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"Love Never Ends"

3/26/2019

The Lord's love never ends; his mercies never stop. They are new every morning; Lord, your loyalty is great. Lam.3:22-23

LISTEN TO: Chris Tomin, "Our God" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlA5IDnpGhc

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love never ends. Or, some translations say, "Love never fails." The root word here is "fail," to suffer collapse or ruin. This doesn't happen with Love. Love doesn't collapse. Love isn't ruined. Love doesn't look at the dire circumstances of our world and give up. Love continues to exist even when our dear one takes a last breath. Love doesn't whither in the face of defeat, rejection or when we make grave mistakes that change the course of our life. Love is eternal. It has existed before we were born, and will continue to exist when we cease to be a memory. We see all the injustice in the world and are tempted to despair or grow cynical. Love sees the injustice, but will pours itself out, on anyone who will listen and respond, will never rest, never give up until its purposes are achieved.

Love is God -- God is Love (1, John 4:8). Our faith is based on this fact. Eternal love took on human temporal flesh in Jesus. By following Jesus, we are stretched to love with agape love, to allow this eternal power of Love resonate in our lives. Step by step, we do this, as we stay rooted in presence of God through prayer, scripture, and service. We may fail, but God's spirit in us won't let us give up. Love never ends.

Half way through Lent, is an important time to reflect on the power of love -- and remember that love never fails. Even on the Cross as Jesus cries out "It is finished" (John 19:13) he is not talking about love being done. This is a word that means "paid in full." Love stepped in and paid the price for Sin. That is what love does. Love was betrayed(Luke 22;48), abandoned (Matt. 27: 45,46), denied (Mark 14:66-72), tortured (John 19:1-3) before dying on the cross (Matt.27:50) Evil threw everything at Jesus. Jesus did not fail us. That debt we incurred, caused by sin and brokenness, no longer exists when we turn to Jesus and place our trust in him. So let us meditate on the power of love this week.

PRAY: "Lord of never-failing love, help us be vessels of your Eternal, loving presence in how we choose to act. Teach us how we don't have to give up or give in --- but rely on your Power to Love. "

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March 19th, 2019

3/19/2019

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"Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. Proverbs 23:23"

LISTEN TO:
"Redeemed" by Big Daddy Weave
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzGAYNKDyIU

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

As part of our 2019 resolution to become more Christ-like, we continue our walk through Paul's inspired passage on love. Paul breaks down for us what Love does, just as Jesus models for us in his actions and teachings how love acts and reacts in the world. Today we meditate on the the bad habit of being irritable and resentful and how it gets in the way of love.

A little child was overhead praying, “Dear Lord, please make all the bad people good, and all the good people nice. Amen.”

Many of the habits that keep us from loving well Paul talks about are ordinary reactions we have. Many good people, God-loving people, decent people, have problems with irritability and resentment. Irritability especially raises its head if we are stressed. We get snappy, touchy, especially if we've over-scheduled our day, and our priorities have gotten out of control. Sometimes irritability can be a manifestation of depression, so it should be taken seriously and checked out. When we find ourselves getting grouchy, we need to stop - figure out what's happening. Give God the burden, or get help. That's how we manifest love for ourselves, and ultimately for others in our lives.

Another way irritability and resentments surface is when we may have "control" issues -- and find ourselves acting sharply in the face of delays, mistakes, accidents. We are resentful when we are faced with a perceived/or actual wrong -- and we can't let go of it. We perseverate over all the bad things done to us -- over the accomplishments of overs which should have been ours. Irritability and resentfulness are common as grass-- overgrown grass. We can't see pass our resentments to count our blessings. We are blind to for others who have it tougher than ourselves. We stop reaching out and lending a hand. If allowed to become patterns in our lives, we become spiritually anemic.

We all know people with whom it's hard to get along because their irritability or resentfulness casts a pall on the relationship. We have to walk around them on "tippy toe" as my grandmother use to say. In these situations we are called to not return resentment with resentment, or irritability with rudeness. Love asks us not to let our emotions control our actions, but to stop: pray, breathe so we can calm ourselves, and then respond with kindness and forbearance.

Remember the story of Nabal and Abigail and David in 1 Samuel 25? Nabal a wealthy man, living in Carmel, and under David's protection. He was a surly, abrasive man, while Abigail was kind-hearted and generous. When David sent word to Nabal for his tribute -- which was appropriate -- Nabal responded resentfully, rudely, raising David's ire. David was planning to kill Nabal and his household. Abigail got wind of the plan, and prepares a tribute for David and humbly approached David and pleaded for mercy. Touched by her graciousness, David withdraws his threat. Nabal, however, is holding a big feast (to which he has not invited David), and has a heart attack and dies. Nabal makes everyone's life miserable with his meanness and surliness. He puts their lives in danger by incurring David's wrath. Nabal, whose name means "fool," became a fool because of his grouchy resentful manner. His wealth didn't help matters -- it just became an excuse to treat others poorly. Abigail however, stands out as an example of "a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger Prov. 15:1."   We need to learn from Abigail's ability to handle difficult people with grace -- and how we can act when under fire.

For this week in Lent let us be extra mindful of irritability and resentfulness. When we see in ourselves, let us immediately stop, let go and let God. If we see it in others, let us use it as an opportunity to practice gentleness and kindness.

PRAY: "O God, when irritability and resentfulness raise their heads, help me to stop, breathe and count my blessings, leaving all in your hands. Help me be kind and gracious like Abigail. "

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Rejoice with truth

3/11/2019

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"Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart Psalm 51: 6"

LISTEN TO:Jesus Culture : "One Thing Remains:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP8isf9PVz4

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

As part of our 2019 resolution to become more Christ-like, we continue our walk through Paul's inspired passage on love. Paul breaks down for us what Love does, just as Jesus models for us in his actions and teachings how love acts and reacts in the world. Today we meditate on love rejoicing in the truth -- not in wrongdoing.

Why is it that that we enjoy putting others down? Someone causes an accident and how many comments respond with condemning and chastising remarks? A colleague of mine was in the middle of a business conflict that managed to be mentioned in the papers. People jumped all over her predicament and the situation like a pack of piranhas. I can remember junior high, and if a kid made a mistake, mispronounced a word, pockets of the classroom would erupt in snickers. Even if we don't speak badly about someone else's problem, inside our hearts we feel relief it's not us, glad our situation improves, even at another's expense, reassured that the individual in trouble is learning their lesson.

Paul tells us that this is not how love behaves. Imagine Paul coming to this realization. In his past, as a zealous Jew, he once persecuted the early followers of Jesus. He ravaged the church. He went house to house, binding believers and dragging them to Jerusalem before the religious court. Paul delighted in the downfall of members of the Way. He believe he was doing the right thing. After his own amazing conversation, he realizes how wrong he was. The worst was feeling self-satisfied in delivering over the followers of Jesus to be killed. Love does not take glory in anyone's downfall, mistakes, or sinful behavior. Love wants the best for everyone, regardless of their relationship to us.

At a recent interfaith Seder we attended, the following well-known midrash was shared about the Exodus, and the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea:
"As the Egyptians started to drown in the Red Sea, the heavenly hosts began to sing praises, but God silenced the angels, saying, "The works of my hands are drowning in the sea, and you wish to sing praises!"

God's Love never takes satisfaction in the pain of an enemy, no matter how much they have hurt us. How else, could Jesus cry out from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" So during Lent, we have the opportunity to examine our selves, catch ourselves getting smug we get ahead of somebody, or somebody we dislike -- even a little -- makes a mistake. Sometimes our reactions are very subtle. When we find ourselves thinking better of ourselves because of what someone else said or did, we need to watch out. We've stepped off the path of love. Love advises that we catch ourselves, and pray for them instead. We help them, if we can. Bottom line is that we stay rooted in the Truth, Jesus, who ate with outcasts and sinners, showing no judgment, but but instead through the power of low led the way to reconciliation, repentance and the fullness of life.

PRAY: "Open my eyes and show me whenever I take satisfaction inapproriately, especially from someone else's mistakes. When this happens, Lord, show me the truth, so I am respond with Love. ""Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart Psalm 51: 6"

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Freedom from Bragging

3/5/2019

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"But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. James 4;16"

  LISTEN TO:
Curtis Mayfield:"People Get Ready"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOXmaSCt4ZE

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 "

As part of our 2019 resolution to become more Christ-like, we continue our walk through Paul's inspired passage on love.
Paul breaks down for us what Love does, just as Jesus models for us in his actions and teachings how love acts and reacts in the world. Today we meditate on the the bad habit of boasting and how it gets in the way of love. The following chuckle illustrates the problem of boasting.

Amir: You Americans are always boasting how Paul Bunyan was the greatest lumberjack ever, but we
Moroccans know that Ibrim Hassan was the world's greatest lumberjack.
Fred: I never heard of Ibrim Hassan. Who was he?
Amir: He was the famous lumberjack of the Sahara Forest.
Fred: Umm, don't you mean the Sahara Desert?
Amir: Oh, sure, NOW it's a desert!

The root word for“brag” in Greek is very picturesque and is closest to our English word,“wind-bag.” When you and brag, we
are demonstrating our insecurity and spiritual immaturity. Even if what we are bragging about something that is true, we fail
to see how it may hurt or discourage someone else.  Love is not big-headed but big-hearted. Love focuses on how the other
feels, not on our own feeling. This means the more loving we become, the less boasting we need to do. The greater our
spiritual gifts, the less prone we should be to brag. After all, the gifts you have been graciously given are from God. If we are
to brag, we are to brag about the Lord -- and how God is working in our life.
"Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 2 Cor10:17

Now all of us should be gracious and share in the good fortune of others. We should be able to share wonderful accomplishments without evoking envy in others. However it is the style of bragging that has emerged over time that is a concern. There is an article in the New York Times this past weekend about seeking a truce in the bragging wars in New York City. (My child scored 12 goals in one game!!! My daughter learned to read at 6 months!! My son got into Brown, Harvard and Yale, and is having  a hard time choosing! I so tired, we just got back from Palm Beach and we have to go to Aspen for spring break!). So in boasting we draw attention to  ourselves, without giving any thought to the circumstances of others. We do not boast to
build up the Body, but to increase our prestige.   There is a growing etiquette about bragging, because of its potential to alienate and cause problems in community.

As we turn to prayer, and learn from Jesus, who is "humble of heart," we learn to share our joys in ways that are sensitive to others, and we hear the joys and accomplishment of others with thanksgiving, not with resentment. This way, we our sharing becomes an act of love rooting not in competition and insecurity, but in care and joy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/fashion/time-for-a-truce-in-the-bragging-wars.html?pagewanted=all

PRAY: "O God, help us to share my joys in a gracious manner, that gives glory to you and is sensitive to others. Help me to be gracious to the joys that others share."

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK!

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"Love Never Ends"

March 19th, 2019

Rejoice with truth

Freedom from Bragging

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