OUR DAILY BREAD : START WITH ME

[cimi]

Thursday March 5


start with me

READ:
Phillipians 2:4
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Let each of you
look out not
only for his own
interests, but also
for the interests
of others.
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I call them Mell Notes__little comments my daughter Melissa made in her Bible to help her apply a passage to her life.

In Matthew 7, for instance, she had drawn a box around verses 1 and 2 that talk about not judging others because, when you do, "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." Next to it she wrote this Mell Note: "Look at what you are doing before you look at others."

Mellisa was an "others-oriented" teen. She lived the words of Phillippians 2:4. Her classmate Matt, who knew her from church nursery through her final days in the eleventh grade when she died in a car accident, said of Melissa at her memorial service: "I don't think I ever saw you without a smile or something that brightened up people's days." Her friend Tara said this: "Thanks for being my friend, even when no one else was as nice and cheerful as you."

In a day in which harsh judgment of others seems to be the rule, it's good to remember that love starts with us. The words of Paul come to mind: "Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13).

What a difference we'll make if, when we look at others, we say, "Love starts with me." And wouldn't that be a great reflection of God's love for us?

Lord, thank You for the great love You lavished on us when You sent Your
son to die and be resurrected so that we could be with You eternally. In
response, help us to love others. Lord, we want to be like You._______
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Embracing God's love for us is the key to loving others.

*************************Today's Bible Reading __ 1 Corinthians 13:4-13***************************
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love
does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave
rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks
no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the
truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things.

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they
will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether
there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part
and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has
come, then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a
child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put
away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but
then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know
just as I also am known.

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

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is extolling the value
of love, but it is not just any kind of love. In Greek, there are a
variety of words for love that range in meaning from physical to
fraternal. Here, the word translated "love" is agape, which speaks
of supreme love__the kind that sacrifices itself for the one loved.
This is the love God demonstrated for us by giving His Son to pay
the price for our sins (JHON 3:16; ROM 5:8).

[Alciniciao]

Everyday God gives each of us a new bread according to what we need. Amen to what you have posted