The Love Of The Lord 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Romans 5:6-8 John 3:16-17 1 John 3:1-3 Zephaniah 3:17 1 John 4:16-17 Jeremiah 31:3 11.02.15

THE LOVE OF THE LORD

BREAD

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, 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.    1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.   Romans 5:6-8 (NIV)

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”   John 3:16-17 (NIV)

1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.    1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)

17 “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”   Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.    1 John 4:16-17 (NIV)

3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”    Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)

BUTTER

“The love for equals is a human thing–of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.  The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing–the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.  The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing–to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.  And then there is the love for the enemy–love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.”  I echo that.  This is God’s love. It conquers the world.”  Frederick Buechner

“We have a God who sees hearts like we see faces, a God who hears ache like we hear voices, and we have a God who touches wounds like we touch skin. No one’s crazy can change God’s crazy love.  Jesus died to save us not to make us safe. No one ever got saved unless someone else was unsafe.”   Ann Voskamp

“Jesus never scolded or ‘took a public moral stand’ against their ideas or practices. Instead, he won each person over with a love more compelling than the empty love that they had been chasing prior to encountering him.”     Scott Sauls

“Jesus reminds us that we do not belong to this world.  We have been sent into the world to be living witnesses of God's unconditional love, calling all people to look beyond the passing structures of our temporary existence to the eternal life promised to us.”   Henri Nouwen

“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too easily satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.”  A.W. Tozer

“No matter how athletic, slim, handsome or pretty, intelligent, well-read, respected, connected, funny, wealthy, or religious we are, if we anchor our worth in these things instead of in the smile of God over us, these things will eventually wreck us. The only esteem that won’t abandon us is the esteem given to us by Jesus. Because only in Jesus are we fully known and always loved, thoroughly exposed yet never rejected. Only Jesus will repeatedly forgive us when we fail Him. Only Jesus will declare His affection for us when we are at our very worst as well as at our very best. Only in Jesus can we return to that blessed Edenic state of being naked and without shame.  The quest for self-esteem is, deep down, an attempt to silence negative verdicts that assault us from the outside and from within.  In Jesus, the Second Adam, the negative verdicts from the outside and from within are made powerless. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Him.  In Jesus, we no longer have anything to fear, prove, or hide.  There’s no need to self-medicate. There’s no need to self-promote or to drop names at parties. There’s no need to compare or compete. There’s no need to wear ourselves down by chasing career or applause or respect or being able to fit into a size four. We are not called to be perfectly awesome. We are called to be imperfectly faithful, because we have been perfectly loved, liberated, and highly esteemed by the Most High.  It is said that Buddha’s dying words were, ‘Strive without ceasing.’  Jesus’ dying words were, ‘It is finished.’  Give me Jesus. Our souls are glory-vacuums, fearfully and wonderfully made for an Esteem greater than self.  And He esteems us much.  The One who made the galaxies with His breath has said so.”   Scott Sauls

HEART SAVOR

·       Love never fails.

·       God demonstrated His love towards me while I was yet a sinner.

·       The Lord quiets me with His love and rejoices over me with singing.