1 Corinthians 13:8

IBS #29 1 Corinthians 13:8

           

 Love. The essence of all things that pertain to godliness. The very thing that holds the world and all of its creatures together. The very thing that caused that very same world to be created and will cause it to be torn down so that it may be built up. It is what encourages and convicts, abides and pursues, is contented and yearns. Things which are created can never hold a candle to something that is not created. God is love, therefore love is eternal. Knowledge and speeches and words were all created things to fit and benefit the creation. Love has always been and fits and benefits the Creator. Love has no beginning and no end. It will remain through the darkest nights and shine in the deepest chasms. Love is the thing that caused God to create. It is the driving force behind His plan for the redeption of the world. It is the fulfillment of the very essence of creation. Love is the bridge, the connection that makes fellowship with God possible. Love is God forsaking Himself for the sake of His creation. Love is the humbling of the Almighty to the lowest depths of humanity. Love is the cross and the atoning blood of the Lamb. Love is the only way. Do I love my God? Yes. Do I love Him as much as I should? I can never fully realize how much I should love Him, but by the grace of God I am learning to. Do I love all of mankind as God does? Because by my actions I would claim I do not. God loved first and God loved the worst. It is by that love that I can taste and see that God is good. Why would I bury that talent in the ground where no others can see it? The two greatest commandments are these: Love God and love man.

Today, I will lay down my rights and look for opportunity to serve anyone I see who has need.

1 Corinthians 13:6

IBS #27 1 Corinthians 13:6

           

Man I really appreciate the Message for reference’s sake. It uses the terminology of taking pleasure when truth ‘flowers’. In other words, love takes pleasure when truth is birthed and realized to the fullest extent in which it was designed. When something is true, it is most true when it has been fully realized, like a flower. Up until the point in which a flower actually blooms into a flower, it is not yet where it was ultimately designed to be. Jesus said that he was the truth and the Bible says that Jesus is the Word. And as we grow in the Word we grow in our understanding and active realization of the truths in it because the very Word is the truth of life. But we have not obtained the fulfillment of it. Paul says that we now see as through a dimmed mirror but one day will see as face to face. Through the Scripture and through revelation from our Lord Jesus, we are given the picture of the bud blooming into the flower. We can see the bud from whence it all came bursting forth and we can see the petals of the flower emerging. We see the colors and the shapes of the petals, but we have not yet seen the full flower after it has been bloomed. We are watching it in slow motion. We know truth and embrace truth and realize truth, but that truth will not fully be understood until we reach heaven’s shores. So we rejoice in life as truth is revealed, having hope for the day when all will be made plain. How often I desire that fulfillment of truth and wisdom and neglect the brilliant things that I have been given here to experience. God has given such truth and wisdom to us already; more than we deserve. And I find myself not content with it. I want it all.

Today, I commit to diving into the word as learning as much of it as I possibly can because it is all truth.

1 Corinthians 13:4

IBS #25 1 Corinthians 13:4

           

Love suffers long. Whew. I don’t even need to read any further in the verse to get rocked. Love suffers. And not only does it suffer but it suffers and suffers and suffers. It keeps suffering. Why? Because that is what love does. Love looks out for others and when those very people don’t want to look out for others themselves, love still remains. Love will stay and will endure even in the face of hopeless abandonment. Love will sacrifice it’s own wellbeing in order that just one other may experience it. Love is willing to suffer to any extent because love realizes that it is there for the sake of others. And this is exactly what Jesus did. He suffered and He gave it all for the sake of those who never wanted to hear a single thing He said. He pursued and desired and sought after in the face of sheer opposition and hatred. And in the same way, I am called to love. My love for man should be no less than His love for man. He gave it all so that men may know the love of the Father. And if I am being conformed to His image and my life should follow the example of His, then I also should be willing to lay it all down for the sake of my brother. God has bought me with the blood of Jesus. That means that I am no longer destined for an eternity of torment. But it also means that I’m no longer my own. I have been saved, but I have also been put into service. The old me is dead, he isn’t ever coming back. I am now God’s property to do with as He pleases. And He pleases that I love mankind with the same love that He had. That means that I am to suffer long for the sake of just one man that he may know the love of God. Do I even know what love truly looks like? Have I ever experienced loving someone how Jesus did? Am I willing to lay my life down for a brother? What about for a man who hates every aspect of me? I need to be. Jesus did it for me.

Today I commit to finding an opportunity to die to myself and love a brother or sister when it hurts or costs me.

John 15:1

IBS #24 John 15:1

           

It’s a good thing Jesus uses the analogy of the vine here. Because if He had gone the route that Paul did in 1 Corinthians 12 and started talking about how we are all the body of Christ, things could have gotten nasty. Can you imagine Jesus saying, ‘I am the true body and you all make up my body. My Father, now He is the great surgeon and He will cut off any part that carries disease.’ Gross, right? But true to form, Jesus says exactly what needs to be said in a way in which it not only fits His point perfectly, but it’s also easy to grasp. Jesus was the Master of doing things like this. He said what He said and meant every word that He said. And every last word that came forth from His mouth was perfect in it’s delivery and timing and impact. His Word is truth alone and cannot be topped by another. The only time that we ever get a perfectly delivered statement from a man is when they quote the Bible, but even then the timing or the impact may be lacking. God on the other hand, will always be right where He needs to be to speak the exact thing we need to hear. His Word does not return void; Therefore what better resource to have? How many times have I written off certain passages in a text just so that I can get to the meatier, more travelled ones? It’s easy to read a Gospel account and read the bright red letter’s of Jesus’ vernacular and immediately turn our listening ears on, but do I understand that the same EXACT power resides in the rest of Scripture? I mean, I know that it is all God breathed and that the writers were inspired, but does that really make sense? Let me put it this way. Jesus’ entire point of coming as a man was for us to have a High priest in which we can relate, so therefore His words carry more meaning in many ways, for He was God in the flesh. But when I read a book like Esther or 2 Corinthians do I really get that same feeling? I always seem to remember that Paul or Ezra is the one penning it, knowing full well that they were moved by the Spirit to do so. But does that make sense to me? Moved by the Spirit really just means that the Spirit wrote it. The Holy Spirit in a literal sense, possession aside, wrote the Bible. Said exactly what God wanted to say in the exact way He wanted it said. Every last word, letter and syllable was planned and intended for a certain reason. And again, how often I read over little nuances in the text! I will actively look for words or phrases that are immediately in my face or I already know the story behind. But what about all of the other verses? What if I were to IBS every verse in the Bible? Can you imagine the amount of hidden treasures that could be obtained? The Word is very intentional in it’s design. So where is my intention of discovering all the wisdom God has literally placed in my hands? Why ask for wisdom in things and then look for it in the world just because I’ve exhausted the easy truths and aren’t willing to get dirty?

By this weekend, I will spend time and IBS, in 200 words or less, all of 1 Corinthians 13.

John 8:35

Have you ever actually thought about forever? How about eternity? Because I don’t know about you, but it blows my ever loving mind about once every 2 weeks or so. I think about it a lot actually. What heaven will be like and what forever is. The thing is, I can never fully grasp it because in my entire life I have never experienced anything that truly lasts forever. Nothing in my life, besides God, will last. Everything fades away. Everything. No mater what it is that we see around us with our physical eyes, it will pass and burn in flame in preparation for a new heaven and a new earth. It blows me away every time thinking about it. We will get to spend forever, meaning with no end, with our Creator. He will walk with us and we will live alongside Him. We will need no rest, as there is no night. His glory is so real and evident that no matter where we go it is always blazingly bright. We live in our homes in a city made of gold. And it never ends. Mankind will be in our perfect bodies. We will neither die nor feel pain or cry. And it will never end. We will go about tasks everyday with no end and no desire for an end. And we will be worshiping our God with no end. As I was growing in my faith, it honestly at times seemed almost as though it was going to be somewhat boring to spend all of forever just worshiping, until I was shown was real worship was. Real worship is in song yes, but also in love and service and fellowship. We will have homes. We will not be kneeling before God for all eternity just singing. If He was willing to die for us just to have relationship with us, it stands to reason that He will actually do things with us that are relational. He is no longer an impersonal God who needs to be appealed to in song and sacrifice only, but He is a caring Father who will sit and talk and walk with us on streets of gold. And it will never, ever end. What a bloody conundrum of pure joy. I still cannot grasp it, but the idea of forever is as exciting as it is mysterious when it comes to heaven. But on the other side of the coin is eternity in torment and pain. If I have a hard time grasping eternity in a good light, how much more eternity in a bad light. There are millions of people perishing with no hope and no chance. It is up to us, even with an imperfect perspective and outlook on forever to go to them and share the only true salvation from an eternity in torment. We don’t get it. But we don’t have to. We just need to go and share.

Today, I will commit to finding a Scripture that will remind me of my need to reach out to this lost and broken world and memorize it.

John 8:34

IBS #22 John 8:34

           

I want that. I want to live the part where Jesus said,’ I say to you…’ I want to hear His voice as if He were sitting in front of me. I want Him to say something, anything. Whether it be something about my life or my heart or even if He were to simply say the word ‘No’ or ‘Yes.’ At this point, I would be happy hearing Him say ‘Tree.’ I have heard the Lord speak to me twice in my life. Once was a single word and a vision. The other time was simply a word. Both of those words mean the world to me. Both of the things He showed me have to do with my deepest struggles. But, I have got to be real right now, I want more. I envy the people who the Lord speaks to regularly. I want that. I want to hear my God move and stir my heart and just talk. I just want to talk to Him. And I know He hasn’t spoken to me for a reason. My faith is not where it should be. And my faith has to increase when He doesn’t speak. So I get it. I know that this is not something that I could handle regularly or that if I did, my pride would overtake me. But what a sweet thing it must have been for these believers and they didn’t even realize it. They were talking to GOD. God. I don’t wish I had been there because I know I’m meant to be here and I don’t want what I’m not supposed to have; God is in control. But oh how I desire to hear from Him!

I will pray and pray and seek and pursue God and what is wrong in my own heart. I will ask and fall on my face before God and seek for His voice.

John 8:32

IBS #20 John 8:32

           

I find that generally people get this whole freedom thing backwards. Freedom has taken on a form of lack of responsibility or care. It is an animal that has become increasingly carnal and selfish. Freedom is simply a way to get around the things in life that we don’t really want to do. We have the freedom not to do homework because there is a choice to us. There is a freedom not to obey our parents because there is a choice and they usually don’t say things we tend to enjoy. But is that really freedom? In light of the cross we get a taste of what real freedom is. Real freedom involves not an absence of responsibility, but knowledge that whatever we do, we have purpose in it. Such is Christianity. When we know that who we are has been hidden in Jesus and it is no longer us who live, but Him, we have a freedom to know that it is no longer about us. We no longer hold the ultimate responsibility, but God does. Yes, we fail, but in the end it goes back to God. We now have the freedom to know that whether we live or die, whether we succeed or fail, we have the freedom to know it’s no longer about us and have the freedom to return to God’s grace and mercy.

Today I will not take for granted the freedoms I have in Jesus but not allow the ‘freedom’ of the world to infiltrate my mind.