line that says, 'Thank you for putting your hand into my heaped up heart and passing over all the foolish, frivolous and weak things you can't help dimly seeing there.'  If those things are blaring...you have not love.  If they are dimmed, or found cute or endearing, or embraced, you have love for another by the power from the Almighty Savior.

Let me give you another poem, that I've given before, but bears repeating.  It's called 'Power To Become' and goes like this:  "If we take people as they are...we make them worse, but when we take them as if they were what they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.  The word...become...is a great word in any language.  Within us is the capacity to become a better person and to help others become what they ought to be.  This would be a sad world if there were no possiblity of improvement..of our becoming better.  There is no limit to what we may become.  The secret of our being is not only to live, but to have something to live for, something towards which to strive, something to become."  I have no idea who penned it.  But how can we do that without Christ?  And how can we do that for others unless we have his love in us?  And how can another possibly love us without him in their hearts?  

If you are in a relationship with someone who does not know Christ, staying in that relationship only causes your relationship with Christ to fail.  He cannot be that person's Savior, if you are trying to be.  If you are in a relationship that Christ prevails and all things are right, hold on.  You are in for one hek of a wonderful journey.  If you are married per scripture, follow scripture on what to do, but do so only in the safety of Christ.  Your body is a temple of God and he does not want the doors of his temple beaten on physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually.  He wants you to know his love fully through him and those he sends you.  Because he is in heaven, he does send others to love us for him...with him.  Sometimes he puts others in our path to let us know what real true abiding love can be.  To open our eyes and hearts for a reality check.  Sometimes he does so to open the eyes of our hearts, to let us know we need more than we think we do in life.  To show us our vulnerability, too.  Sometimes he just leads us to love for his loves sake, to be embraced, and know the fullness of all the love he has for us.  Let us be wise, as mature Christians, put away childish things and receive all that he has to give us.  Let us receive his love and that of those around us who IN Christ know how to truly love.  

Is he giving you a hug today?  Receive it.  Has he more to give you in life?  You betcha.  

If you are considering marriage, or if you have just gotten married, I am convinced that the best abiding love starts out with 2 tubes of toothpaste....his and hers.  Some squeezes just aren't the same.   Start the day out right...get and give a hug to Jesus, give and get a hug with your main squeeze, then squeeze your own tube of toothpaste, so your are not fighting first thing over whether it is right to squeeze in the middle or start from the bottom end.  Consider this a proverb for starting a marriage and every day out right.

Many blessings to Kenny and Melissa who were bound to Christ in marriage yesterday.  May you have an abiding love always in and with him who is the author of life and love.                  

***

Let Us Pray  

God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you for loving me and showing me how to love others as you do.  Thank you for putting your hand into my heaped up heart and passing over all the foolish, frivolous and weak things you can't help dimly seeing there....and for forgiving me for them, and so much more.  Some days I don't feel like I have to ask for your forgiveness outright, because I know you are there already...loving me, forgiving me, carrying me, uplifting me....help me do the same for you and in your name for others.  I love you.  So much.  And I am so grateful that you love me, haven't given up on me, and are willing to continue to show me how to live my life to the fullest...with your love and compassion, and everything you have to teach me...Lord, let me learn.  I don't want to keep feeling empty.  Is it my turn to be filled up?  Fill me, Lord, so that I will recognize when I am being filled up by others who you are loving me through.  Oh, Lord, you have loved me so long and so well, how will any love compare?  I know it will, though, because it will be you in them that I will see, and your embrace I will feel through them.  And I will be in ecstasy.  That's the kind of love I want for everyone, Lord.  Your love for all.  So, Lord, as I pray to you now, I pray for all others in the world, that they may come to know who you are, that you are, and how wonderful you are.  May they receive your love to overflowing so much so that they will not know what to do with it and be forced to share it with others around them.  Giving you glory, Lord.  You.  'It's all about you, Jesus.'  Thank you, God, for giving Jesus to and for me, and for giving me to him.  No greater love.  Help me to love him, and you, and Holy Spirit in the fullness of all that you intended, Father God.  Help me to fill you to overflowing as I show my gratitude with love.  You've 'opened the eyes of my heart, Lord', I want to see  you'.  Help me to 'Hold on....let me say it again...hold on.'  Thank you.  I love you.  Amen.            

***

Sing these songs with love and praise, adoration and humility:

LORD YOU HAVE MY HEART *

Lord, You have my heart

And I will search for Yours

Jesus, take my life and lead me on

Lord You have my heart

And I will search for Yours

Let me be to You a sacrifice

And I wll praise You, Lord

And I will sing of love come down

And as You show Your face

We'll see Your glory here

I COULD SING OF YOUR LOVE FOREVER *

Over the mountains and the sea

Your river runs with love for me

And I will open up my heart

And let the Healer set me free

I'm happy to be in the truth

And I will daily lift my hands

For I will always sing of when

Your love came down, yeah

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

Oh, I feel like dancing

It's foolisheness I know

But when the world has seen the light

They will dance with joy like we're dancing now, yeah.

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

LOVE YOU JESUS!

More love.... 

  Benediction...Blessing

Let us hear from Paul as he prays:  

When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resouces he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.  And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God!  By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.  May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages.  Amen.  Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT         

*** 

Scroll down to read Jesus' Prayer of Thanksgiving...'The Unforced Rythms of Grace'.

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Definition of a Christian:  Anyone who believes in God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, and accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Regardless of church name or religious affiliation.  

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If you feel that the Church of the Holy Spirit has inspired or helped you, we'd like you to prayerfully consider tithing regulary to us or gifting us, so that we can further the work and carry out the will of the Father as proclaimed in Matthew 28:16 NLT

 to

 "Go and make disciples out of all the nations

baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:

I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

***

  Our Current Cause

I am very excited to share that The Gathering will be 'on the ground' soon in Tucson!  I would sincerely appreciate all prayers focused for this cause and for those involved in the greater picture.  As I attempt a new church plant here in the desert, may streams of prayers, love and financial support flow to achieve this cause.  This is a mountain that I am going to climb, and, I expect all believers everywhere to rise up with me to support this endeavor and do the same.  As I endeavor on this journey, I will be better prepared to help you on yours...to raise up a sanctuary for the ever living ever loving Lord God Almighty, Lord and Savior for the world Jesus Christ, and Comforter, Teacher, Indwelling Fire, Spirit Wind, the Holy Spirit.  I pray you will join with me to provide prayer and financial support for this humbling and annointed journey.  To God goes all the honor and glory!   Alleluia!  Amen.          

Please accept my sincerest thanks....and may God bless you!

***

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  ***

    One last thing....

 Jesus' Prayer of Thanksgiving

'The Unforced Rythms of Grace'

"Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer:  "Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.  You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people.  Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work."

Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly.  "The Father has given me all these things to do and say.  This is a unique Father - Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge.  No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does.  But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen."

"Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you'll recover your life.  I'll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly.

   Matthew 11:  25-30

  The Message

And the people said,

"Amen."

***

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I now write most prayers in the position of ' I ' (first person) because most people are sitting at their computer alone, not in groups, and it allows those reading and praying to personalize the prayer as coming from them going to God.  Variations may appear on holidays when families may wish to use the prayer provided.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.  All rights reserved.

* LORD YOU HAVE MY HEART

Music and lyrics by Martin Smith c  1992 Kingsway's Thankyou Music (PRS)  All rights in the Western Hemisphere administered by EMI Christian Music Publishing p 1998 Furious ?Records / Sparrow Records.  Delirious?  appears courtesy of Furious? Records / Sparrow Records.

* I COULD SING OF YOUR LOVE FOREVER

Music and lyrics by Martin Smith, c 1994 Curious?  Music U.K. (PRS) Admin. in the U.S. and Canada by EMI Christian Music Publishing. p 2001 Gotee Records.  Produced by Jason Halbert and Dwayne Larring for Rythmic.  From the album SONICPRAISE on Gotee Records. www.gotee.com.

Both recordings from the Worship Together CD

 *