LOVE
LIFTED ME
BREAD
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but
have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. 3 If
I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have
not 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 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
13:1-8 (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)
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me
out of deep waters. Psalm 18:16 (NIV)
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He
lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a
rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He
put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in
the LORD. Psalm 40:1-3
(NIV)
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God,
but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:9-11 (NIV)
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect
in love. 1 John 4:18 (NIV)
1 I love the LORD,
for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because
he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The cords of death entangled me, the
anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. 4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD,
save me!” 5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God
is full of compassion. 6 The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I
was in great need, he saved me. 7 Be
at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD
has been good to you. 8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling, 9 that
I may walk before the LORD in the
land of the living. Psalm 116:1-9 (NIV)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble
or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face
death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor
life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, 39 neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans
8:35-39 (NIV)
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is
like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these
two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Christmas, the Story of God becoming the
Man, Jesus, is the only hope we have of returning back to God. We must lean
into the truth of God’s love displayed in Jesus’ coming. Our fall into
depravity and alienation was because our confidence in the kindness and love of
God was shaken. We doubted and doubt the love of God. Our recovery must begin
with the belief of His love; ‘this is love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (I Jn. 4:10). Dr.
Tom Wood
“All
God’s love and the fruits of it come to us as we are in Christ, and are one
with Him.” Richard
Sibbes
“You never touch
the ocean of God’s love as when you forgive and love your enemies.” Corrie ten Boom
“God’s love is always supernatural, always a miracle,
always the last thing we deserve.” Robert
Horn
“Often hell is portrayed as a place of punishment and
heaven as a place of reward. But this concept easily leads us to think about
God as either a policeman, who tries to catch us when we make a mistake and
send us to prison when our mistakes become too big, or a Santa Claus, who
counts up all our good deeds and puts a reward in our stocking at the end of
the year. God, however, is neither a
policeman nor a Santa Claus. God does not send us to heaven or hell depending
on how often we obey or disobey. God is love and only love. In God there is no
hatred, desire for revenge, or pleasure in seeing us punished. God wants to
forgive, heal, restore, show us endless mercy, and see us come home. But just
as the father of the prodigal son let his son make his own decision God gives
us the freedom to move away from God's love even at the risk of destroying
ourselves. Hell is not God's choice. It is ours.” Henri
Nouwen
“We all know the value of joy.
It alone is the proof that what we have really satisfies the heart. Just this makes gladness such a mighty
element in the Christian character:
there is no proof of the reality of God’s love and the blessing He
bestows, which men so soon feel the force of, as when the joy of God overcomes
all the trials of life. And for the
Christian’s own welfare, joy is no less indispensable: the joy of the Lord is his strength;
confidence, and courage, and patience finds their inspiration in joy. With a heart full of joy no work can weary,
and no burden can depress; God Himself is strength and song.” Andrew Murray
“But when I think of him (Billy Graham) I also think of his message because he was immersed in it. Saturated in it. He was his message…a simple man who had responded to God’s love by placing his faith in Jesus, receiving the assurance that his sins were forgiven, that he would not perish, but would have everlasting life. Simple faith. Faith that now matters more than anything else. For years, over his head as he preached was the banner that quoted the words of Jesus: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Jesus completed that sentence by saying that “No one comes to the Father but by Me.” Based on what Jesus said, Daddy is safely with the Father. In heaven. Daddy not only claimed Jesus as the only Way to God, he lived by the Truth publicly on platforms and privately behind closed doors and is now enjoying real Life. I have often stated that I was raised by a single parent because ministry took my father away from our family – for weeks and months at a time. Daddy estimated that he was gone from home approximately 60 percent of his children’s growing-up years. Now, he has left again. This time, he will not be coming back. At least, not until Jesus does, too. While he may be physically absent and his voice silent, I am confident that his message will continue to reverberate throughout the generations to come. My prayer on this day of his move to Our Father’s House is that his death will be a rallying cry. That tens of thousands of pastors, teachers, evangelists, and ordinary men and women will rise up to take his place. That they will take up his message like a baton being passed in a relay race and faithfully pass it on to those with whom they come in contact. Because Daddy’s message is God’s message. And it’s a message of genuine hope for the future, of love for the present, of forgiveness for the past. It’s a message, when received, that brings a fresh beginning, unshakable joy, unexplainable peace, eternal significance, meaning and purpose in life, and opens Heaven’s door.” Ann Graham Lotz
“Because of Christ, there is no place God will not go and no one He will not bless. You are never beyond God’s love, and you are never alone. God is present even in the midst of your greatest need, your greatest weakness, and your greatest failures. Grace would have it no other way.” ThornCrown’s Welcome
“I have tasted of Christ’s own manna, and it has put my mouth out of taste for the brown bread of this world's joys.” Rutherford
“Can
you answer this, believer? Can you find any reason why you are so often
mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told you
that the night would never end in day? Who told you that the sea of
circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left but long
stretches of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told you that the winter of your
discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice and hail to
deeper snow and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Don't you know that day
follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed
winter? Be full of hope! Hope forever!
For God does not fail you. Do you not know that God loves you in the midst of
all this? Mountains, when in darkness hidden, are as real as in day, and God's
love is as true to you now as it was in your brightest moments.” C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
HEART SAVOR
·
Love that
is truly love, gives. Love is a verb it
always shows action.
·
Jesus came
to demonstrate God’s love – He is to be our model of agape love which is
selfless… Interestingly, when one pours
out their life like a drink offering, the blessings and benefits are
unsurpassed.
·
Never
forget, while we were yet sinners, Christ demonstrated his love for us by dying. Not because He had to, but because we had for
Him to. There was no hope for us without
it. Not grasping His equality with God,
He made himself nothing – taking the very nature of a servant and being found
in appearance as a man – He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even
death on a cross.
