OUR DAILY BREAD : LEARNING TO LOVE

[cimi]

April 27
Sunday


LEARNING
TO LOVE

READ:
1 Corinthians 13:4-13
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Love suffers long
and is kind.
__1 Corinthians 13:4
________________________________________________________________________________________________

When Hans Egede went to Greenland as a missionary in 1721, he didn't know the Inuit language. His temperament was often overbearing, and he struggled to be kind to the people.

In 1773, a smallpox epidemic swept through Greenland, wiping out almost two-thirds of the Inuit people__and claiming Egede's wife as well. This shared suffering melted Egede's harsh demeanor, and he began to tirelessly labor to care for the people physically and spiritually. Because his life now better represented the stories he told them of God's love, the Inuits could at last grasp His desire to love them too. Even in suffering, their hearts turned to God.

Perhaps you are like the Inuits in this story, and you are unable to see God in the people around you. Or perhaps you are like Hans Egede, who struggled to express love in a way that taught people about God. Knowing we are weak and needy people, God showed us what love is like. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins (John 3:16). That's how much God loves you and me.

Jesus is the perfect example of the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13. As we look to Him, we learn that we are loved and we learn to love in turn. __Randy Kilgore

`````````````````````Jesus, let me find in You a sense that I am`````````````````````
```````````````````loved. And may my heart not grow cold and`````````````````````
`````````````````cluttered by anger and wounds from the past so````````````````````
``````````````````````that others can see Your reflection in me.````````````````````
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
May I never be the barrier that
blocks one's view of God.

****************************************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.

11 And now abide faith,
hope, love, these three; but
the greatest of these is love.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

This passage on love, a favorite at weddings, is probably the most
quoted of all Bible texts. Heer Paul describes what love looks like.
Jesus summed up the duties and imperatives of the Christian faith
with the duty to love God and to love others (Matt. 22:36-40).
Calling it a new commandment, Jesus said love was the distinctive
mark of a true follower (John 13:34-35). Building on the original
standard of "lov[ing] your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39), Jesus
set a new, higher standard based on His sacrificial love. He wants us
to "love...as I have loved you" (John 13:34).