Summer 2011 Bible Study: Week 3 Day 2

Greetings my beloved Summer Bible Study Friends! Over the past two days we have been simply meditating on the Word of our Sweet Jesus and it was suddenly revealed to me at dinner last night with family, that His Word is WHO HE IS. I know that sounds silly, but I set out on this 91 day adventure to see if I could learn more about exactly WHO my Sweet Jesus really is just by opening His Word. And, I think, when I set out, I wanted to know what color His hair really was, or what color His eyes were, but, over the past two days, meditating on His Word, while on a vacation with my family, has done wonders for my heart. His LOVE endures forever. He is His Word. I love, the Old Testament reveals things about Him that are confirmed in the New Testament. I am amazed at what He has revealed to me in the past 3 weeks and 2 days. Just think, we still have a lot of time to see what else He has in store for us, and that, frankly, makes me really excited.

I cannot help but keep my mind on the four words: His LOVE endures forever. I am not sure I will even really understand the amount of love He has for me, but I pray I will always be humbled by it. So, today, I want to talk more about His Love...

Lord, Your love endures forever, the love that was poured out on the day your Son died for me is something I am humbled by. The fact that Your Son's love will endure forever humbles me. I struggle to like some people and yet You love them. Teach me about Your love for me through Your Word today. Amen.

Turn with me to 1st Corinthians 13 and spend sometime reading over the entire chapter, all 13 verses.

Now, I normally refer to this portion of scripture as the "wedding reading", mostly because I have been to more weddings that have read this passage of the Word than I can count. I have even attended some weddings in which the Lord was never mentioned, and yet, this passage from HIS WORD was read. I am not sure about you, but I can remember the day I found out it was a portion of Scripture, I just thought it was something that was part of the "wedding package". And today, I have discovered something new about it, stay with me, I promise, this is good.

Remember when I told you about the time I spent up in the Mountains of Colorado? Well, not only did the Lord bless me with accountability, a dear friend of mine asked me to read this scripture from the point of view of the Lord's love for me, rather than my to do list of how to love others. I had never read over these words with the thought that the Lord's love for me is explained within these 13 verses. So, we are gonna do it together, to learn more about the love that endures forever! The love of our Sweet Jesus!

Verse 1-3

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.

I don't know about you, but sometimes love is the hardest thing for me. Verse 1 tells me that I could have the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues, and yet, if I do not have love, I am only communicating gibberish. Verse 2 tells me I could have all the wisdom and knowledge I could ever dream of, which for me, being dyslexic, having wisdom, knowledge, book smarts, would rock my socks off, and yet, if I do not have love, then I have nothing. Now, faith, this is something that I can now say, I have been blessed with, the Word is true because it says it is, end of story for me. I believe with every fiber in my body that my Sweet Jesus is who His Word says. I believe the Book, from the very first page to the very last. Now, I still argue with Him, I still express my opinion to Him, but believe, yep. And yet, if I do not have love, I have nothing.

You see, my Sweet Jesus IS love, without HIM, I have nothing. Without HIM, His Word is meaningless, His gifts of useless and faith is pointless. And better yet, I could give everything I have away and if I don't have HIM, then I truly had nothing to begin with.

Verse 4- 7

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.

These three verses strike me. His love for me is patient. His love for me is kind. His love for me does not envy and it does not boast. His love for me isn't proud and will never say "I told you so". His love for me will not dishonor me, it will not make me a fool. His love for me is not self seeking, His love for me is giving. His love for me is not easily angered, He is kind and patient with me, He has NEVER had a bad thought toward me. His love for me keeps no record of wrongs, His love for me means that I start every minute of every day out with a clean slate. His love for me means that my crap won't come back up in a conversation. He will not hold my past against me. His love for me does not delight in evil, rather it reveals itself through the truth. His love for me will always protect, He will always have my back, He chose me on the day He died and He will chose me again today, and tomorrow and the next day. He will always chose me. His love always trusts, I don't have to earn it, I don't have to prove myself, I don't have to "regain" it, He trusts me. His love for me always hopes, and always wins!

Verse 8-12

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.

His love for me will never fail. He will always love me and like me. While everything else expires, His love for me remains. It will never grow mold or stale, it cannot be thrown out like old milk. I know, that I know, that I KNOW, HE LOVES ME. Jesus LOVES this I know, for the BIBLE tells me so. Jesus LOVES me this I know, for HIS WORD says so. JESUS LOVES ME.

Verse 13

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

His love for me, the sinner, not the saint, the one who sticks her foot in her mouth more often than she chews gum, the one who can't spell to save her life, His love for me, is it. His love for me, if the best thing I could ever want. His love for me is more valuable than any Coach purse, or new pair of shoes. His love for me couldn't be bought with money, rather with the blood of His Son, my Sweet Jesus. His love for me, is JESUS.

Lord, I LOVE YOU. Amen