Christianity Oasis Forum

by **cimi** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:02 pm

October 20
Tuesday

*Rapture*

HOW TO
HELP THOSE
WHO HURT

READ:
1 Corinthians 13
_________________________________________________

Now abide faith, hope,
love, these three; but
the greatest of these
is love.
__1 Corinthians 13:13
__________________________________________________

When I have asked suffering people, "Who helped you?" not one person has mentioned a PhD from a prestigious seminary or a famous philosopher. All of us have the same capacity to help those who hurt.

No one can package or bottle the "appropriate" response to suffering. If you go to the sufferers themselves, some will recall a friend who cheerily helped distract them from their illness. Others think such an approach insulting. Some want honest, straightforward talk; others find such discussion unbearably depressing.

There is no magic cure for a person in pain. Mainly, such a person needs love, for love instinctively detects what is needed. Jean Vanier, who founded the L'Arche movement for the developmentally disabled, says: "Wounded people who have been broken by suffering and sickness ask for only one thing: a heart that loves and commits itself to them, a heart full of hope for them."

Such a love may be painful for us. But real love, the apostle Paul reminds us, "Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:7).

As is so often His pattern, God uses very ordinary people to bring about His healing. Those who suffer don't need our knowledge and wisdom, they need our love. __Philip Yancey
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``````````````O brother man, fold to thy heart thy brothers!`````````
``````````````Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;``````````
`````````````````To worship rightly is to love each other,```````````
`````````Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. __Whittler````
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They do not truly love who do not show their love.
__Shakespeare

*************Today's Bible Reading __ 1 Corinthians 13************

1 Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I
have become a sounding
brass or a clanging cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift
of prophecy, and understand
all mysteries and all
knowledge, and though I
have all faith, so that I
could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am
nothing. 3 And though I
bestow all my goods to feed
the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, but
have not love, it profits me
nothing.

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.