Love Challenge – What Remains

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecyand can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ 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 the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a 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.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

During the week of my anniversary and my daughter’s birthday, the Perseid meteor shower decorates the night sky. It’s absolutely beautiful. We went for the first time when I was pregnant with Amelia 2 years ago. Last year the full moon happened to fall on the same week, though, so we were unable to see it well. This year, we drove far out from the city. We could see no light from anywhere around aside from the occasional car that drove by. We sat out there for over an hour watching the stars shoot across the sky. It was magnificent.

For me, an hour or two watching the night sky will hold me over for quite some time. I enjoy it thoroughly but it’s not something I long to see. Sunsets are what take my breath away. You could watch the sunset every night and never see the same thing twice. It’s always something new. My husband, however, loves to watch the stars. He likes to find constellations and look at star charts and dream about those other places. I asked him one time why he liked the stars so much and his answer kind of surprised me. I was expecting “They’re pretty to look at.” or “There’s lots of other galaxies and worlds out there.”  Instead, he said “They don’t change. What else in this world can we watch night after night over a millennium and track so exactly? What else is so constant other than who God is than the heavens? There are few other things so certain as where the stars are.” I had no response. The heavens are constant. They remain the same through the ages. God hung them there for the purpose of marking off time. For us to watch and know. That is magnificent.

These three remain: faith, hope, and love. These things remain the same through the ages. Faith, hope, and love are apart of the human experience. No matter the decade, no matter the era. Faith, hope, and love remain. Amen.

Love Challenge

Last week, we began our new Challenge Wednesday series: the love challenge. One of the main reasons I wanted to do this particular challenge was because love is the very foundation for all that is. God so loved the world that He gave His Son. Love your neighbor as yourself. The greatest is love. 

Without love, truth is empty and often harsh. Without love, a family is a group of people who happen to reside in the same household. Without love, volunteering is just a way to fill up the day. Without love, church is just a building. Without love, there is nothing that is worth anything.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

¹ If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Do you know anyone who speaks multiple languages? I can speak English well and I know enough ASL to be able to communicate, even if it is a little clunky looking. Here in San Antonio, a large portion of the population speaks English as well as Spanish. A lot of Americans are bilingual in some form or fashion because foreign language is a requirement in public high school. But verse one is saying “the tongues of men and of angels.” As in all languages that could possibly be spoken. If I could speak in every single language ever but didn’t speak in love, I may as well be as noisy and disruptive as a gong.

If I know the future; if I understand all things that have eluded mankind’s understanding – let’s face it, there’s a lot mankind still doesn’t understand; if I know everything there is to know; if I have so much faith I could literally MOVE MOUNTAINS, but I don’t have love, I am NOTHING. Think about that for a second. Imagine the smartest person you know. Imagine the most educated person you know. Now imagine the wisest person you can think of. Now imagine a faith giant. Pack all that into one person. Someone with all that would be famous! They’d be well known and highly respected. But if that incredible person had all that and was respected by society and didn’t have love, he would have no value. He would be nothing. 

Last verse. Have you ever done anything self sacrificing? Giving up a Saturday morning to help a friend move or letting your brother have the bigger half of the brownie. Maybe something bigger like putting off your education to care for a younger family member or took a 90% pay cut to raise the income level of your employees. Either way, it’s a pretty big thing to give up what you want in order to ensure someone else receives what they want. Self sacrificing stories are told and retold because they’re so astonishing.  We’re all amazed by it because it is so much more common to take care of numero uno. But even if you gave everything to the poor and sacrificed your own life for a cause, if love isn’t behind it, “if profits … nothing”

Paul is not speaking in metaphors here. He’s not painting a pretty picture for little old ladies to needlepoint onto pillows. He’s speaking in absolutes and extremes. He’s trying to drive home the point that if any action is not backed by love, it is useless. I think he accomplishes his goal pretty effectively.

Spend some time this week evaluating your motives. Are your actions backed by love?

The Proof of Your Love

Love Challenge Intro

I think it’s time to change it up a bit. We’re going to spend the next couple of months on one particular character trait that comes up time and time again in the Bible: love. The word love occurs over 500 times in the NIV according to this website. Although there are many other words that are used more often in Scripture, love is a common theme in just about every aspect of God’s Word. So I want to dig into my favorite love passage, 1 Corinthians 13. Stop rolling your eyes. I know you’ve heard this passage read at every Christian wedding ever, and I know you’ve seen it on a hundred hand-embroided pillows, and I know it gets preached every time February 14th falls on a Sunday. But bear with me. There’s a reason this passage is crazy over-used: It’s a really good passage. I’m not talking about just verses 4-8a, but the whole passage. Actually, if we want to really grasp it, we need to look at chapter 12 as well. Please, go read it. Paul talks about spiritual gifts and unity and how the body of Christ should act. He talks about how everyone has these gifts, and it’s really neat. But then he says:

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

All these gifts are cool and everything, but there is a most excellent way. There’s something even better than being an apostle, a prophet, or a teacher. There is something better than performing miracles and healing others. And that something better is love. 

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 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 the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a 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.

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

I’m going to leave you this week with that. I want you to soak in each word of this passage. Let it wash over you. Understand how deep and vast this love that Paul is talking about is.

Thursday Stories

Today’s story is from Theo’s Mommy. Her story is one that breaks my heart and makes me hold onto my sweet Amelia just a little tighter. I encourage you to go check out her blog. Her strength comes from the Lord.

Stories from Grief
:shaken:

Some days it feels as though my husband and I have been shaken to the core.  There have been days that we have felt defeated, hopeless, helpless, abandoned.  Things weren’t supposed to be like this.  They were supposed to be different.  We weren’t supposed to be going in for daily fetal heart rate checks. We weren’t supposed to be planning a funeral for our unborn baby.  We weren’t supposed to be carrying his ashes.  Married just one year, we didn’t know family life would be filled with these kinds of surprises—surprises that have shaken us so deeply.

God has something to say about things that are shaken.  Through the book of Hebrews, He says, “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

I’ve come to realize that, though God did not want this to happen to us, He is using it to grow us.  We’ve lost a lot—the dreams we had for our child, security in a healthy pregnancy, our son.  The dust is settling and through tear-soaked eyes we are now able to see what remains—faith, hope, and love.  These things cannot be shaken.  Our faith has been made stronger as God has given us the strength to persevere through each day.  We have hope beyond reason in our Risen Lord and Savior, who died so our son could live.  And our love has grown so much deeper for one another in marriage, for our adored son, and for God who sustains us.

Life will inevitably have disappointments.  The desires of our hearts will not always come easily.  And pain will certainly grab hold of us at times.  These things are certain.  The important question that remains when your world shakes is: what will remain and grow stronger in you when the dust settles?

-Theo’s Mommy

Saul to Paul

This week, we’re jumping into the New Testament for Missionary Monday to talk about the man who murderously threatened the Lord’s disciples, Saul, and how he became Paul, God’s chosen instrument. Let’s start off by reading Acts 9:1-31

1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
23 After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, 24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.29 He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him.30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

First let me say, way to go, Ananias. That took some incredible faith to go to Saul knowing his purpose there was to arrest anyone who believed Jesus was the Messiah. Once there, he spoke boldly to Saul and called him brother! I am just thoroughly impressed with Ananias.

Second, I love that Saul went immediately to the synagogues. He thought the Way was disrupting the Old Testament system, but now that he understands that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament, he wants as many people to hear about it as possible! He baffled the Jews by proving Jesus is the Messiah. Saul PROVED that Jesus is the Messiah! To prove means, “to cause a person to unite with one in a conclusion or come to the same opinion, to prove, demonstrate,” according to the Blue Letter Bible. Saul caused, or tried to cause, others to unite in the idea that Jesus is the Messiah! I am again blown away by the awesomeness. I hope that when I talk about Jesus, when I act as a missionary, I cause others to unite in the conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah. Rather, I hope that God unites others through me. Saul needed a divine revelation from God to do that!

Saul is such a beautiful picture of what Christ can redeem. This guy was going out of his way to persecute the Church. So much so that others heard of him, and he struck fear into believers. But God used him anyway! God didn’t say, “You’ve been persecuting me, Saul, I will strike you dead here and now!” Nor did He say, “You’ve done too much wrong; I cannot use you.” NO! God said, “Stop persecuting me. I have a plan and a purpose for your life!” What a mighty God we serve to take a man who murderously threatened His people and turn him into a great spokesman.

Because he was causing such a stir, the Jews conspired to kill him, but he escaped by cover of night. And the disciples were afraid he was working undercover, but Barnabas vouched for him and told of his actions in Damascus. Next the Hellenistic Jews tried to kill him when he tried to debate with them, but the believers sent him to Tarsus. Then “the church …enjoyed a time of peace.”

And they all lived happily ever after! What a nice way to wrap up this little story. We later see Saul comes to be called Paul in Acts 13, but it seems a little uncertain when exactly his name changed. I can’t wait to dig deeper next week into more of Paul’s life with you! 

P.S. It was brought to my attention that missionaries could be defined as those who share the good news about Jesus and therefore only in the New Testament. Old Testament folks that share the good news about God would be considered prophets, which works for some like Isaiah but not so well for Esther. What do you think? Should anyone who tells the good news about God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit be considered a missionary? Should there be two categories of missionaries, those who tell that Jesus is to come (Isaiah), and those who tell of how He already came (Peter)? Should we leave out Old Testament folks entirely and focus on New Testament? Am I getting wrapped up in semantics, or is it important to distinguish between various purposes and time frames? 
What do you think? Comment below to help me out, please! 

Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you accept my words
    and store up my commands within you,
² turning your ear to wisdom
    and applying your heart to understanding—
³ indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He holds success in store for the upright,
    he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
⁸ for he guards the course of the just
    and protects the way of his faithful ones.

⁹ Then you will understand what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹ Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.

¹² Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
    from men whose words are perverse,
¹³ who have left the straight paths
    to walk in dark ways,
¹⁴ who delight in doing wrong
    and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵ whose paths are crooked
    and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶ Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,
    from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
¹⁷ who has left the partner of her youth
    and ignored the covenant she made before God.^[a]
18 Surely her house leads down to death
    and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
¹⁹ None who go to her return
    or attain the paths of life.

²⁰ Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹ For the upright will live in the land,
    and the blameless will remain in it;
²² but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

Faithfulness – Fruit of the Spirit

Hello friends! Welcome back to Weekly Challenge! We’re talking about Fruits of the Spirit right now and today’s topic is faithfulness. We’re going to look at faithfulness several times this year so for this first one, I want to focus on ways that God is faithful. If we can understand what it means for God to be faithful, we can then try to imitate that in our own lives.

Last week we talked about goodness. Your challenge was to do something good for someone without their knowledge. A pay it forward type of thing. Tell me how you did with last week’s challenge in the comments below and as always, feel free to print the cards for your personal use. Remember to post this week’s verse in a location you’ll see daily!

Topic:
Faithfulness

Definition:
N. the quality of showing true and constant support or loyalty

Scripture:
1 Samuel 12:24
Only fear the Lord and server him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.

Challenge:
Write a list of how the Lord has been faithful in your life.
Continue to memorize Galatians 5:22-23

Feel free to print for personal use