Sunday, March 5, 2023
1:34 pm
1 Corinthians 13:2-3
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,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Lately, the Lord has been teaching, me how to handle difficult times with Love. So often when one feels wronged or left out we can harden our hearts and even respond in the flesh, but something happen early this morning. I recorded it on my phone as I was in bed. I hope that as you read what was spoken to me that God will speak to your heart as he did mine.
Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
March 5th, 2023, 1:40 am
As I laid in my bed I heard the Lord say ‘Love’. You’re going to teach my people to let go of past hurt, and shame and hang up that old jacket of past rejection and past failures.
Love without Borders
1 John 5:1-2 ‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. As believers of Jesus Christ, we are called to love so much that it is one of the very first commandments. Love the Lord with all your heart and Love people is what the Lord spoke to me early this morning. Mark 12:28-31 titled The Greatest Commandment reads 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”
One might ask, what does it mean when I say we should strive to Love without Borders? Everything I am about to write is literally how I heard God speak it to me. We have to be okay with loving people knowing that it might not be returned. Loving without looking for a response after all look at what 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 says 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.
While reading the scripture quoted above the self-seeking part stood out. Why is this important? because this is the way that God loves us, come on I told you when I first started writing if I can’t be open and transparent then all this is a waste of time. How many of us can truly say that we love God the way that he has requested us to? No judgment zone we are all here including myself to learn. How many of God when we were walking in sin freely woke up saying today I am going to love the Lord with all my heart and all my soul? And love my neighbor that I can’t stand because he has asked me to? Let me just answer for the crowd “None of us, but guess what ? that is okay because if we said yes then that would mean that we are perfect and don’t need Jesus nor the help of the Holy Spirit.
We have to be okay with loving people knowing that it might not be returned; Loving without looking for a response. Take a look at Joshua 1:8-9 keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Loving without borders will require one to be strong, and courageous in the Lord because sometimes you will be rejected and when this happens don’t believe the lies of the enemy but believe the truth of God that is written in Joshua 1:5 I will never leave us nor forsake you. But does that mean that we give up on a person? No, but what it does mean is that we go back to the father in prayer reading, meditating on the word that he gives us, and be long-suffering. Love is a never-ending Journey but not a hopeless one and we see that throughout the Gospel. How can one move with compassion if they do not have love? In Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
To love, and do it the way that God requires we need to do what is spoken f in John 3:30 Jesus must become more important, while I become less important. He must increase, but we must decrease fully surrendering to the spirit of God allowing the Holy Spirit to saturate every fiber of our being. If you can recall in one of my past posts I shared how the Lord spoke to me after the funeral of Joshua telling me to go back in his word and see where his people never suffered. asking me but am I still not God? I could have become closed off, angry, and resentful when Joshua was murdered. I could have shut up my heart and said that I will never love again because no one cared about the love I had for my son. But God reminded me that none of us are without sin and that I need to Love even more and show people his Love. Agape Love can and always will win in any situation, and not because of the way the world teaches us to love but because of the way when God sent his son Jesus to demonstrate it while he was on earth with us even after being beaten and spit in his face Matthew 26:67-68.
In love, we should also understand that there will be suffering, and please don’t ever mistake what I am saying as condoning a domestic abuse relationship. That is not love and I would never encourage anyone male or female to stay in a situation like this. if you need help with something like this I would advise you to reach out to close friends and family and call the police. No one has a right to abuse you mentally, physically, and emotionally. The love I speak of is the father’s love and in it, we can sometimes suffer unaware of those that we are giving it. But also, through those experiences, we see the true meaning of grace and God’s sovereignty. I pray at times that Joshua’s killer when caught will turn their lives to Jesus and will allow me to contact them so that I can share the good news and keep them encouraged while doing their time, but I have been asked why? My answer is simple 1 John 1:10 If we claim we have not sinned we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. I have to overshadow darkness with God’s love. Jesus said in John 13:15-17 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Will you be the example? Will you forgive and love even when your emotions tell you to do differently? Because our emotions can hinder us from moving at full capacity to the standard that God has called us. Will you leave the past behind you and love those who have hurt you? Let this be your prayer tonight that God will meet you where you are and help you push past this bump in the road.
If I can leave you with anything to think about it would be that if it doesn’t demonstrate the ways of God and teach us how to love like Christ loves the church, run because you are going the wrong way. And then that if we are struggling to love (Agape Love) True love the first step is to pray that God shows us the true picture of what that looks like which can only be found in him by reading his word.
Closing prayer
Lord this one had me on all levels because not only was I writing this, but I had to demonstrate it and it was very uncomfortable for me at times. But I know that I can do all things through Christ Jesus Philippians 4:11–13 and 1 John 4:4 because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Lord if loving without hypocrisy was not possible then would not have taught it in 1 Corinthians 13. I pray that while this love letter is read that your children will study the subject of Love even taking a look back at the beginning of Genesis where you created this beautiful world for us to live in because you first loved us and sit in that and praise you for all your wonderful works. Help us God to love without borders, but to love you and accept the Love that you demonstrated to us so freely in Jesus’ mighty name.
The songs of the week are called
1)Amen Amen by Sinmidele and Ore Macaulay
2) The One you Love (Feat. Chandler Moore & Elevation Worship
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