Category: Correction & Counsel

Pursue Love

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day six)

“Pursue love…”-Paul, 1 Corinthians 14:1

That just might be the best summary of 1 Corinthians, pursue love. The Corinthian church was so preoccupied with chasing other things, it had left love behind, with heartbreaking results. Even making a big deal out of good things, like Spiritual gifts, or Bible knowledge can hurt a church rather than build one. That’s why Paul wrote pursue love. Essentially Paul is asking them to get back to loving God and loving their neighbor; start making a big deal out of love again.

We all have the tendency to make big deals out of lesser things, and if we let them they can get in the way of love. What can those things be for you? That might be a great question to ask God. I promise He will show you if you do.

The List

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day five) I have read “the list” about love in chapter 13 all week. To be honest, there are moments when I am nothing like that list. At times, those qualities and characteristics of love seem completely opposite to my actions and attitudes. The human heart struggles to live as love like that in its own preference and power. I must learn to listen and trust the Spirit. He will teach, convict, and encourage.  When I do, I discover a “loving” God who has demonstrated all the characteristics in the list through the life and words of Jesus and the power and work of the Holy Spirit.  He is patient with me.  He is kind to me.  The is the potential and possibility to live like that because of  “Christ in me”. Glad I have a perfect and faithful example of what the list says love looks and acts like.

Love Never Fails

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day four)

As a college freshman, I was challenged by a friend to read 1 Corinthians 13 every day for 30 days.  He gave me a small book by Henry Drummond to assist me.  The experience was a life-changer.  I began to have a picture of what God’s love for me and for those around me really looked like.  Not only did I learn what the characteristics of true love were, I was floored by three words in verse 8…Love never fails.

Never?  How can that be?  Surely we get a few exceptions!  But there it is…Love never fails.  I wish I could say that it has never failed in my life since then, but I can’t.  God constantly uses those three words in my life though to shape and mold the direction of my life.  Powerful words …life-changing words…God-honoring words that can change the world!  Try reading the chapter for 30 days in a row…see what happens.

Present

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day three) 

“Love never fails.” 

Fails to what?  To “be there” for you when you come to your senses?  No, it’s already with you in your foolishness.  You are never beyond love’s presence, though you might be unwilling to receive it or believe it or learn its ways—so unwilling that it might seem you’ve become unable to do so.  Ask yourself: Does anybody in your life regard you with love, however imperfectly acted upon?  Most likely, you will say yes.  If then you have not wandered beyond love’s reach, you have not wandered beyond God’s reach, because love is the mark of God’s regard for you.  And if another person would claim that his or her life is devoid of the love of parent, friend, spouse, or child—a great tragedy—what then? Will love announce its presence through you?

Excellent Love

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day two) 

And I show you a still more excellent way. 12:31b

Like the tremendous teacher that Paul was, he spent the entirety of the previous chapter setting us up for this discourse on Love. When we truly understand our gifts in the context of love and surrender to Jesus, there is so much more clarity in our walk. Notice in chapter 13 how Paul uses the same gifts that he had discussed in detail in 12: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith. Now, however, he puts a qualifier on them all – LOVE. Without it the greatest gifts bestowed to us are useless. Too hard a word? I don’t think so. Everything seasoned with love is more powerful, more useful.

Do an inventory. What gifts have been given to you? How will love make them better?

Home

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day one)

I went to visit my father last week.  94 years old.  It was good to be back in Amarillo.  As long as I live, that city will feel like home.

In Christ I have learned to anticipate a new home that will be mine someday.  “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. . .I go to prepare a place for you.”–John 14:2-3

What will Heaven be like?  In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul identifies three things in our present experience that will abide (remain) into the new world.

FAITH will continue.  In a new shape. Trust that began in time will deepen into dependence and unbreakable loyalty.  HOPE that I previously held will expand to embrace unimaginable adventures in an eternally expanding story.  And the greatest?  The LOVE that I knew only in part (through a glass darkly)will be experienced fully in that coming day.  I will see Him!

And I will know that I am home.

Your Unique Gifting

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (day seven)

The gifts and roles that God assigns to us are unique.  They are unique to our situation, they are unique to our church, they are unique to this present age, yet at the same time, they are the gifts that God has handed down through the Holy Spirit in the church for two millennia.  The way those gifts come together in our church through our life together is what makes the whole thing unique.

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
-1 Corinthians 12:18

Each one of us has a gifting that completes the perfectly unique work of FBCSA.  Our gifts may change, they may add up, they may be different from what we desire, but even still, God calls us to be obedient and live out the calling that he has placed on us as individuals to edify the church.

Desire

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (day six)

But earnestly desire the higher gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:31

We rarely get to the details of the nature of the Spirit’s gifting, mostly because we find the Spirit a bit challenging to wrap our minds around; He is like the wind after all. But here Paul urges us to desire or seek the higher gifts. When is the last time you sought after a spiritual gift or gifts? Probably not recently; I certainly can’t remember the last time I asked the Spirit for a particular gift. 

Some quick implications to consider when thinking about Paul’s words:

  • It would seem you can have more than one gift at a time.
  • Or multiple gifts at different times, in other words your gifting could change.
  • We should ask God for spiritual gifts; asking God is the natural outcome of desire.

We tend to desire knowledge (more Bible study), maybe we should desire the Spirit’s gifts, or both. Perhaps, if we desired the higher gifts (those that bring more immediate benefit to the church) we would better understand how God uses them in the body; perhaps we’d experience greater common good and growth.

Gift it a try. Starting asking God for the higher gifts. He might just answer your prayer.

Manifestation

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (day five)   “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.“  As believers, all of us/each of us house the remarkable presence and power of the Living God in us.  Want evidence?  Need convincing?  Proof is found as the Spirit is visibly working through gifts God has assigned.  On display, is nothing less than the character of God. His generosity (He gives gifts). His vast power (He gives gifts to all believers). His wisdom and personal nature (He gives different gifts individually and uniquely). His kindness (Good comes from His actions). We have the opportunity to make visible the invisible.  We get to be involved in the very activity of God making Him known and seen in the world. Isn’t that amazing??!!

Why the Gifts?

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (day four)

God called Israel out of bondage to be with Him.  He called them to be set apart from the world, so others would know that He was God.  Obedience mattered to God. If Israel would obey God, the world would see Him and know Him.

In New Testament times, Jesus called us to be His people.  Not just for our benefit so we can go to heaven, but when we live a life that is holy…set apart for Him…that people would see God and be drawn to Him.  In order to give an accurate picture of the character of God, He gave us the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit.  When the world sees these gifts at work in our lives…in the life of His church…they see the true nature of God and are drawn to Him.

What picture of God do people see in your life?  Israel did not fulfill God’s plan to show the world who He was.  Are you exercising the gifts given to you for His glory?