Devotional thoughts for God’s Family – 1

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

We are at the place in the text that is like an hour and a half work out. Its time to get sweaty and tomorrow you are going to be sore. The trainer is in a bad mood and she is going to take it out on you!

Love bears all things!? What in the world? And what’s even more difficult to lift, “Love believes all things.” You think this is poetry – its not.

Let’s keep in mind that God is love. We are on a journey to become like Him. And if He didn’t say it was possible, we wouldn’t even try. Seeing what love is by looking at Him gives us an idea and a hope. We hold on to the thought that when we see these qualities of God, as we keep our eyes on Him, we can become more like Him.

It is easy to understand that God bears all things. God believes all of the best for you. God doesn’t hope for anything, He already knows, but with faith you can hope in the good He has for you. Has God endured on your behalf? Makes sense right?

When You see God, these become attainable, because He said so.

Philippians 2:5 (ESV): “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…”

Apart from God, this is poetry at best. There hasn’t been, nor will there be anyone who has been a picture of this consistently except Jesus, the Son of God, who is God, who walked this earth to show you who God is and to show you who you are and who you can be, if you keep your eyes on Him.

Let’s do something a little different, how about a little Bible study/comparison – get your brain juices flowing.

1. Love bears all things: Maybe you think of Job and all the troubles he went through. It certainly looks like he fits the category, and he does. Maybe we could look at another person. Luke 2:19 (ESV): “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Mary made a decision to place all that life was going to bring in her heart, and to ponder it in a positive godly manner, the good, bad and ugly.

• Love believes all things: Does this mean that you take at face value everything said to you, the first time? No, that is the definition of foolishness. All things that can be believed, you believe. Love looks for the best for another and for yourself. Listen for it in this verse, Luke 6:38 (ESV): “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.” Don’t give in or give up. Keep giving, and you will see the tides change.

• Love hopes all things: You maintain the hope, not just any hope, in all of the circumstances of life, your hope isn’t that things will simply work out for the best. Your view, or sight is on Jesus. You don’t hope in dead things. 1 Peter 1:3 (ESV): “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

• Love endures all things: The living hope empowers me to step forward, even in the middle of adversity. How do you endure all things and not give up or give in? Once again, you keep your eyes on Jesus. You want to be near Him, like Him and please Him. Look at your circumstance and that’s what you will get through, or look at Jesus and that’s who you will become like. Hebrews 12:2 (ESV): “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It helps to see Jesus as our example, doesn’t it? Maybe you could stop here and thank the Father in heaven for sending Jesus to earth for you. Jesus made it possible for you to know God, He also makes it possible for you day-by-day to grow into the image of God, and that makes the Father happy, to see you grow.

Father, thank You for sending Jesus to earth to be our Savior and Lord. I was saved through His blood and body and I praise You Father for that great sacrifice. Today power is given to anyone who asks. There is power for anyone to grow in a likeness of Your heart. Please pour Your power in our time, let us see who You are as we pursue Your presence. You are mighty and powerful to do all that You have planned.

Devotional thoughts for God’s Family – 2

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Love never ends. How exciting is this? Very exciting to say the least. Our eyes are turned to heaven and we learn that in heaven love will always be there. And you say, “Of course it will, because God will be there and He exists forever, as we do too, with Him.” Love never ends. It will change though, for the better!

Our world has sin blowing through it, and a great deal of our time and effort is pushing back the wind storm of sin in this world. This storm of sin has touched you too. No one has escaped the ravages of sin and it changes how we think and act. In this world you are hopefully fighting against sin in yourself or others. Have you ever thought about life without that struggle against sin?

Sin will end one day. Put some thought to this. Imagine living in a place where the wind never stops. It howls 24/7. It is impossible to hear the birds or to even sit in silence. The presence of howling wind becomes normal and after awhile you can forget that it is even there, except for a window that blows open and we run to close it.

The wind is not the daily focus of your life, it isn’t supposed to be, but it takes up a piece of your life no matter what you do, because the wind never stops. There are times when it does take up a lot of time and energy as your roof is blown off, or a friend loses their way trying to find you. Under normal circumstances you know the wind is there and you deal with it. Your focus is on your life, and building the home into a safe and secure place.

One day the wind completely stops. Birds, flowers, silence, peace, growth, safety. On and on the blessings grow. Maybe you can come up with some blessings that you will experience together with others when the wind of sin is gone.

Here’s another thought. The gifts are given to the church for the wind of sin. They help us in our effort of helping others make it through the wind. When the wind of sin stops, the gifts will not be necessary, like a winter coat on a hot summer day.

Prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will all pass away because they will be obsolete. Each of these, and all the rest of the gifts, are used in the church (not church building) to push back the power and presence of the wind. The gifts will not be in heaven. We will have new gifts. This next verse sparks our imagination as to what those new gifts might be.

Revelation 4:4 (ESV): Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.

You will be with God, and no longer need a gift that helps you and others understand God and His Word. We will see Him, hear Him, talk with Him, Touch Him! The gifts will be gone, love will abound!

Paul won’t be an apostle, Phillip won’t be an evangelist, I won’t be a pastor, and whatever role you have in the church, whatever title you walk with today will be completely obsolete. It may feel as though you are losing something, that’s only because we like our titles and our roles. And our titles and roles are to help battle against the wind, when the wind is gone our battle weapons will be transformed into instruments of peace. This next verse helps you see that we have new names, new responsibilities, significant places where there is no wind. Love never ends.

Revelation 2:17 (ESV): He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

More on this later – How exciting!

God, You have amazing things in store for those who wait for you. What will it be like when the wind of sin stops blowing? What a day that will be Lord. Thank You for making a way for us through Jesus. We have a place waiting for us that will be a better fit than anything on this earth. The wind will never again erode and tear down anything! Praise God! Lord, today strengthen Your family on earth to pick up their battle gear and get in the fight against the wind of our time.

Devotional thoughts for God’s Family – 3

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part

Today’s devotional is a bit heavy on theology, but this is important. What I am laying down in front of you is a foundation for you to build upon. This material is hotly contested in various denominations and must be approached with love and kindness.

This would be a good verse for my scholar friends to keep in mind when they interpret the Bible. And for those who are so sure that God spoke to you directly without any kind of authority or counsel in the mix, you might want to read this verse too. Remember, we only know in part and prophesy in part. On purpose, listen now, on purpose God didn’t give you everything.

So when you say “God told me..!” He may have, how does that match up with the Word? And has anyone else who represents authority in your local body of believers confirmed that?

In the local church God doesn’t make rogues or lone rangers. He establishes a set authority so that what is said and taught from the Word, is indeed from the Word.

Trust me, I have had numerous people, too many actually, tell me that they have a “word” for me. The very first thing I do is investigate if the person operates their life under authority to anyone, any kingdom institution. Most of the time when I decline the “word” people are upset and tell me that something bad is going to happen to me because I wouldn’t receive.

They seem more upset that I rejected them than their so-called “word”, which is a tell tale sign of what was motivating them to try to give the word to begin with. “Well, I don’t need to be under anyone’s authority, because I am under God’s authority alone and He told me to tell you this. He told me it was ok.”

I think, how do you argue with that? This person has a direct line to God and bypasses all local authority and bypasses Biblical instruction to boot.

Friends, we must be humble and gentle as God gives us dreams, visions, prophecy and knowledge. I believe the signs and wonders of God are going to increase even more toward the end of time. I believe we are seeing this and we have to steward well the gifts that God gives to us.

Joel 2:28–29 (ESV): And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29  Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.        

We only know in part and prophesy in part. So God has established authority in the local church to sift the various gifts to ensure accuracy.

Please don’t think the gifts have passed away. And please don’t think that the gifts are too scary to trust. If you can see people and their great need to know Jesus and be in His presence forever, then you are close to the gifts.

If your heart can be filled with compassion for the hurting and the broken, then you are close to the gifts.

If you can open your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to give you super natural power to have an impact in some way in your community, you are close to the gifts.

Please be open and willing for God to take your faith to the next place.

Lord, I am open and I am willing for You to grow and develop the gifts that You have put inside me. Lord, with the faith that You have given, I choose to embrace my gift in love. Even though the gifts will soon be all gone, what time I have, I willingly submit to Your plan for using me to touch people around me

Are the stout hearted still reading? Well, here is one for you. Ask the Lord with full confidence that He will deliver to you dreams, visions, knowledge and prophecy. Any and everything that with skepticism you have wondered before, now with boldness and confidence in the Holy Spirit, open your arms and receive from God. And then share with someone what the Lord does. I can’t wait to see what God does!

Devotional thoughts for God’s Family – 4

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

How wonderful it will be to see the perfect come. We have much in our world today that could stand to have some perfect in it, right? That is sort of tongue-in-cheek, because this passage is referring to spiritual gifts and the mechanics of the local church compared to what it will be like when the mechanics of the local church becomes obsolete.

In our day, the Bible teaches about spiritual gifts, authorizes the spiritual gifts and expects that we would use our spiritual gifts. I think that our church today will be nothing more than a hospital chapel unless we embrace and use our gifts. Hospital chapels are places people visit in times of crisis to be near God. Trust me when I say that the local church is not designed to be a hospital chapel.

The underlying theme of this whole chapter is love. What Paul is getting at is, as important as the gifts are, they are supremely temporary. Love will endure forever and the gifts will be gone soon. The perfection of the presence of God makes certain things obsolete and gifts are one of them.

We shouldn’t hold too tightly to the things we have or the titles we walk with, or even the roles we play today. There is a better system waiting for us. One that we will fully comprehend and fully participate in as well. Imagine a way of life where love is the core to all things, the beginning and the outcome of everything.  

I know that you have heard about the fruit of the Spirit, or what I like to say is the culture of heaven. What makes heaven a place you want to be isn’t the gold and gems otherwise you would spend all you time at the local jeweler.

What makes heaven the place to be is God being there. God has a way of life, a personality, and heaven, because God is there has a feel to it, and that is called the fruit of the Spirit. God loves you so much that He even gives you a chance to begin to feel the culture of heaven in your life right now.

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV): But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Love – right away.

This whole chapter 13 is an introduction or an orientation to the culture of heaven, this is why we are stretched so much when we read it – it doesn’t seem possible to us to achieve this level of love normally. Think in terms of love being a fruit or result of the presence of the Holy Spirit in you.

Let’s be real for a moment and walk with some clarity. Some people chase the gift believing that the gift is the evidence of the Holy Spirit, or that the gift is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If I had to choose (and I don’t, but to make a point, I will) between a person who demonstrates the fruit of the Holy Spirit or a person who demonstrates the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I would chose the fruit all day long.

From what I have seen, and maybe you too, people can use a gift in the wrong way. But the fruit is a different story. The fruit is supposed to come first and it is from God. Even a person who doesn’t even know what the gifts are, if they are filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit, it won’t take long before love is poured out, the gift will be revealed.

This chapter is saying to all of us – focus on the fruit! Because the gifts are going away, and the fruit is here to stay –

So don’t stray

Be on your way

Filled with love today

That the world may

Accept truth I say

And not eternally decay

[somebody stop me, please]

Lord, thank You for giving to us a taste of heaven now. Because You have chosen to make each of us Your home, Your tabernacle, we experience the rich blessings of being in heaven even while we are still on earth. What is so attractive about Heaven is You. Today we celebrate You and thank You for all that You are and all that You do to make us able to appreciate the great gift of Jesus. Thank You.

Devotional thoughts for God’s Family – 5

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

When we read this verse it is very exciting. This verse is shedding light on the elevation of life when we are all finally in Heaven. On earth we are limited, because of the physical form that we live in. Our limitation is called by the Apostle Paul “perishable.”

1 Corinthians 15:54–55 (ESV): When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55  “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Keep in mind, this verse is layered in its context.

1. We mature as we grow older, as a child we act like children, but no so when we are older.
2. Our existence on earth right now is like being a child. When we are finally in heaven we will exist in an elevated and matured fashion.
3. Since the context of the whole chapter is focused upon love, Paul is helping the reader to see that on earth we have “childish” ways that won’t work in heaven. One thing that will not go away is love.

As a matter of emphasis, Paul explains through the chapter that love will expand and grow in heaven. There will be nothing to stand in the way of love and abort its chief mission – others.

Today we have to work toward love because of the evil old nature that we carry with us in our flesh. With new flesh, imperishable flesh, flesh that has not been touched by sin, we will not work toward love. We will not fight the evil desires that exist in us today.

Today God has given gifts along with His special anointing to use the gifts. And the chief purpose of the gifts is to work in and amongst the evil desires and sin of this world. The gifts combat evil by expressing the heart of God through love. Thereby demonstrating who God is.

The gifts are a physical sign of the spiritual presence of God. And will be completely unnecessary when we are finally in the physical presence of God.

What will we be doing?

What new system is God going to inaugurate for us?

Will I like it?  

1 Corinthians 2:9–10 (ESV): But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

If we can know love today as deeply as we do, as God gives us a small taste of heaven, imagine what love will be like without the mess we have made here on earth?

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 (ESV): And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

OH YEAH! Praise God! How exciting! The love we feel today, the capacity to love others and to overcome sin, to experience Godly love for others is but a deposit from God of the things to come.

1 John 3:2–3 (ESV): Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Lord, how exciting to think about the ever expanding reality of heaven. Our minds are filled with awe and wonder at what is in store. We have hope in You today. Hope that is alive! We continue our work in this world and we love others with the love that You showed to us. We praise Your name Jesus, for You have made all of this possible through Your blood. Amen!

Devotional thoughts for God’s Family – 6

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

The imagery (no pun intended) is beautiful in this verse. Notice carefully that the one looking into the mirror, is not looking through a window. In the Greek the word for mirror is esoptron, and this is the word used in this context.

When we look through a window, we do not see ourselves, we are looking for something else. The passage says mirror, the reason we look at a mirror is to see what we look like. If you go to the word after, “dimly” we find a riddle.

Quite literally, because in the Greek the word is ainigma. It is where we get the word enigma, which is a code, encryption or a riddle.

What we see of who we are and who others are, and what we know of who we are and who others are, is at best, encrypted and not truly understandable because it is not meant to be revealed until a later time. That means there is more of you that you do not know. It is already built into you. It is already there, you cannot understand it and you are supposed to until a later time.

What is the code? Who has the sequence of numbers? Who is going to plug in the secret combination?

But then face to face – check this out.

The code to unlock who you are is unlocked when you see Jesus face to face. Now remember God is love. When you lock eyes with the eternal being of love you come alive into your eternal destiny. There is a level of love locked in you right now. And it is encrypted into your fabric, put there by a sovereign God before you were born.

By His kindness and love, He gives you a portion of that love now. Try as you may to understand the fullness and true potential of that love, we just can’t get there. We stare at it in the mirror and we wonder who that person is, really. We are content, but we also know that there is more.

And then face to face we know as we are fully known. You now live, breathe and exist in a full understanding of who you are, just as God sees you – and never a doubt again.

Its going to take 10,000 years just to get used to that – and I am good with it!

I am so grateful that you are known by God, right now, fully known. Not simply known in your brokenness, God knows you in the fullness of your eternal identity and destiny – He knows you that way right now. That brings joy and excitement to me for you.

Our faith in the promises of God, holds us tightly to the hope and reality of these things that we are talking about. Faith and hope keeps us looking for our God to return. Faith and hope keeps us looking in the mirror and with joyful wonder, we wait.

But guess what… can you believe that even faith and hope are going away too, just like the gifts. Did that grab your attention? Read the chapter again before our next time in the Word.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV): Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Lord of all, we ascribe to You sovereignty. You truly are God and there is none like You. You rule over all with no competition. None can stand against You and prevail. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord of those in heaven and those on the earth. Great are Your ways, too high for us to comprehend. Your love for us and Your provision for our future is evident in Your Word. Thank You for Your gracious blessings poured out to us all.

Devotional thoughts for God’s Family – 7

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Did you read the passage again? If you haven’t please do, 30 seconds, that’s all. We get to this interesting verse that seems to compare faith, hope and love, and love is interestingly elevated above the other two. Why?

To begin with, lets do a short review of what we have learned. Through this entire chapter our author elevates love above:

1. Spiritual gifts in verses 1-3
2. Human behavior in verses 4-7
3. Time in verses 8-11
4. Human understanding in verse 12

And now in conclusion He brings us to the bedrock of Christian living, which is faith and hope, and point blank says that love is greater than faith and hope. How can this be? How can love be elevated above faith and hope?

The answer is…longevity.

Faith and hope are not destined to remain forever. Does that sound shocking? Well, let’s dig in a bit to understand this absurd assertion I am making.

Hebrews 11:1 (ESV): Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

My question is, “So what happens when you have seen the things previously not seen?” There is no longer a need for faith and hope to sustain a lifestyle of living as though things are, even though they physically aren’t.

Heaven is not real to any of us without faith and hope. Our salvation is not real to any of us without faith and hope.  

Romans 4:17 (ESV): As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

God calls into existence the thing that do not exist and we live according to the Word of God as though things exist even though they do not exist, until He calls them to exist. That is the basis of faith and hope.

When you see it (whatever it is) faith and hope are no longer relied upon to sustain your belief. And so it is with God, Heaven and the fullness of your salvation. Faith and hope are no longer needed. What remains is the reality that your faith and hope were well founded in the promises of God. And now seeing, prompts an eternal love for the one who provided what you waited for.

It is hard to fathom, however, our author Paul, takes us to the far reaches of our comprehension to see the deep deep love that God has for us, and how that love poured out for us, fills us with eternal joy.

Lord we praise You for the moving of the Holy Spirit in the Apostle Paul’s life, as He heard You speak so He could write the things he did. Thank You Holy Spirit for the message in 1 Corinthians 13. Lord, Your love is eternal and I am glad to say that our love for You is eternal too, it is so wonderful to say so. Praise Your name! Praise the God of all! We worship You today.

Blessings

Pastor D

Ok, one more time –  you are thinking – pastor you are off your rocker! We will always have to have faith in God. He is God we are not. That means we will always need to have faith that He will remain good to us.

Remember the phrase in the prior verse, “You will know even as you are fully known.” The love unlocked at the face to face encounter with Jesus will do something in you, and me and we will know. For your further investigation, what do you think we will know? It goes beyond our Bible study a few days ago – you ready for the BOOM moment? In the Bible study we looked at what we see in the mirror and what we will know about ourselves, that God already knows. There is something else you will fully know, so amazing that it flushes faith and hope away.

The heart of God, you will truly see and know the heart of God.