Friday, December 18, 2009

100 Day Experiment --- Living Love

To be mindful everyday of the fact that we are told to love the Lord with all that is within us.... and to love one another.....

Fabulous scriptures then speak of how to do just that.... putting off .... take upon..... walk this way..... watch.... look ... act.... opportunities abound......

To live purposefully and with full action......

passages like those in Ephesians:

15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I don't want this to become a religious act... but one where I am becoming an imitator of God ... isn't that a funny statement... but I am not doing this out of some religious obligation or notion....

My premise is that at the end of 100 days I will know more of the Lord and His heart for myself and His people.... and I will have experienced the joy not some euphoria but the true joy that comes from becoming more like Him and living in the ways that He set before us.... not giving myself an out or an excuse but by living love day in and day out... when tired .... when I don't feel like it.... when selfishness and exhaustion bear down upon me.... who am I.... Who do I want to be..... who is He and how can I become more like Him......

Day 5.... 8 am...... don't know what the day holds but am looking forward to all the opportunities to put myself to death and live in patience, kindness, self control...

so today 1 Corinthians 13... will be my guide

1 Corinthians 13 (Amplified Bible)

1 Corinthians 13

1IF I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such [a]as is inspired by God's love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2And if I have prophetic powers ([b]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God's love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).

3Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or [c] in order that I may glory, but have not love (God's love in me), I gain nothing.

4Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

8Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

9For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).

10But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded).

11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.

12For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as [e]in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand [f]fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been [g]fully and clearly known and understood [[h]by God].

13And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.


And 1 Peter 4:8 bove all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and [e]disregards the offenses of others]

who would we be.... what would the world look like..... How will the Lord be glorified .. if we choose day in and day out... moment after moment.. to live this way... uhm... TRYING REALLY TRYING

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