The greatest of these.......

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² 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 do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ 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. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ 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 the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a 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.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Even if you aren't a Christian or ever picked up a Bible you know at least part of this scripture from a sign in Hallmark, words spoken at a wedding, or some part of it in a greeting card for a loved one.
Every time I read this, it touches me.  I like to think of myself as a loving person, that for so long that my personality has been based in love and that each day my love for God and other people grows.  My faith and this scripture tell me that God is a loving, amazing God, that I am loved and that without love that I am nothing.  But like a lot of things, I think that human beings tend to read something so many times that it becomes rote, that they start to lose meaning.  I words I love you even get used so often that they start to lose their meaning when it's something that we say because we know that we are supposed to, a habit that we have created for the people that we love.  When is the last time that I looked at my husband  or my child for no reason other than their existance and told them with my whole heart and with tears in my eyes that they are loved?  Even more so, when was the last time that I looked at them when I was angry or upset with them and genuinely looked at them with love and said those words?  So here is the Kris interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13 that makes it a little bit more personal to me and makes me really think about it instead of just reading it I want to keep using it as the amazing example of love that Christ has already given me.

"If I tell you how beautiful and intelligent and brave and amazing you are, but do not have love, I am only saying what I have said before with empty words that have been said by many others to many others over and over again. ² If I have the gift of knowing you so well that I usually can predict how you will react and can figure out situations and learn from everything that goes on around me, and if I have a faith that shows how Godly and blessed I am, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I emptied my bank account and sold my house and everything in it and gave it all away to people who needed it way more than I ever did, and talk like my body isn't that big of a deal when it's a ridiculous mess of pain and illness, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love doesn't snap at it's husband or child, love doesn't need a reason to help someone. It does not want a better job with more money so that it can have nicer things, it does not brag about how talented it is, it does not hold others to standards other than God's. ⁵ It does not bring down others to feel better about itself, it is not so selfish that it wants to be better than the person next to it, it is not easily angered, it doesn't list every thing that every person has ever done to them as an excuse to distance itself from them. ⁶ Love does not delight in hurting others with words and actions, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects others and not itself, always trusts God and not itself, always hopes in the promises of the Word, always perseveres because it has been given the blessing of the presence of God.

⁸ Love never fails. But where I think I know better than others, this will cease; where I talk like I know what I'm talking about , I will be stopped; where I think that I am so smart, it will fade away. ⁹ For we know from our experiences and we can see our future in part, ¹⁰ but when God's completeness comes, what I think I know will mean nothing. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, in God's eyes I am still a child. And only when I became a part of God's kingdom did I even start to become the person that God had planned me to be. ¹² For now we see only what we choose to and what God reveals to us; then we will see all of God's truth. Now I know myself in part; then God will show me myself fully, God created me and has always known who I am and who I will become..

¹³ And now these three remain: faith in Christ, hope in His promises through his Word and the love that I couldn't have without my God. But the greatest of these is love that comes from God that he allows me to share with others."

K

Let me think about it.......

How many times in a day do you hear someone say the words, "I'm not sure, let me think about it"?  I personally have many examples in my life where I've either said those words or I have just avoided the subject completely by promising something that never comes to be.  There are people on both sides of this subject, those that really and truly need to think about what you are asking of them so that they can make an informed decision.  There are also those that say that so that they don't have to tell you that they don't have time, or they really honestly want to but never really get around to doing what you've asked.  I've fallen into both of these categories.....very rarely do I give a distinct yes or a distinct no when someone asks me to do something, because my life is so demanding already.
In our society today it's absolutely wonderful when someone goes and just does something for someone else when they are asked to do it, let alone when they aren't.
There was an amazing story of a man who heard about the lack of kidneys available for transplant for the 3 year waiting list who just walked into a hospital one day and offered his kidney to whomever it matched.  I'm a transplant patient and if I were healthy I don't know if I would even do that.
I'm not saying walk into your local hospital and save someone's life, but it seems to me that we've lost the art of charity.
We write a check and send it to a charity when we are moved by something that someone else is doing, and there is nothing wrong with that, but when was the last time one of us got our hands dirty in an act of charity?
When did we go and pray at a hospital with strangers that didn't have friends or family to be there for their surgery?
When did we offer to work the line in a soup kitchen EVERY Saturday, not just 2 times a year?
When was the last time that we went to a third world country and lived in a cement hut for just a week to help orphans?
Let's get a little bit more personal here,  when was the last time that a friend had a health issue or needed babysitting, or needed money, and you just assumed that someone else would help them take a shower, or watch their kids, or give them twenty dollars? 
When was the last time that you just spent time with someone without having something else planned an hour later so that they have your full attention for as long as they need it?
When is the last time that you stayed at work longer so that someone else could leave early to go and see their family before you did?
You see, my belief is that charity is sacrifice, and if it isn't, then it's not really something that you are giving for the right reason.  Don't get me wrong, we all do what we can, but do we?
When it's inconvenient for us to drive across town to take dinner to a friend, do we still do it?
When we have to look at the ugliness of sick children do we still go and read them stories in the hospital?
When our parents start to get older, because we have kids and our lives are so much busier than theirs, do we still expect them in their 60s and 70s and 80s expect them to come and visit us?
I'm as guilty as the rest.  But I try not to be.  I try very hard to be committed to the things that I devote myself to, and these days I try very hard to not devote myself to everything, but to make the important things count.
We spread ourselves too thin, and then truly we are not useful to anyone.  When was the last time that you sat down and thought about how you were going to spend your free time and it wasn't about you? When was the last time you didn't plan it but you had some free time and went to help someone else?  Unexpected grace is always an amazing thing.  One of my favorite scriptures says it best,  Matthew 5:34-37:³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. 
So I for one want to cut back on my "let me think about it" statements and leave more free time in my schedule so that my yes is a yes and my no is a no.  I want to truly give and not just phone it in.  I truly hope that I can.

K

Two years in Christ and I still have so much to learn

Today is what I call my spirithday.  Two years ago today I made the decision to live my life for Christ and to consider heaven my home, not the world that I currently live in.
The last two years on my spirithday I look back and remember what it was like on the day that I decided to devote my entire life to the love and pursuit of God's word and the life of a disciple of Christ.
I remember waking up that monring and reading the entirety of 1 Peter (still one of my favorite parts of the Bible to read), I remember that my sister Melissa and her husband had come all the way from South Carolina to watch my life change as I came out of my baptism with the holy spirit now guiding me instead of my own internal thoughts.
I remember my husband, and my son being there and watching.
But most of all, what I remember, more than anything is coming up out of the water sobbing.  There are no words to describe it, there is no way that I can tell you the relief, the joy, the weight that was lifted within 3 seconds of baptism.
It's impossible to explain to someone who has never studied God's word and then decided that whatever life God has for them is better than any life they could have planned for themselves.  It's hard to explain the love and compassion that are in my heart that weren't there before.  It's impossible to tell someone that you were made a new creation by Christ in the 3 seconds that you were in the water.
But it's true.  Believers will tell you it's the holy spirit and I'm filled with it, I will tell you that.
Others will say that I needed something to believe in after all of the struggles that my health and the rest of my life threw at me, and that's not necessarily untrue, but it's not why I chose what I did.
Some will say that I've been brainwashed and that I can't think for myself.  That isn't true either. (Especially if you know how head strong and willful I can be).
People who haven't experienced God's love in it's purest form cannot understand.  In a world that demands that we give in to our own needs and wants, a life of sacrifice in the name of God isn't understood or validated.  Being kind to people without expecting something in return, especially credit, is almost frowned upon.
Living your life for Christ and being open and honest about it regardless of who you are talking to is offensive to some people.
Not because they are bad people but because they don't understand it. I didn't understand it for 38 years and then I decided to look into it for myself.  I asked questions, I wanted proof, I demanded answers, and then I believed.  I am sure that the women who were in my bible studies wondered where some of these questions came from.
I wanted reassurance, I wanted promises, I wanted a better life here. But biblically I'm not entitled to that.  Honestly, I wasn't created for that purpose.
Once I took a solid look at where I had been and where I could be, I was convicted.  At that moment I couldn't imagine a life without God leading it.
So two years ago today I committed myself to living in God's way and God's truth.  I have never regretted it and I grow closer to him and closer to the person that I was meant to be every day.  What freedom I have experienced in the last 2 years!  What grace and love have been put into my eyes for me to see.
The fact that my life is still hard is ok, the fact that I still don't always get my way is also ok, because what matters now is so different than what mattered before.  I hope that people no longer see me, I hope that they see Christ.  Everything good in me came from him. My gifts, my love, my heart, my soul, my joy, my happiness, and my personality.  All him, working through me to better love and touch those around me.  I pray that I continue to let him do it until the day I die.
Two years later, I am still excited to be a disciple of Christ and I can't wait to see what he has planned for me next.

K