So everyday, in everything that we do, we should be looking for God. When we are looking for Him, we have to get rid of all other thoughts, because He is more important than everything else, though He is in it and controls it, He is above it. This makes our time with Him above everything else on our list of things to do in importance. He already gives us so much each and every day, but once you begin to seek Him, you will be blessed abundantly more than you already have been. We have to open our hearts and minds as broad as we can so that as much of His being can enter and reside there. When we meet with His Joy, it is just the greatest thing, in the words of Sarah Young, "When your Joy in Me meets My Joy in you, there are fireworks of heavenly ecstasy." That is absolutely incredible! Just imagine that! That right there is only the smallest taste of what heaven holds for us.
John 15:11-17 (MSG)
11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.
16"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17"But remember the root command: Love one another.
That is so cool, Jesus, this great and powerful part of God our Master, calls us His friends. Is that not amazing? Us, humans who sin left and right. He isn't just throwing us out like people did to Him. He is accepting us no matter what. He calls us His friends for pete sake! Does that not make you want to love everyone? If Jesus died for us all to save all of us from our sins, and He calls each of us a friend, how can you not love everyone else? In verse 16 it says that He chose us, He put us here, He saved us. All He is asking is that we love everyone like He did.
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I so love this next passage, it is just a cool thing to think about and apply to your life. Pay close attention to verse 12.
1 Corinthians 13 (MSG)
The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If 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. 3-7If 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. 8-10Love 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.
11When 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.
12We 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!
13But 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.
So everyday, in everything that we do, we should be looking for God. When we are looking for Him, we have to get rid of all other thoughts, because He is more important than everything else, though He is in it and controls it, He is above it. This makes our time with Him above everything else on our list of things to do in importance. He already gives us so much each and every day, but once you begin to seek Him, you will be blessed abundantly more than you already have been. We have to open our hearts and minds as broad as we can so that as much of His being can enter and reside there. When we meet with His Joy, it is just the greatest thing, in the words of Sarah Young, "When your Joy in Me meets My Joy in you, there are fireworks of heavenly ecstasy." That is absolutely incredible! Just imagine that! That right there is only the smallest taste of what heaven holds for us.
John 15:11-17 (MSG)
11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.
16"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17"But remember the root command: Love one another.
That is so cool, Jesus, this great and powerful part of God our Master, calls us His friends. Is that not amazing? Us, humans who sin left and right. He isn't just throwing us out like people did to Him. He is accepting us no matter what. He calls us His friends for pete sake! Does that not make you want to love everyone? If Jesus died for us all to save all of us from our sins, and He calls each of us a friend, how can you not love everyone else? In verse 16 it says that He chose us, He put us here, He saved us. All He is asking is that we love everyone like He did.
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. 8-10Love 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.
11When 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.
12We 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!
13But 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.
John 15:11-17 (MSG)
11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.
16"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17"But remember the root command: Love one another.
That is so cool, Jesus, this great and powerful part of God our Master, calls us His friends. Is that not amazing? Us, humans who sin left and right. He isn't just throwing us out like people did to Him. He is accepting us no matter what. He calls us His friends for pete sake! Does that not make you want to love everyone? If Jesus died for us all to save all of us from our sins, and He calls each of us a friend, how can you not love everyone else? In verse 16 it says that He chose us, He put us here, He saved us. All He is asking is that we love everyone like He did.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I so love this next passage, it is just a cool thing to think about and apply to your life. Pay close attention to verse 12.
1 Corinthians 13 (MSG)
The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If 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. 3-7If 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. 8-10Love 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.
11When 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.
12We 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!
13But 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.
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