Love never fails Brendan Mc Crossan
Love never fails
Brendan Mc Crossan
th July 2011 One
The qualities of love
Love never fails us, it is us that fail love
1-Corinthians-13-4-Love 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 (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away;asfortongues,they willbedestroyed and cease;asforknowledge,itwillpassaway [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. Amplified Bible
This scripture tells us what love actually is and as scripture says God is love and when you act in love God lives in you and you in him.
1-John-4-8-for God is love.
1-John-4-10- in this act we see what real love is; it is not our love for God, but his love for us, when he sent his son to satisfy God’s anger against our sins.
Isn’t it so easy to get uptight with others, I am struggling to be loving even as I write this book; I am in Turkey at my daughters restaurant and I got up very early so that I could take time to study on love and write what the Holy Spirit would inspire me to write, and two friends of Brenda our daughter came into the restaurant and came over to me, and inside I am saying, ‘leave me alone, I want to write about love and I can’t be annoyed by anyonerightnow;’that’sa suresign ofloveisn’tit?‘Ican’tbebotheredatthistimeright
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now I don’t have time to be civil and friendly with you because I am writing about love.’ Lol. When God teaches us something he does it instantly, so I am leaving this for now and will get back to it when I begin displaying signs of love towards my daughter’s friends.
Back again; This love thing is not very easy, it is very hard work, I am just started writing and I can see how many ways I am failing miserably to be loving towards others, either by what I am saying or doing, or even thinking. This is going to be the hardest book I am ever going to write I can see, because as I stated earlier that when God shows me something I am usually involved in it as I write and I have to learn to fight my way through it.
This also increases my estimation of Jesus, to realise that he loved people unconditionally is real, that no one was a bother to him, nothing put him out or upset him in any way, and this is the person I am with God’s grace trying to imitate.
I know that it is only by grace that we can even begin to imitate Jesus and try and walk in love, because we have within us the love of Christ Jesus as scripture tells us, and that holy love is there deep down inside us so we have to work hard to bring that love to the surface overruling our carnal nature to allow the love of God to arise in our hearts.
The lord has just shown me a way to make learning to walk in love easier, and he said that I was to take one piece of scripture and just apply that one piece for one week, then I was to take another piece of the scripture from 1-Corinthians-13 and apply that for one week until all the parts were worked at, and then start over again from the first scripture and begin again and his grace would be with me and you if you do this also, and so in this way we will grow strong in love and become more and more like Jesus and so let his nature come to the fore.
Lesson one; Enduring, patient and kind
1-Corinthians-13-4-Love endures long and is patient and kind;
This is the first portion of the scripture that we should work at for only one week. When people cause us to get stressed out then we remind ourselves that love endures long, and we do the next part sit patient and say nothing, neither saying nothing or allowing resentmentto formin ourminds deliberately;weforcenegativethinking fromourminds using the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus to cover our minds, rebuking temptation to get short tempered and fall to Satan’s ploys.
If we chose to act like this it will be hard work because you can bet your bottom dollar that God will allow everything to come against us in these ways to prune us, giving us opportunities to practice and to grow in love, they’re not going to be easy opportunities but they will be God sent and not Satan sent.
To give you an example of love enduring long; Rose and I are in Turkey at the time of writing this book, and three nights ago a man we know was sitting at the bar in our daughter Brenda’s restaurant and when he gets a few drinks in him, if spoken to he will
talkforever.BothRoseandIsensedadeeplonelinessinhimandsowespoketohim,then webegan a seriousconversation with himand hetalked foroveran hourand a half, both of us felt compassion for him and enjoyed what he talked about though normally we would have gotten bored, but we sensed the lord saying this man is lonely just let him talk, feeling important, so we did. A friend of ours called me over and asked if we needed rescuing from this man and offered to make a distraction, but I declined, knowing we were doing what God wanted us to do. Because of the love of God in us we sat and listened to this man and didn’t get bored and then he said something to us just before he finished and left; he said that I had saved his life a few years ago when disaster struck his business and he was planning suicide, that something I did for him during this time stopped him and God worked a miracle for him, and saved his business and he has prospered greater ever since.
Just sitting in enduring love and patience gave that man a chance to feel loved and important, and then he told how God used me to spare his life. I didn’t even realise that God was using me that night, but God uses us all the time if we are willing to be used.
That is just one example that God brings to my mind how love endured long and saved a man, we never know when God is using us, if we just do what we sense in our spirit and obey what we sense, then love gets a chance to grow. I am sure there are instances where you can go to where God used you to talk with someone and you gave them something that was and is enduring love and you didn’t know it.
God wants us to walk in love and will do everything possible to help us grow, we can be assured of his assistance and grace if we are willing to die to ourselves and let Jesus in us live to the full.
Now work at this one scripture for one week, be conscious of asking the lord for opportunities to grow in endurance and patience and kindness. Write this scripture down and place it somewhere you will see every day to remind you, and thank God for the opportunities to grow in his love and for helping you die to self.
Prayer;
Father God, forgive me for not practicing enduring love, patience and kindness, especially when I had many opportunities to express those qualities of Jesus Christ within me. Thank you that you don’t condemn me but that you reveal things and encourage me to bring about change in my life with your grace, in Jesus name. Amen
Lesson two
No envy or jealousy
1-Corinthians-love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy,
I’m not envious or jealous of anyone, or am I? ONLY God knows my heart. I know that I don’t desire worldly wealth, or do I? Out here in Turkey at my daughters restaurant, her and her husband’s reputation of having the best restaurant in Yallikavack Bodrum Turkey is becoming widely know and Turkish Movie stars are coming to eat here, and she is drawing in the Turkish millionaires every night of the week, and I see the wealth dripping off of them. I can tell the clothes they wear are not bought in Primark like mine, even the men’s trouser belts exhibit wealth, and I can tell they are not copies of brand names that you can get in Turkey but are the real thing. If a man or woman wears a Rolex watch you can bet it is a Rolex not the copies that you can get in the market, these people carry with them an air of wealth, and most are not prideful people they worked their way up the money ladder with hard work, they didn’t win the lottery, they worked or work hard for their wealth, and here am I sitting beside them talking with them and being introduced to them by my daughter Brenda, whom they seem to love with genuine affection, and they want to talk with herlikeshewas someoneof greaterimportancethan them. I wonder does inside me envy them their wealth or position, only God knows my mind, I don’t feel like I do but I don’t know me deep down inside. Maybe I am envious or jealous when I stand talking to them in my Primark T shirt and shorts all of which cost me about £4-00, maybe I am subconscious of my attire being of inferior material than theirs.Theonly thing IfeelIhavegreaterthan mostofthemis,thatmy Fatherowns all the gold and silver in this planet, and is wealthier than all of them combined so yes maybe there is a tinge of envy and jealousy but not at the forefront of my mind. What I will do is let God examine me over the period of the week I am working at getting rid of envy and jealousy, letting him bring to the fore any feeling of envy every emotion of jealousy that is definitely in me, I know it’s there but buried down somewhere in me that I am not aware of and so as the Holy Spirit searches out and exposes to me my envies and jealousies I in turn can acknowledge them and bring them to my father in heaven to help me get rid of them forever.
Love is worth more than a million envies and jealousies and is best to get rid of and is worth working at with God’s grace to become more like Jesus inside as well as outside.
Your jealousies and envies will be different than mine and God will expose our hidden agendas when we look to him to do so, and will delight in helping us grow more and more in love until we are just walking love.
Prayer;
Heavenly Father, I bring before you all the times that I have been Jealous of others and times I envied them and didn’t walk in the love of Christ that I was supposed to. I ask you to heal those that I hurt through my sins of envy and jealousy and lack of a loving attitude, and I know that you are bringing healing to those people right now as I release them from my jealousies and envies in the mighty name of Jesus Christ lord and saviour of all makind. Amen
Lesson three
Not conceited arrogant and prideful
1-Corinthians 13-5-5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride
I know for fact that I fail in this one; Rose my wife continually reminds me that I am being arrogant and prideful especially when it comes to talking with others about scriptures and the word of God in general and even on some other subjects. I know that God has graced me with great insight but it is by his grace alone that I know more than most Christians , it wasn’t because I deserved it or earned it but was by grace alone and nothing else. I didn’t deserve to know the word of God more than most nominal Christians, and that gifts of miracles and healings are by his favour and not because I spent hours every day searching for him because there were times I never even gave the bible a glance or prayed with great depth. Most of my praying I do on my feet walking around the block or to the shops or when I am driving my car, I personally find it hard to be a Christian who can sit and meditate quietly waiting on God; but God created me and knows me through and through, that I am a know it all, a typical pain in the ass to those around me. I am becoming more and more self conscious about this are of myself, especially when I have Rose and my children telling me every move that I make wrong.
Maybe God sits and says in heaven, ‘Peter, I don’t need to remind Brendan of his arrogance and pride because I have his wife and children reminding him every day,’ and they laugh.
This is only a joke I hope you realise. Or maybe it isn’t lol.
Well enough of my pride and arrogance, what about yours? Are you suffering in this way like me? Ask the lord and he will expose areas that you and I never even realised that we are arrogant or prideful in. Take this scripture like the others and work on it for a week with the grace of God helping you, and of course as you know from reading this book, I have to do the same as you, I am fully aware of one area but I am sure there are many areas where I fail and that you fail in, different from me.
**Don’t be tempted to try and cram all of these scriptures together and try and take a shortcut, trying to get it all accomplished at once it doesn’t work like that. God will only take one area at a time for you to work on with his help and remember it is with his help alone that you and I will succeed. It took us years to develop wrong thinking and attitudes and it will take time to pull these strongholds down with the grace of God so practice the first scripture and be patient letting God have his way in your life.**
Prayer to heal those I hurt through my arrogance, my conceit and pride;
Heavenly Father, I know that pride is our downfall and it has been mine many times and I was arrogant with others and hurt them forcing my opinions on them and not listening to what they had to say with any degree of interest, thinking I knew better than them. Heal those memories in others that I hurt and the side effect of the things and opinions I forced unto them and made them fell less important than me; and especially forgive me for the many times that I used your name and what you taught me to force my opinion on them making them feel like they have no way of answering back because after all –you
told me! And I used that to force my opinions on them I ask this in Jesus name, the lord of love. Amen.
Lesson four Rudeness and unmannerly
1-Corinthians 13-5- it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. {Rude means; impolite, discourteous, bad-mannered, uncouth, offensive, foul, vulgar, and boorish.}
Rudeness; we don’t like to think that we are rude we love to think that were just perfect. But all of us harbour rudeness and bad manners towards others, sometimes getting irritated by others.
Sometimes we try and justify our rudeness; well you’re rude so I will be rude back to you. Does Jesus act like this? Does he justify himself by acting in a rude manner by getting irritated by people who were rude to him?
Do we act like people have no meaning to us, I don’t like this person or that so I won’t be considerate of them, being inconsiderate of others is rudeness and not acting like Jesus. Don’t justify your rudeness by pointing out the rudeness of others. God will judge you for your rudeness and he will judge them for theirs, so don’t go trying to justify what you do in contrast with others.
We can easily offend others by our attitudes, and being rude can easily offend others causing someone hurt and pain and leading them to sin by being resentful against us. Rudeness has a negative effect on others and leads them to sin, think about this for a few moments and you may remember when you were rude to someone and they cursed you, or vice versa, you cursed them, so being rude to others can bring about a curse on yourself. For example if you were rude to someone they might say under their breath, f**** you, may you rot in hell, or other negative things. The F word in itself is not a curse, it is vulgar talk, and originated during the first world war with Germany and England, the soldiers would say, their comes the fockers meaning German aeroplanes, and this changed simply to their come the f*****s.
How often have we cursed our own partners calling them names under our breath, we are actually cursing our own loved one and don’t even realise it.
Isn’t it amazing the things that the lord shows us; things that we are not even aware of that have and affect and effect on us. I never dreamed that being rude to others could cause them to curse me and of course Satan loves to answer all curses if he can. Scripture tells us that we will give an account for ever idle word we speak, so speaking negative things, being rude with our words and action can be a source from where we can and will be cursed.
A prayer to break the curses caused by my rudeness
Prayer; “Lord Jesus you know that in my ignorance I was rude to people, hurting and offending them, and I know now from your word that every word I speak and that others spoke over me have an effect and affect on my soul and body, so in the name and grace of Jesus Christ I break the effects and affects of every rude word or action I committed, and I ask you to break the effects and affects that people spoke over me, cursing me wishing evil on me and bring those curses to an end, in Jesus mighty name.”
“I break Satan’s power and every evil spirits power to use those curses against me and my family, to try and destroy me and my loved ones, forgive me lord Jesus for being rude to others that you died for and especially for being rude to my wife Rose and my children and for being the cause to lead them to sin.”
“ ask you to fill the void where those curses had been placed on my life and the life of my loved ones with light and with love and peace, you said you will turn everything to good for those who love you and I know you know that I love you, so I know that you have broken every bad effect and affect over me in the spiritual world and the effects in this earthly world for your glory lord. Thank you Jesus, Amen.”
Lesson five
Giving in to others and giving glory to God
1-Corinthians 13-5- Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking;
“I want to watch the sports on TV,” and you insist on watching sports when all the family are sitting waiting to see Coronation Street or some other favourite program. You are selfish self seeking wanting what only you want having no consideration for others
My wife Rose is a great example of not insisting on her own rights or her own way, she always allows me the best seat, the control over the remote control for the TV. For the last forty five years that we have been married, Rose always, and I mean always, gave up her seat for me when we were out at a party or anywhere, she always insisted in my comfort, especially knowing what a rotten crying sod I was. I was a complainer, there was a draught, or my seat was too hard or something like that, and Rose always insisted on giving me her seat. This is just one example I am painfully aware of at this moment, I was a very selfish man, always wanting my own way, and it has taken me 45 years of marriage to the greatest Christ like woman I know of to begin, and I mean to begin, trying to make Rose number one in my life and not myself.
This dying to one’s self is hard work, its killing me, to change from being totally selfish to becoming more thoughtful, and selfishness is inbuilt into almost every man, so men own up to it claim it as your own and bring it to the lord for changing. Women on the other hand are inclined to want to please their partners or husbands or boyfriend, putting them first. They think differently than us, that’s why they are so complex, we men think black and white and women are multi coloured. We men think of ourselves and women are inclined to think of us and others, considering us and them more than themselves.
Maybe we men or even some women need to ask forgiveness for all the selfish ways we have lived up until now; you know it’s great when God reveals things to us, things that are blocking us from becoming more like his Son Christ Jesus. God loves us so much that he even takes years waiting until the right moment to bring change into our lives.
Why did he not change me when I first became born again and conscious of the many ways that I didn’t live up to what a Christian should be? Well the answer is, God is long suffering and patient and has all the time in the world to bring us into an awareness of his love, and the closer you draw to God over many years, then the more conscious of sin you become, the more aware you are not living as a child of God should.
Prayer for change;
So let’s pray together; Father thank you for your great unending patience with me. Thank you for revealing to me areas of where I hurt and offend others by my acts of selfishness. Thank you that you are giving me the grace right at this moment to become more selfless and to become more like Jesus in everything I do or say or think, thank you for giving me the grace to become thoughtful, and considerate toward others and especially towards my own partner and children and family circle and to others also, in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Lesson six
Don’t be so touchy or fretful
1-Corinthians-13-5- it is not touchy or fretful or resentful
Touchymeans-easilyupset-moody-prickly-quick-tempered-irritable-sensitivedelicate. Fretful means, worried, anxious, fussy, agitated, neurotic, irritable Resentful- angry – bitter – indignant – offended aggrieved
When we use words like touchy, fretful and resentful, we are inclined to skim over them, we don’t really give them a terrible lot of thought do we? Or is it just “I” that does not give them deep thought? We don’t go deep into their meaning and their effects these things have on others and of course on us as others react to the way we just treated them and so we inherit curses just like when we are rude.
I’m beginning to really get uptight with this book, because it is serving to show up how little love I am showing towards others and have shown them over the years of my life, I don’t know about you, but things in my life up until now, are being brought to the forefront of my mind and I find myself asking for forgiveness because of what a hurtful person I had been towards God children. But this is great also because now I have been relieved of carrying the hidden burden of unforeseen sins; God is cleansing me through and through as I write this little book and I know if he is doing it with me he is doing it with you also.
This little book is not a negative as Satan would have me or you believe because it is the Holy Spirit who says he cleanses us with the blood of Jesus every day of our lives, making us more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ whose holy person we have within us, and as he reveals those little things that have accumulated like dust in an empty house he sweeps us clean because we are the home of the Holy Spirit and he is spring cleaning us right now dusting us down and washing us in blood giving the house where he lives an overhaul, making more and more room for Jesus and the Father to reside in us.
Now I’ve got that off my chest I can go onward now, searching out those things that cause hurt to others so that I can never with the constant awareness of the Holy Spirit let those things dwell in me as unaware of sin.
Touchy, fretful or resentful
Now I am aware what touchy, and fretful, and resentful mean, I can with God’s grace and his Holy Spirit look at ways that I hurt others by my touchy, fretful or resentful feelings.
I have always been quick tempered, super sensitive and easily upset- moody- pricklyirritable- sensitive delicate. I allowed things to get on my nerves. I have always been supersensitive and easily upset. Through the years I have managed to bring those feelings under control, but there quite a lot of things listed that I haven’t, and what better time than now to get rid of them “all” not just some but “all” of those unchristian like attitudes. This is the time of God’s supernatural grace being poured out on you and me, Grace given to get rid of once and for all the things that hurt and offend others and offend God also. I don’t need to sit and think of the many times I was touchy, resentful, and fretful nor do I suppose do you, I think by now the object in this book is the lord wants us to realise that we are not living up to the standards of the true Christian child of God; and we don’t need to rake up memories to ask for forgiveness, we just need to acknowledge before God the Father that we have sinned in these ways and that we are sorry and now we repent.
Prayer;
Heavenly Father you know every hidden sin in our hearts, and we acknowledge that you do know us through and through and better even than we know ourselves, so yes I admit that I have sinned in all these ways and have hurt others by my sins. I ask that you cleanse me from this un-Christ like ways, and to make me more like Jesus, so that I am now aware that I do these things and now commit them into your hands, letting you be Lord of these areas in my life and letting go of them. I give these hidden areas into your hands so that Satan cannot get at them in me any more to use to hurt and destroy others; I surrender them all happily over to you now in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Lesson seven
1-Corinthians-5- it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
When someone hurts us or says something bad about us to others we can get very angry and resentful and can even turn bitter. It is so easy to retort back with an angry word or words when someone does something on us.
I sold my home seven years ago to a landlord with the contract that I would live in my home for life, I paid off all my debts and had a good time with the money left over, we went to visit our daughter in Turkey and visited our son in the USA and I paid my rent to this man every month without fail.
For a while now I have been thinking of taking a case against my landlord because I paid him money for rent for my home and he received payment from the housing benefit about £400-00 a month and a £110-00 from me and he never paid the mortgage deliberately and all the time he pretended that everything was ok and I believed him, but behind my back he was planning to sell my home, he had it for sale on the Internet for eleven months and I knew nothing about this until I got a letter telling me that my former home was being repossessed and that we had eight days to get of our home that we lived in for thirty nine years, this was just three months from before I wrote this little book; this came as a total shock to us, and when our eldest daughter rang this man to ask what was going on he just laughed at her.
Trying to be Christ like was very difficult for me at this time. but the plan that Satan had using this man for evil against us, God knew about it beforehand and outwitted him, and within a few hours of having the eviction notice served we were given a new home that was filled with the presence of God so strong that our son who is not gospel greedy sat in a room upstairs as we were moving in and prayed because he could feel the presence of God and we thought he had skived off and gone home, until he came down the stairs and told us he was praying and we nearly dropped dead with shock.
Sometimes I am tempted to go to the housing benefit place and ask are they taking this man to court for fraud claiming benefit for a house which was repossessed one year ago and the repossession was served on us one year later; apparently it takes a year for a court order to be served after the bank takes someone to court and wins their case. Yet this man knew this that he lost the house a year ago and then he put it up for sale on the internet, trying to sell it when he didn’t even own it anymore, and he kept taking the monthly payments from the housing benefit and from my bank knowing this house was no longer his, and I felt so uptight about this for a little while, then I think of the blessings that God poured out on us which are far too numerous to write about in here or else the book would be about how God turns everything to good for those who love him, which he does. And now and then the devil tempts me to do something about this man and what he had done to me and I later found out that he done the same to his ex wife and kids and to a friend of mine who works in a Chinese take away, and I get tempted to go about things in a worldly way, and Then thelord showed methis scriptureand reminds methat
Not taking it onboard when others hurt and offend us
he knew what this man was planning and knew what he done to me and to others and tells me to leave everything in his hands, and now I write this book and I see that Love takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. And now I am so glad I followed the Holy Spirits prompting and done nothing but asked God to bless this man.
This had not been easy because everything in us cries out for justice or revenge but God says forgive everyone and ignore an injustice, try and take no account of a wrong done on you, and I have seen the benefits from doing what God’s word said. Blessing after blessing has been poured out on me and my family because Rose and I decided to let God deal with this situation.
Butstill, every now and then every feeling insideofmescreamsoutthatIand othersneed justice, over the things this man has done to us; and I hear of more people he is doing terrible things on, in an act of greed.
This is a part of me that has let go and handed it over to God; but almost every other day I hear of new things he has done on others, and the temptation to start legal action against him rises up inside of me again and I think of ways to do things to get retribution but each time I get a check in my spirit and I forgive him again and again as I hear of each new thing he does. I have to remind myself that love takes no account of an evil done to it, and praise God that he knew what this man was going to do to me and changed his evil intention to good for me, so I refuse to follow the worlds way of doing things to get revenge, and this is not easy but I have the grace of God in me helping me and now I have this reminder for at least a week, to ignore when Satan tries to trip me up when others tell me I should do something, even if it’s to stop him doing it to others, he needs to be exposed; but God knows and that is all I need to know and to praise him is all I need to do. Living like Christ Jesus is not easy, it is the hardest thing in the world to become like Jesus, yet he lives in us, what love! He overlooks our faults and failings and sinful deeds.
Prayer
Heavenly Father I let go of all the feelings and emotions of accountability of others sins. I desire to let my spirit grow in the love you designed me for. Help me to let go of the desire to hold to account the evil others done on me and mine and to learn to live and love like your Son Jesus. Amen
Lesson eight
Don’t rejoice to see someone suffer injustice
1-Corinthians-13-6-6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
Love never rejoices to see someone fall from grace, or to see a wrong suffered by someone. A lot of the times it is so easy to say someone deserved what they got, ‘even to say what goes around comes around,’ said the wrong way is rejoicing that someday the person you refer to will have a serious injustice done to them.
I just wrote about my landlord in the last lesson, and I know the measure he used against me and those other people will one day be the measure used against him, and God tells me that I should never rejoice to see evil befall him or anyone like him. But that I can rejoice when right and truth prevail. Those who do wrong will someday be found out, it is inevitable, even if God alone is the only one to know what the person done they will stand before the judgement seat of God to be judged and hidden things will be revealed for all in heaven to see.
If this landlord is taken to court by someone he defrauds and he is found guilty, I should rejoice that justice has been done, but I cannot rejoice over this man. I can rejoice that truth prevailed but I can’t rejoice to see him sent to jail.
Seeing war criminals brought to justice over the terrible murders and tortures and crimes they committed during conflicts is good, it is right to rejoice that justice finally caught up with them, but we are supposed to pray for these people, we are to harbour no evil in our hearts toward them, remembering that Satan was the one who used them to do his evil deeds to kill rape torture ,destroy and murder, evil is behind every dirty act of war or behind every dirty act of man; we need to become aware that this person has got themselves caught up in Satan’s temptations of greed and sin, for after all we too were caught up in Satan’s web at one time to.
Christ calls us to love unconditionally and that is no easy task, but it is a doable task with the grace and love of Jesus in our hearts. We too were once sinners and done terrible things on others and God let us off our sins through Jesus, do these men and women deserve any less, after all Jesus died for them also so that they too could receive forgiveness and receive eternal life alongside you. We are to hold no judgements over others, only God the Father is the true judge of all mankind. To hold resentment or vengeance against this man or others is just robbing me of the infinite love of God in me; it blinds me to the goodness of God in his mercy for me. If I harbour in my heart payback, then I forget the payback I owe Jesus for paying for all my terrible sins. Holding on to an evil only does us harm and not the other person, so why should I or you hold on to and seek revenge on someone who wronged us. The only person we harm is ourselves, because it stunts our growth in God’s love, it stops us from growing closer to God, it is definitely not worth rejoicing when the ones who hurt us has something bad happen to them, we are the ones who lose out, we are the ones wanting to draw close to God to be filled with his love and holding vengeance in our hearts prevent us from flowing in the love of God.
When we hold someone in bondage through Unforgiveness or revengeful desires we hold ourselves in spiritual bondage also, we remain tied to them as long as we hold hatred and revenge in our hearts and we carry them around spiritually on our backs and that extra weight on us does us no good spiritually or otherwise.
Prayer;
Heavenly Father I release the people who wronged me from all the hatred and resentment and desire for revenge I held in my heart. Give me the grace to overlook the wrongs they done on me or my family, to cease seeking revenge, to honour justice when it is applied and to love unconditionally at all times. I release myself from the ties that bound me to this other person / s in Jesus name and I thank you for showing me how to learn to love like Jesus loves. Amen
Lesson nine
Believe the best of everyone not the worst
1-Corinthians-13-7-Love 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].
Love bears up against everything and everything that comes, it is the only solid foundation that will stand when the end comes and we stand before the Father in heaven, love is the only substance that will remain after going through the fire in heaven. Resentment won’t stand it will be burned up in the fire. Bad deeds won’t stand they will be burned up as well. The only solid substance that will go through the fiery furnace of God’s love is love itself. I don’t know about you but when I stand before the Father at the end of time and he brings everything I have done before him and places it into the fire, I want to see the things that I done remain solidly still there and refined like gold.
How often do we hear things about others, and these things might not even be true they may be exaggerated even lies and yet we chose to believe them. Worldly speaking we are inclined to believe the worst of people even if we have no solid proof. And so we need to repent before God for all the times we believed evil things spoken about someone, maybe even our priests or pastors or vicars or brothers or sisters. And some of us even knowing the truth of a situation are inclined to believe the lies we first heard, using words like, ‘there’s no smoke without fire!’ Is this the way God wants us to be, after all we are made in his image, we reflect his glory and his image. Is a twisted belief the same image of God that we are supposed to reflect? I don’t think so. God is love and anyone living in love is living in God and God in him
1John 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abide in him. God is living in us and we are living in God so the word of the Almighty God says, and he is ready to believe in the best in everyone after all he created them, and knows that Satan the greatest enemy of mankind twists and distorts man, turning them into his image. God see the goodness in all mankind he does not look for their faults or sins, after all he sent his Son to pay for those faults and sins. Let us change our attitude and begin
looking for the goodness in others and even if we cannot find any believe that God sees the human heart and finds good in there somewhere. Let us refuse to believe the things people delight in telling everyone; I wonder if they would like their lives being talked about like that.
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, yes indeed love bears up against everything that comes, so when you and I are living in perfect love, then we will bearup underpressurewhen itcomesorany circumstance,simply becauseweknowthat we walk in love and love conquers, because God is in us helping us defeat the enemy and the evil he sends our way. Love bears up under any circumstance because true love is God in us and he can withstand anything that is thrown our way, even disasters. Its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
Love does not weaken, our human strength weakens and our dreams and plans fade away with time if not fulfilled but love is fadeless under all circumstances and endures everything without weakening. Isn’t it great to know that a dream or plan that God put in your heart is fadeless and endures every trial and temptation to give in and let go of your dream, his love within you will keep that dream alive and will fulfil that dream one day.
If you have a yearning in your heart for God and for ministry, God put that yearning into your heart and he will one day when you are ready bring that dream into reality, because it is fadeless.
You may aspire to be a millionaire to have great wealth to live a life of luxury but if that is not put there by God it will fade away as you go through life but the dreams and plans that God has for your life will never fade away or become obsolete, they will be fulfilled one day in God’s perfect timing.
Prayer
Heavenly father, forgive me for not believing the best of everyone for not giving people the benefit of the doubt, forgive me for letting the dreams that you gave me fade away until they are now almost gone. Give me the grace to believe the best in everyone and to hold on to the dreams you planted in my heart. Accomplish in me that enduring and fadeless love so that I will with your grace bring glory to your wonderful name. Amen
Lesson Ten
Love never fails us we fail love
1-Corinthians-13-8-Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
Love never fails us it is us that fail to live up to loves expectations, love sees the good in everyone , love does no wrong against anyone, love endures until the end and never fades away, it is always right there at our beck and call, we can call on love anytime. Love never becomes obsolete, never fails us, it will always bring us right into the very presence of God every time because when we live in love, love lives in us and we know that God is love and God lives in us and we live in him. love never gets outdated it is always fresh every moment of our lives and the wonderful thing about love is that we have been given it in abundance, it is overflowing from us when we let it, it is like a river flowing strong and swift, but when boulders are put into that river it becomes slower and slower until with many boulders it finally becomes a dam and stops flowing and those boulders are resentment, bitterness, Unforgiveness, hatred, anger and every unkind act. Let the river of love flow from now on unhindered by removing those boulders; repentance always removes a boulder, no matter what kind of boulder it was or is. Don’t let love fade away keep the river flowing by letting love rule our emotions and not letting our emotions rule us.
Love is not an emotion is it God, for scripture says ‘God is love,’ and God is not an emotion he is the supreme being the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, he is a person living in supreme Majesty and he chooses to live in us and let us live in him, that’s love in action.
Don’t let emotions of resentment, Unforgiveness, anger, hatred, rule us these are all emotions, the feelings that we feel. Love wants the best for everyone even sacrificing itself for others who do it wrong; it puts aside its feelings.
When we live in love God lives in us and that is an awesome though, that we do actually have the divine presence within us and that means for those who are involved in ministry, that the divine person is in us to bring about miracles and healings and prophecies and fulfil those prophecies and miracles when we step out and lay hands on the sick and when we stand in church and give messages from God to the up building of the body of Christ.
When we act in love miracles happen because scripture says “faith acting through love brings miracles.” I want a miracle flowing life with Christ Jesus living in me where he lives, letting him live in me to the fullness of the grace poured into me by the Father God.
Prayer;
Heavenly Father, I see that love is the greatest gift that a human being can have, please let me learn to live in your diving love for your glory and for the good of others, help me to work at these lessons from your word, so that I can become more Christ like for your glory. Amen
Epilogue; scripture says also in this 1-Corinthians that every gift and power will eventually disappear but that love goes on for eternity.
1-Corinthians-13-8-As for prophecy (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]. Amplified Bible
But love never disappears it goes on forever because God is love. I am giving you some scriptures on love at the end of this book to show you the effect love has on us and on the body of Christ his people.
I recommend that you print out the weekly lessons or write them on little postcards and place them where they will always be in your constant view, for example the toilet, the kitchen, beside the TV, beside a light switch or somewhere that they will be in constant view to remind you. Change them every week, work on them and repent when you don’t live up to them, then just go on and with God’s grace we will grow in love together. I wish you every success in these little lessons.
Our weekly lessons
Week one
Lesson one; Enduring, patient and kind
1-Corinthians-13-4-Love endures long and is patient and kind;
Week two
Lesson two; No envy or jealousy
1-Corinthians-love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy,
Week three
Lesson three; not conceited arrogant and prideful
1-Corinthians 13-5-5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride
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Week four
Lesson four; Rudeness and unmannerly
1-Corinthians 13-5- it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly.
Week five
Lesson five; Giving in to others and giving glory to God
1-Corinthians 13-5- Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking.
Week six
Lesson six; Don’t be so touchy or fretful
1-Corinthians-13-5- it is not touchy or fretful or resentful
Week seven
Lesson seven; Not taking it onboard when others hurt and offend us
1-Corinthians-5- it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
Week eight
Lesson eight; Don’t rejoice to see someone suffer injustice
1-Corinthians-13-6-6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
Week nine
Lesson nine Believe the best of everyone not the worst
1-Corinthians-13-7-Love 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].
Week ten
Lesson Ten Love never fails us we fail love
1-Corinthians-13-8-Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
These following scriptures are to help you grow more like Jesus because as he is” so are “we” in this world
1-John 4:17By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
1. John-13:34
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so-you-
must love one another.
2. John-13:35-by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you,love one another.”
3. Romans-12:10-be-devotedto one another in love. Honour one another-aboveyourselves.
4. Romans 13:8 [Love Fulfils the Law] let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled-the-law.
5. 2-Corinthians-13:11-[Final Greetings] finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
6. Galatians-5:13-[Life by the Spirit] you, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather,serve one another humbly-in love.
7. Ephesians-4:2-be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing withone another in love.
8. 1-Thessalonians-4:9-Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
2-Thessalonians-1:3-[Thanksgiving and Prayer] we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is-increasing.
Hebrews-10:24-And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and-good-deeds,
Let’s do what this final scripture says; copy this book and send it to your Christian friends, help them to grow in love like you are growing, give them my website so that they also can read the books the Holy Spirit inspired me to write for God’s glory.
http;//Brendansbooks.com