What I Know About Love

1 Corinthians 13 (Message)

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.

Being Real

Do you like.....

powdered eggs
powdered milk
instant tea
margarine
fake flowers
fake friends

???

To be entirely honest, I don't like any of these...yet I have experienced each one and in some ways realize the reason for them. But, for most people, we like the real stuff....real butter, real eggs, whole milk, fresh brewed iced tea, a beautiful garden of fresh flowers and real die hard stick with you til the end love you enough to tell you the truth friends.

We like real. So what does that mean? According to Webster's online dictionary: 1: of or relating to fixed, permanent, or immovable things (as lands or tenements) 2a : not artificial, fraudulent, or illusory : genuine <realgold>; also : being precisely what the name implies realprofessional>


I love the definition. But when I think about it...the only thing in life that I need to even come close to this expectation is in  my relationship with Christ....and to be even more honest...it's more like Christ's relationship with me. I find myself moving around all the time...trying but failing, trusting yet worrying, disciplined but fickle....relate??? Yet, he is unmovable, unshakable, stable, permanent, grounded, rooted. 


What a real faith I am able to experience because of HIS realness. Oh how blessed I am. 


Is there something REAL about Jesus that you're thankful for? Share it here...or with someone else today!