Along with some friends, I have been making my way through the first two weeks of this book. It has been a great little refresher so far and I am greatly looking forward to the next four weeks. It has helped me get back to real Bible study.... and have some good laughs with some wonderful girls (Hi Melissa)!.
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This last year was a rough (and by rough I mean simply reading and not thinking a thing about anything... might as well have been nonexistent) one for my own personal Bible study. I've shared before that I let my own circumstances and physical surroundings totally get me depressed and out of whack. I am so glad that we serve a God of that doesn't hold this last year against me and that He is full of mercy and love.
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This book is teaching us to go through the Bible and really examine the scriptures. The other day I was reading 1 Cor. 13 over and over asking God to show me something new. I thought I understood these verse pretty well... It was read at my wedding and stuff.
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"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
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This is what I've got: God wants us to go beyond the usual "God is love" stuff and understand that God wants us to love Him with this perfect love.... the love He has for us. Without that love we are nothing.
Which makes me think about when everything is stripped away... and I mean everything... when we are standing in front of God one day will I have that real love to show him. We think we know what love is here on earth, but I have a feeling we really have no idea. Even though it is scary to think about who we are in the core.... without family, husbands, children, friends, a job, a home, hobbies, life as we know it, church and on and on.... I know it is something we all need to do.
Is this crazy?
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