Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Love Always Hopes" – Sunday, 9 November 2014 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13: The Way of Love1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 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.
3-7 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.
8-10 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.
11 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.
12 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!
13 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.
"Love Always Hopes" by Stan Toler
Winston Churchill was prime minister of England during some of the darkest hours of World War II. During the summer and autumn of 1940, Germany initiated the Battle of Britain when their air force mercilessly bombed Portsmouth, London, and other cities. It was the first major campaign fought entirely by air forces. The battle received its name from a speech Churchill delivered in the House of Commons, in which he said, “The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.”
A reporter once asked Churchill his country’s greatest weapon had been against the Nazi regime. He replied, “It was what England’s greatest weapon has always been–hope.” In the midst of the battle, though, the people of England occasionally grew discouraged. They wondered if the bombing would ever stop. Repeatedly, Churchill rallied the military and the populace by instilling hope.
You also may be tempted to quit too when your enemy attacks relentlessly. But never stop hoping. God’s love flowing deep within you will prompt you to discover that, as Paul said, “Love . . . always hopes.”
Hymn for Today:
"The solid Rcck" by Edward Mote
1. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
2. When darkness seems to hide his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.
3. His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.
Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.
4. When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.
“Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up.1. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
2. When darkness seems to hide his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.
3. His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.
Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.
4. When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.
Thought for Today:
Expect God to get here soon."(Psalm 31:24).
Prayer Needs:
That many people in the Virgin Islands will come to know Jesus the Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, and receive the fullness of the Holy Soirit .
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