A Repost from some time back...

I'm re-posting this because of the scripture words that are in blue.

The Way of Love

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If 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. If 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.

Love 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.

When 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.

We 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!

But 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 1st time I posted this was actually because God seemed to speak to me about "love doesn't revel when others grovel",  as if someone was about to have a bad day & you, Bob better not revel in it.  Sure enough, right after I felt He spoke this to me - someone had a bad day...a humpty dumpty day...fell off their wall.  And as soon as I heard about their fall - I knew why God had spoken this to me...Shawn & I went right to our altars & prayed...more than once.  We were able to pray from the place of pain - for we knew what they were feeling.

Well, recently, I've heard about another of the fallen.  But my thought today is more about "love that doesn't keep score".  Why is it ok to walk away from a fallen...a sinner...one of our own?  How are we able to seemingly just wash our hands of it all & feel ok about it?  Really?  Where's the love?  What do we tell ourselves to be ok with that?  Do we really feel somehow justified in just turning our back on someone we "love"?  I just don't get it - at all...especially when we will then walk into a church on Sunday & "worship" (that actually is quite contrary to me...I'm not sure that's really possible - but we will call it that anyway) the God of grace, love & mercy.


Then, of course, what about the eternal aspect of our faith?  How can we believe this is about eternity & then walk away from someone who desperately needs us when they are down...struggling to figure it all out...in the clutches of the enemy...on spiritual life support.  I just don't get it...didn't before & still don't now.

IMO - it becomes increasingly apparent that we all live in some type of glass house and throwing stones doesn't serve us very well.  For, about the time we go to throwing, we forget that we too one day might be in the place of having stones thrown our way...

Just saying - this passage on love is the real deal...nothing more needs to be said than what God already said.  I could go on & on...but you either get this or you don't...

peace & love...

b