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Bible Study

A Look at Love Part 18 (Conclusion)

Good Morning Dear Readers, 

Today marks the last Wednesday in May. Likewise, today will be my last weekly message for a while. During this hiatus, let’s do some “housecleaning”… If you do not read these weekly emails and/ or wish to remove yourself from the email list, simply let me know and I will do so. On the flipside, if you know someone who wants to get future messages, let me know and I will add them.

Starting back in late January, we’ve taken a look at true love as defined in the Bible. For review, let me put forth the scripture covered since then…

1st Corinthians 13:4-7 (NKJV)
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Can you now see how love is so much more than an emotion and a feeling? True love transcends emotions and feelings… and even circumstances. The apostle Paul concurred about this love that comes from above…

Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a magnificent thing God’s love is! It is any wonder Satan degrades and cheapens love to a self-centered animalistic impulse? True love draws people to the Lord, and the world system by Satan’s design obscures it by defining it as something else. Arrgg! 

Nevertheless…

1st Corinthians 13:8a
Love never fails.

Friends, “never” is a rather dogmatic word, wouldn’t you say? And it is true, for God is true. And if God is true, then what He says is true 😉 You can place all your everything on to this truth.

And when you finally come to Christ as a poor, wretched, and ungodly beggar, casting yourself before Him and His mercy in complete and total surrender… He will gather you into His divine love! His love for you and to you is everlasting!  It cannot end, because love never fails! How utterly senseless would it be to reject Almighty God’s lovingkindness.

To those of you who have God’s love poured into your hearts (Romans 5:5), let nothing hinder you from manifesting that love to those around you. Why do you suppose we’re still left on earth? Ha!

Our love demonstrated toward others is a primary way we breach hardened hearts. It is not that we have a hidden agenda, but that our very nature (regenerated) is to love others.

1st John 4:19
We love because He loved us first.

Well, it has been a privilege and delight to share my thoughts with you all. Please continue to read your Bible… everyday if possible! With love, I conclude for now, but keep you all in my thoughts and prayers.

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Look at Love Part 17

Hi Again,

I hope everyone is doing well these days. Springtime (here lately) in the Northern Maryland area has seemed to be more like late February…. cold, windy and rainy. And whatever the weather may be like, we continue on with our routines and schedules anyway. We endure.

Guess what else endures? (You knew I’d go there, right?) 😉

1st Corinthians 13:7b
Love… endures all things.

Endurance is virtue. If you have endurance, you can complete a long distance run. If you have endurance, you can overcome obstacles that might block someone who does not have endurance.

Just now, (tangent alert) my mind thought of the word perseverance. Perseverance and endurance seem similar to me… Hmmm. Let’s look at Merriam-Webster:

Endurance-
the ability to withstand hardship or adversity; especially : the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity

Perseverance-
the action or condition or an instance of persevering  (doh… lemme get that one too)

Persevere-
to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement

So endurance looks to me to be an ability, and perseverance is an action.  Also endurance speaks to prolonged effort (doing something) and perseverance speaks to remaining despite opposition (holding fast). Maybe someone can do a word study on this…

In either case, I think the words come from the same idea of a determined willingness to accept suffering for a greater purpose. And who now comes to your mind? Is it not our Lord Jesus Christ?

Philippians 2:8
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This obedience to the point of death shows us Christ’s enduring love for God the Father and His sheep. His love was certainly a driving force…

Then think of all the misunderstanding, the rejection, the abandonment, the persecution, not to mention all the efforts of Satan against Him; and even Almighty God Himself pouring out judgment on Jesus when those three hours of darkness covered the land. Yet Christ still offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of His elect.

See how love endures all things?

Those whom Christ has called and redeemed and regenerated have a new nature within them. This very love that Christ demonstrates on the pages of scripture is also within His saints!

Romans 5:5b
God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Is your love enduring?

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Look at Love Part 16

Good Afternoon, 

It’s that time again to look at and consider (deeply ponder) the word of Almighty God found spoken through the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. He wrote to them to help them get a grip on the proper use of spiritual gifts. And beginning in the thirteenth chapter, he comes to the more excellent way… namely, doing all things with the motivation of love.

Recently in our messages, we’ve seen love in action. Not only does love bear all things and believe all things, but look what else it does…

1st Corinthians 13:7b
Love… hopes all things…

The concept of hope is rich in meaning. For our particular verse, I looked to the Blue Letter Bible website to get the Greek word for hope, and it is:

Elpizō – a verb meaning to hopefully trust

Now to see how hope is trusting, just consider this common everyday phrase, “I sure hope so!” I would respond with such a phrase when asked “Will you get paid this Friday?” My hope is trusting because my mortgage payment is automatically withdrawn from my bank account, ha!

Hope also believes. This is easy to see too, for what happens to a person when they have no hope? Despair sets in… because there seems to be a finality to it all. There is no hope left, how sad. But then, a little flicker of hope sets in and everything changes. There is a way out of despair, and hope shows the way. See?

The writer of Hebrews uses faith and hope in the same statement…

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Love hopes because it trusts the character of God.

May we all experience this hope, amen!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Look at Love Part 15

Good Morning Ya’ll, 

This week’s message will be a product of lesser time, but with no loss of sincerity…

We’ve been taking a good long look at love in Biblical terms, Godly expressions, and Christian experience. It is my hope that some of you have begun to comprehend that true love is a rich and matchless reality, manifested in various expressions of thought, word, and deed. 

True love is of God and He enables His children (born-again believers) to love in the ways He loves. In your encounters with people, such expressions of love as a pattern of life (as we have so far covered) are a ready indicator for you to know the believer from the hypocrite.

Here’s another manifestation of love…

1st Corinthians 13:7a

Love… believes all things…

Believing something means you trust that something (or Someone) completely by faith. If I believe the word of God, then I am trusting what He says is the truth… and my trust is built upon my faith in God.

Contrastingly, if I don’t believe the word of God, then I am not trusting what He says is the truth, and my not trusting is built upon my doubting of God.

For some people, seeing is believing. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” This faith in the visual is really a shallow, man-centered faith. Watch this…

John 20:29b

…Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Now what about the “all things”?

The verse that immediately popped into my head has a great answer!

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

The good, the bad, and the ugly… everything that you encounter on a daily basis all your life-long… I think this is what is meant by “all things”.

Those people who love God, believe all things happen according to His will. This is how we can honestly say, “Thanks be to God”!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Look At Love Part 14

Greetings Again!

I just have to tell you all, a very compelling archeological situation is stirring up again… What would you think to learn Noah’s ark is for real and has been found?

Visit: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2949640/Noahs-Ark-found-in-Turkey.html

I have debated anti-Christians many times, and not a few of them lambasted the “Noah’s Ark Fairy Tale”.

I actually kept an online debate I engaged in back in 2001…. Here’s a snippet. My handle is “callmeguilty”.

fred_flinstonensis: Now then
fred_flinstonensis: How did the Kiwi bird get down from Mt. Ararat and get to New Zealand
fred_flinstonensis: How could they have read the [expletive] road map?

callmeguilty: fred: how do you explain everything?
callmeguilty: brb…. phone

fred_flinstonensis: callmeguilty It is easy to torpedo Noah’s Ark
fred_flinstonensis: The ark would have been a deathtrap since it would never have floated
fred_flinstonensis: ANd how many termites were there on Noah’s Ark of Gopherwood?

GremlinDotNet: callmeguilty is actually suggesting that Noah’s Ark was a true story?

fred_flinstonensis: How did God preserve the precious viruses and bacteria?  Were Noah and his family infested with lice crabs, gonnerhea, warts, the flu, measles etc while they were shoveling [expletive] in the ark for 300 days?

callmeguilty: fred fred fred….. so many questions

fred_flinstonensis: callmeguilty not questions: problems

callmeguilty: fred: shall we PM each other? (PM means Private Message)

fred_flinstonensis: no PMs

callmeguilty: fred:   why not?

fred_flinstonensis: except hot girl;s

callmeguilty: fred: ha ha

fred_flinstonensis: can you imagine all of those blind cave crickets and all of the dinosaurs and all of the kiwi bird stumbling down the side of Mt/ Ararat and finding their way to different parts of the world without leaving a trace of [sic] there having been there?

fred_flinstonensis: if the flood actually happened how come 170 species of cichlid fishes settled out of the biblical brine into Lake Victoria – but not into any other lake in the world, including lakes only several miles from Lake Victoria?

callmeguilty: fred: natural selection

And so it went… Anyhow, I wonder how people like fred_flinstonesis (as in Genesis) would take the news. 😉

Now, lemme get to this week’s message on love. Our verse for the next month starts out like this…

1st Corinthians 13:7a
Love… bears all things…

You know something? Understanding this can be easy…

Just think of God. Then think of your years of rejecting God while indulging in sin. Then came the day you realized just how wicked you are, and yet God loved you all the while. And if you repented and yielded your everything to Him as your Lord in faith, He forgave you all of it and lovingly covered your sins with the blood of His own Son.

Oh what magnificent mercy and grace with lovingkindness!

Looking at your salvation this way, can you see how Love… bears all things?

God was bearing all those transgressions you committed against Him, and yet He still loved you and forgave you, if indeed you’re a child of His.

With our transformation from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light, we have the capacity to love as Christ loved us.

Likewise, we should be able to bear much more than we have in past times, right! Consider your trials and temptations? Have you been bearing the sins of those around you? If not, then begin to see those offenses as opportunities to demonstrate love in forgiveness.  Has your faith been exercised by resisting/ fleeing temptations? The love shed abroad in you makes you able!

Take the Apostle John’s words for it…

1st John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Nothing has to be unbearable to a Christ-follower…

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Look at Love Part 13

Good Morning All,

Gee, it seems to me that it has been a while since I wrote last time. Yet, it has only been a week. I think I feel this way because the past seven days have been busy for me and my family. How about you? Are you all doing a bunch of stuff?

When a lot of things are going on, I often think of this…

Romans 8:28
… all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Notice “all things”? And notice “the called”? These are the sheep who hear their Master’s call…

 John 10:27
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Well, (in segue fashion) as a true believing sheep feels most comfortable and secure in the Great Shepherd’s sheepfold, likewise this next trait of true love remains most content in its Source’s arms (as it were)…

1st Corinthians 13:6
Love… does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

Maybe it is too simplistic to think this way, but I like to think of “rejoice” as experiencing joy over and over again. I mean, think of “re”… as in the words “replay, regain, rewrite, repeat, reappear, restore…” Thus, love experiences joy over and over again in the truth.

Contrastingly, love does not experience joy in iniquity. Iniquity is an older word meaning all manner of sin and unrighteousness. A lie, which is not the truth, falls into the category of iniquity. You know as well as I do that lies are not what can lead to feelings of joy, but when the truth shines forth 😉 Think of how happy that man is who has been released from jail after some DNA test exonerated him! Yippee!

Or better yet, think of how you felt when you finally comprehended God’s great love for you J

So this matter of the truth is loaded huh? Can you see how love ties into the truth? Anything less than the truth works against love, because doubt is present. But love without a doubt is a cause for joy!

The apostle John helps conclude our thoughts…

3rd John verse 4:
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth.

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Look At Love Part 12

Hi Everyone!

Wonderful Spring is upon us, yippee! How can people look around at the teeming life everywhere and not comprehend that it is indeed by design and not by accident?! Throw off that public school naturalistic indoctrination and embrace the divine truth of Genesis 1:1 😉

This week I’d like to summarize the past few weeks we covered verse 5… here it is altogether…

1st Corinthians 13:5
Love… does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

Does any of this come naturally to us? To answer that question, look at toddlers.

They behave rudely, they want what they want when they want it, any little thing that is disagreeable to them is a major issue, and they certainly won’t freely admit to sneaking the chocolate candy bar into their room, to indulge in it when no one is looking. Ha!

Am I right or am I right?

 Say these toddlers grow up with little good influences…

When they drive, do they slow down to let people merge in front of them?

When they shop, do they make a bee-line to the shoe section to purchase awesome shoes for Grandma?

When they are screamed at by their spouse, do they loving smile in return and say, “There there, it’ll be ok…”?

When they surf the Internet late at night, are they reading the online version of 101 Ways to Love Your Spouse?

Love… does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

See now this quality of love is of a higher order.

With fallen people all around, sinful attitudes dominant in the fabric of our culture, and many other things like these, the natural progression is toward a self-centeredness that stifles love. But the love given by the Holy Spirit does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

 Do you need to forsake that toddler within you? Let that old nature die. And let Christ give you new life. Only then will true love towards God and others be possible.

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Question about Blasphemy…

Hi Everyone!

Yippee, I received a question! By the way, starting now, if and when I receive a question, I will simply state the question and not also who asked the question. I know sometimes the questioner is known, but nevertheless, I won’t restate that person’s name in my response… I hope this new policy will encourage more people to ask questions.

Okay, let’s get to it… The question is:

What does it mean to blaspheme?

To find the answer, let’s first look at the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew and Greek) to learn about the word “Blaspheme”.

Hebrew “Blaspheme” is the verb word “gadaph” which means “to revile”. Also: the verb word “na’ats” which means “to spurn and to despise”. And also the verb word “naqab” which means “to pierce and to curse”.

Greek “Blaspheme” is the verb word “blasphēmeō” which means “to speak reproachfully, to revile, to speak evil of, to rail”

Now let’s look at our English: “to speak of or address with irreverence”.

So with these meanings, let’s put it all together…

To blaspheme is to speak evil of something that is really holy. To blaspheme is to attribute anything less than holy to what it perfectly holy.

In the context of Scripture and Christian considerations, to blaspheme is to speak, attribute, and/ or address (with conscious understanding) anything about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as anything less than what they truly are.

A great example of blasphemy comes from the Scribes and Pharisees…

Luke 11:15
But some of them said, “He (Jesus) casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.”

Notice that they attributed the power, the graciousness, and the compassion of God as coming from Satan. Wow! This is speaking evil of someone who is perfectly holy.

The Scribes and Pharisees knew full-well what blasphemy was…

John 10:33
The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy ; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

Ironically, they were correct in saying a sinful man claiming to be holy God is blasphemy, but Jesus was no mere man, was He? Jesus was really God!

I conclude with this thought… to speak evil of the divine is blasphemy, but how does one say those words without first believing it in their minds?

I believe as adultery can be committed in the heart, so can blasphemy. The spoken word is merely audible thoughts… So if someone blasphemes, it means their thinking is evil.

Hmmmm! What do you think?

Peace,
Jim

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Bible Study

A Look at Love Part 11

Good Morning!

I want to first say it has been a blessing for me to know that some of you feel that these messages on what love is has spoken to your heart at just the right time. Praise the Lord! I pray that you all continue to let God’s word remain in your thoughts and subsequently direct your deeds. 🙂

Psalm 119:11
Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.  

I trust that those of you who are reading these weekly messages are indeed coming to understand how awesome love is. My hope is that with a deeper understanding of these verses on the nature of love, we will be compelled to praise God for His love toward us and to let our own love toward others rise to levels not yet demonstrated. Living life with genuine love is so sweet and joyful!

And so, remembering that we can understand something by considering what it is not, we come to the end of verse five…

1st Corinthians 13:5b
Love… thinks no evil;

Wow! Now this characteristic of true love speaks to our inner person, to what we think in our thoughts. You know as well as I do that our thoughts cannot be known by any other person unless we give them expression. Well… no other person except God…

Luke 11:17a
But He (Jesus) knowing their thoughts, said to them…

Thus, because no one else on earth can know your thoughts, it is critical and essential that you be true with yourself. Don’t let your pride and guilty conscience or lack of motivation to think deeply keep you from facing the truth of yourself. Okay? Ready?

True love thinks no evil.

Do you see this? True love thinks no evil. This is the Christian standard.

When you consider your own thought patterns in your daily course of life, do you find that place prepared for true love to flourish? Or do you find dirty corners or ugly spots that seem to never go away or get cleaned up?  (And just as frustrating, maybe sometimes it is clean and sometimes it is not.)

In truth, a Christian has the capacity to think no evil by the power of the Holy Spirit residing in them. This is an effect of the transformed inner nature. The Christian can love with a true love… the only question is of duration. How so? The outer carnal flesh remains to stain our feet, as it were… 

John 13:10a
Jesus said to him (Peter), “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet…”

On the other hand, having not been “bathed”, dark and unwashed areas consist of things that prevent your spirit from being clean. Those are the things you know should not be there, and yet there they are. When an inner nature is not clean, one of the consequences is that the conditions for true love are absent because love thinks no evil. I once had some of those dark areas in my soul too. But you know what? Those dark areas can be cleaned up for good through repentance and faith in Christ!

All those dirty and ugly areas, frankly, fall into the category of evil things. It really is perilous to hold on to them! Cast them out like the idols of Baal! If you want them out, you must first consciously and completely repent of them. Then let us plead alongside King David…

Psalm 51:2
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

And a wonder of wonders is that Almighty God is a God who longs to (and delights to) forgive sins…

1st John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Wow! See how love is really a bellwether? May we all truly love!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

Categories
Bible Study

A Look at Love Part 10

Hi Everyone,

How are you? Hope all is well. Let’s get rolling…

1st Corinthians 13:5b
Love… is not provoked…

Think of provoked as being stirred up. Then think of what is the cause of being stirred up. In the context of what love is; to be not “provokable” is to not allow things to stir you up… to get you irritated or angry.

Perhaps someone has tried to pick a fight with you (for some reason). They may have called you names, pushed your buttons, mischaracterized your motives, or something of the sort.

Did you feel the annoyance rise up in you? Did you feel the urge to defend yourself? I think we all have.

These were the times we were provoked.

Even the great Apostle Paul yielded to provocation…

Acts 23:1-3 (NKJV)
Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him (Paul) on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”

Paul was provoked by a slap to the face.

Being in a state of provocation does not love because we are, in that moment, in a defense posture. And being defensive is really just wall-building. And walls prevent closeness and intimacy… the very things love seeks to foment.

And here’s why it is so hard to love this way in our own strength: to be not provoked is to be vulnerable. Yet to be vulnerable is to be wide open to those very things that would provoke us. The truth of the matter is that to show forth this true love, the Child of God is able by the imparted nature of the Father.

Jesus demonstrated this…

1st Peter 2:23
… when He was reviled [He] did not revile in return, when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him (God the Father) who judges righteously;

You see; if you are a true Christian, why allow your own pride to interrupt God’s possible using you to display Himself to your provocateurs? Let that supernatural character within you do what it is supposed to do: Glorify God!

In closing, one of the helpful things you could commit to memory and adopt into your deep thinking and deep convictions is that God will take care of you…  And with this week’s message, you never need to be provoked by those who may try to stir you up. Here’s one reason why…

Deuteronomy 32:35a
Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time;

Love as Christ loves you and commit yourself to the Father!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim