0:00:02] Lois: today’s episode is sponsored by Kendra at scripture flips. Who do you know That needs a flip right now. No, I’m not talking about that type of flip. We’re talking about scripture flips. God’s word is the lifeline we need and every scripture flip, has pages and pages of it. Scripture flips are small, convenient and easy to keep with you at all times. Kendra also has journals, mugs, tumblers, pens, so many other things in her shop, You can receive 20% off of anything from scripture flips by just going to the link in our show notes following that guide. And then when you get done, hop on over to scripture flips dot com and check out all of the goodies again. This episode is sponsored by Kendra at scripture flips dot com. And Kendra thanks for your sponsorship. My name is Lois Mcnair and with me is my co host,
[0:01:06] Emily: Emily Louis.
[0:01:08] Lois: Hi Emily.
[0:01:09] Emily: Hi there.
[0:01:11] Lois: So do you have a micro joy this week? I do. I want to hear it
[0:01:18] Emily: tonight as I was coming into the office to record there were so many birds just happy chirp in and
[0:01:28] Lois: tweeting. You were tweeting I’m
[0:01:32] Emily: going to the very word.
[0:01:34] Lois: Were they using hashtags when they tweeted?
[0:01:38] Emily: No they were much kinder than
[0:01:40] Lois: twitter. That’s
[0:01:43] Emily: good. No they were so happy and just I don’t know made me smile.
[0:01:50] Lois: Yeah I love to watch birds. I love to hear them sing and talk and all that
[0:01:57] Emily: stuff. What’s your micro joy this week?
[0:02:00] Lois: So my micro joy also happened this evening. Um But I have to tell you kind of how it started out. Okay so my mom is visiting with my one of my sisters in California right now and she’s out there for six weeks and anyway so we’ve been getting pictures and updates and you know I just love I just love all that anyway. But this afternoon I got a text from one of my sisters, my sister that’s in California. And all it said was I hope I didn’t just throw you under the bus. Let me just tell you, it is never good when you get a text that says, I hope I didn’t just throw you under the bus because I’m then your brain just goes, oh my gosh, what is she talking about? What did she say? What did I say that? She said that? I said, you know, you just, her whole brain just goes 90 mph. And so then she um and my sister, uh Laurie is an avid listener of our podcast, which I didn’t even push it with family. So I just love the fact that she she’s doing that. But anyway, she said, well, I’m sewing this afternoon and I put on uh R. F. W. P. Podcast and I was like, oh and she goes and mom recognized your voice. We’ll see. Mom doesn’t know that I do the R. F. W. P. Podcast. So um I’m just like, oh my gosh, here we go. You know, and I just have to tell you. Um I think Lori had had backed up a little bit and catching different episodes because she she doesn’t listen every week and she was listening to your story, your story. Because she text me. She goes about Emily Story. Well, apparently my mom just got clued in and she sat and listened to the whole episode. And so I guess just a couple hours before you and I were scheduled to record tonight, I get a phone call for my mom and I’m going, okay, let’s see how this goes. And it was the sweetest thing. And she was so excited and she she named you by name, you know, she said and Emily, and because right now for my mom, she’s in that place where she’s not remembering things, not remembering names and you know sometimes she does sometimes she doesn’t and she just loved the episode and she’s like I’m just so proud of you guys and she said I didn’t know you were on air,
[0:04:59] Emily: I
[0:05:02] Lois: love that. And and so just to you know um hear her be excited, you know, given our content and the fact that, you know, she has spent her entire life and ministry um in that circle. But anyway, I guess it was a micro joy and a macro joy because it was just precious and she just she loved it and she um she’s like so you guys just got to know each other in january and you know, so it was just it was super cool. So yeah, that was it was not a micro joy monday because it was a Tuesday. But that was super cool to have mom respond that way. Mm hmm. How
[0:05:54] Emily: fun. I’m glad you got that moment with your mom. And I’m excited to jump into today’s topic of loving people. Well
[0:06:03] Lois: yeah, today we’re talking about love.
[0:06:08] Emily: There’s so much to learn on that to loving and living like jesus. So that’s where we’re at today.
[0:06:15] Lois: Yeah. So I really just kind of want to jump straight into um this topic of loving God, loving others. Um by just giving several verses of scripture about what it looks like for us to love each other Biblically, what scripture calls us to do? Awesome! First peter four first eight above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. First John 4, 7 and eight, beloved Let us love one another. For love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love, john chapter 13 versus 34 35 A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And that’s just that’s just three different passages and there are multitudes and multitudes of passages about how we are to love one another. In first Corinthians 16 14, it says, Let all that you do be done in love. Mm. And then of course we know. First Corinthians chapter 13 talks about the perfect love and right romans 12, Chapter 10. Love one Another with brotherly affection Out. Do one another in showing honor. So these are just a few verses of what it means to love others. Biblically
[0:08:26] Emily: so good. I already feel like we could wrap up the episode. Just go read those. Yeah. What is so important as we start this conversation is to recognize where does this love come from? Because the last thing we want is to feel
[0:08:46] Lois: like, oh
[0:08:47] Emily: okay, I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to be better, be more and well. It’s obviously convicting when we think, oh yeah, I need to love so and so well or I need to I love my family better and maybe not react so quickly or whatever. God is convicting on your heart to love people that are by doing that has to flow from his love for us. It’s not something we muster up. So I’d love to take us into to some uh of God’s love and how the bible backs it up. Like we love because he first loved us. And that’s that’s in first john chapter four And growing up with the king James, it says we love him because he first loved us and quite a few other translations take that even broader and we love like blanket. We love anyone because he first loved us. And that shows us that his love pours out of us because his love pours into us. And I just love Jeff and I had 3 17. I’m pretty sure I used it on the affirmations I posted to Patreon last week 793 17 says the Lord, your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves he will take great delight in you in his love. He will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing. Mm That promise just blows my mind. And then First time 4 7, which first china is one of the books that I’ve camped out and I don’t know if we’ve talked about that. But over the last few years, first john is one of the ones that I can just like reread over and over and over. But um 47 says dearly beloved. Let us love one another for charity is of God and everyone that love it is born of God and know it God. And I think did you just read that?
[0:11:03] Lois: Yeah, I think it is so good. It is, it is. And you know when you were reading that, it reminded me when I was younger the way that I memorized that verse was a song
[0:11:14] Emily: Oh fun
[0:11:15] Lois: And I am not gonna sing it for you right now.
[0:11:18] Emily: But
[0:11:20] Lois: but it was um, the end of it was just like first john 47 and eight, you know like you but the beloved Let us love one another. So, I have a question for you because we’re talking about loving God, talking about loving others well and establishing God’s love for us. Like one of the most well known verses for God. So loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but we’ll have everlasting life. So, we know these verses are in scripture about how to love each other. Well, we know these verses are in scripture about um loving God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength and to love others as we love ourselves. We know that there are verses in scripture about God’s left for us. But what what do you say to those that were raised in such an environment Emily? That it caused them to constantly question God’s love for them or even understand how he feels about them in a in a healthy biblical way.
[0:12:56] Emily: Yeah. Uh huh. I would want I just want everyone to know that they are unconditionally loved. It changes absolutely everything when we know that. And That leads me back to first tone again. 1st Chapter 3: verse one says, see what great love the father has lavished on us, that we should be called the Children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. He has lavished that on us and we are different. We are the Children of the most high God and standing in that identity. That’s what I would say. That is the truth. It’s not fluff it’s not extra because I think a lot of times that feels extra like, oh that might be a little over the top. But the bible uses language like lavished and he will rejoice over you with singing for a reason. That’s how deeply God feels about you. That’s what I would want people to know.
[0:14:03] Lois: Yeah. So knowing how a lot of people who were raised in church or raised in christian homes were raised with the thought process of I have to be approved by God, I have to um do things in order fruit him to love me. I and if God if God really loved me, then why did this happen? So what what do you say? What do we say to to those? Because I know for me personally, I was in probably my mid 30s to late 30’s before I really broke free from that approval process from him and just really began to understand, oh my goodness, he loves me. He’s he’s crazy about me, he is not going to stop loving me. Okay, so I ask you a question that I just kept talking but so so dive into that for us for a second
[0:15:14] Emily: when we are used to trying to earn God’s love. It is different. Is that wasn’t that was that your question when we’re used to Yeah, earning God’s love. Yeah. Um it is a cycle that we have to break bye sometimes. You might have to stop doing some things and recognize, oh yeah, he still loves me. Like the hammer didn’t fall, I’m still here. I even even hard of a pastor who intentionally tried out God’s grace, which sounds insane, but he was like, what if I didn’t go to church on sunday or what if I like did you know did some things that at the time made him feel guilty but he didn’t, but he knew that they weren’t commands from God. Like not that not going to church it, you know, I’m not going to go down that rabbit hole, but if there are things in your life where you go,
[0:16:11] Lois: okay,
[0:16:12] Emily: I think this is a tradition and just like test and see and watch God Grace catch
[0:16:19] Lois: you
[0:16:20] Emily: and what you said about God is crazy about you. I remember I loved to tell, um my mom used this. I think this better give her credit for it. But I love to tell the teenagers this and she did too. That if God thinks about you as much as the bible says he does. You know the thoughts that I think um
[0:16:46] Lois: Yeah, so once someone 39, right, his thoughts about us our more than the sand
[0:16:55] Emily: and somebody who thinks about you that much must be crazy about you. I love that.
[0:17:01] Lois: It’s that’s good.
[0:17:02] Emily: It’s a cute way to say it. But that’s how deeply loved you are. And that’s the, well we can darrell from listening to Pastor Kerry Schmidt, he did a I don’t remember what the message was totally about his forgiveness I think, but he had I just listened to it on the podcast, but you have like a giant bag of M and M’s and poured it into someone’s base that he had on stage holding it until it was like overflowing. And then he said, well, okay, can I have one of those? And the answer is, well, of course you can. I know how deeply loved I am. I know that my cup is full. I know that God is pouring into me, I can love you because of how abundant God’s love is in
[0:17:52] Lois: my life. That’s really good. And I know that um I know that we probably have a lot of listeners that have the head knowledge because they know scripture that God loves them, but my prayer would be for them to just allow God’s word to pour over them to for them just to soak in it as um David says in the psalms that your word is like marrow to my bones um which we know is life giving. Um you have to have that in order to you know to live. And that’s the way the psalmist talks about it. I my prayer is that people can go from that head knowledge, the scriptural knowledge that God loves them two really Feeling in their heart. And I’ve said this before in speaking, but sometimes it is um a really long 18″ from our brain to our heart. We have the head knowledge and I’m not talking about somebody’s salvation or the lack thereof. I’m talking about somebody who grew up in church who accepted crisis, their savior, who has their salvation, but to really feel God’s love for them, I wanted to get from the head to the heart to every every bit of their soul, spirit their body because it is in that understanding God’s love for us, that we can in turn love him not out of commandment, but love him out of who he is and what he has done for us. And when we operate that way, then we can love others. Well, we can love horizontally. Well, when that vertical love from the father and love to the father is in a healthy place, we can genuinely love others.
[0:20:17] Emily: Mhm. So as we transition into that part loving others. Well, how would you say we can go about loving others? Well, the first step is obviously our connection to God and his love for us. Where do we go from there?
[0:20:38] Lois: Yeah. Um That’s a huge question and it’s a journey, right? Because we look at loving others. Well we have to understand the love of the father and we need to spend time with the father because um his love should show through us. It’s like you said earlier, you use the terminology muster up and I and I I like that terminology because muster, literally I remember being um on a trip with bobby, we were on a cruise ship and when you muster like you you put your life, check it on, you go to your muster station, if something were to happen with the ship you have, you know, you muster up and you’re there um And I think sometimes we look at um the way that we love God or the way that we love others that we’ve got to go to the muster station, we’ve got to, you know, we got to muster up that that love for others and you know sometimes that can be true because we’re not all easy to love, right? Some people are a little bit more difficult to love. Sometimes we are those people that are a little bit more difficult to love. Um But I think it goes back to knowing he loves us, feeling that he loves us and then being intentional about loving others. Well I think intentionality is one of the first steps after you after your bathing in God’s word. And I say bathing and some people are listening, like what do you mean bathing? Um and then I was going to explain that with the word soaking and yet I’m still leaving some people going all these churchy words. What do you what do you mean by that? What I mean by that is sit, listen to God’s word, meditate on God’s word, allow it to infiltrate your life. That’s what I mean by soaking, bathing in God’s word. That’s the first step. And then the second step is when the Holy Spirit speaks to us about loving someone well, or showing love to someone. We have to be intentional to obey that prompting. So first we’re in God’s word, and then we’re listening for him to speak to us. And then because we’re listening, we will hear him speak to us and then be intentional about walking in obedience to show love to somebody. Um,
[0:23:46] Emily: and I
[0:23:46] Lois: Yeah, but I but I think the more that we do that, the more that we are going to find mm we’ll be back up a second. Because I’m sure, I’m not sure. But I’m thinking there’s probably some people at this point in the episode going, um, love that person. I don’t even like that
[0:24:08] Emily: person.
[0:24:12] Lois: Um, and like you said, we can’t muster it up for ourselves. But if we will allow God’s love that he has for others, two flow through us, then we can show love to someone that we don’t even necessarily like.
[0:24:33] Emily: Which is incredible.
[0:24:35] Lois: But we can’t do that in our strength in any way, shape or form.
[0:24:40] Emily: No, not at all. I was super convicted. What episode did we talk about? Loving people? Well, and I was talking about the person who like and if I see them, I don’t want to cross paths with him. And somebody reached out to us, I’ll just leave them anonymous. But they reached out and said, thank you so much. I was inspired to ask God for opportunities to show this person that is being a sinker in my life. I want to show them love. And I’m actually going to pray for opportunities to do that. And I was like, whoa, you took that to another level. Actually asking you know, I was still asking to be like still not have to cross paths with them. I will love them metaphorically. I don’t want opportunities
[0:25:36] Lois: anyway, don’t don’t be going that far with this love thing. Right? But it is true.
[0:25:46] Emily: Mm hmm. Right now that God’s love can do in our hearts.
[0:25:50] Lois: Right now, I’m going to give a caveat here because we do have some listeners that I know that they’ve been hurt by people that they thought loved them. We’ve all been hurt by people that we you know, I mean, you can’t live life and not have been hurt bye. Someone or a situation where you thought somebody loved you. Whether it was friendship or it was a relationship or it was a marriage or it was, uh, a friendship with people in your church or your pastor or somebody on staff. And that’s what’s stuck in your head about God’s love for you and let me just encourage you. We as humans. We mess it up a lot of times unfortunately, but God never messes it up. He never gets it wrong. He loves you. He loves you no matter what. And we do have to remember that there is evil in this world. We walk around in a fallen world that is that is hunger, hungry and thirsty for complete restoration as we all are. So if somebody has been that abusive example of God’s love for you, I just pray that you are healed from that and then you can just really here are words that God’s love is patient. God’s love is kind. God’s love is not arrogant, it’s not rude, it doesn’t insist on its own way. God’s love. True love is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing. It rejoices with the truth. And love bears all things, believes, all things hopes, all things endures all things and love because God is true. Love never ends. You know prophecies. They will pass away tongues, they will cease knowledge, it will pass away. But these three remain faith. Hope and love. Yeah,
[0:28:23] Emily: that’s such a good caveat. Or maybe not even a caveat But just to remember that a lot of people’s representation of love in our lives is actually conditional. And like not everyone but a lot of people represent mm in our society. The way so many things are structured. It’s it’s conditional love. So if we are to learn unconditional love it will take work and getting out the misconceptions. Oh yeah that’s not how God operate. And then before we get into the practical how to love people. Well I just want to give one more caveat um that if you have been hurt and you are physically emotionally spiritually have been abused you will still need strong boundaries.
[0:29:19] Lois: And Uh huh
[0:29:21] Emily: boundaries are not not loving people. It is okay to love people through. You’re not allowed to speak to me this way or we cannot be alone or no, I’m not going to Yeah be around your whatever your boundary needs to be. No, that set, set that fence and love yourself. Well, I think we get this idea in our mind that we are also not allowed to love ourselves and when we are truly securing God’s love, we can love ourselves and love other people even better.
[0:29:58] Lois: Yeah. And I’d like to I would like to um touch on that phrase because um some people say, well you just need to love yourself. You guys are talking about a different world view and that’s not what we’re talking about. The truth of the matter is God’s love for us. When we fully accept it. When we fully see how he feels about us, then we can see ourselves as the father sees us and that is is being able to love yourself because we see ourselves the way that he sees us. That’s what that’s about
[0:30:49] Emily: and it’s powerful. Yeah. If God Almighty, who is completely pure and holy can love you, you can love you. Yeah.
[0:31:01] Lois: So loving, loving others. Well, it tells us in scripture. Um in first john 4 20 if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he’s a liar for he does not love his brother whom he has seen, he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. Ephesians 5 2 and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. First Peter 2 17. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood. Fear God First Thessalonians 3 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abounded love for one another. And for all as we do for you. And in that paul is writing to the church at Salonika and he’s basically teaching them increase in your love for each other. You’ve been taught about love, love one another as christ loved you. Um, and as, as they, you know, as he loves you. Um, and then First Thessalonians 449 says now concerning brotherly love, um you have no need for anyone to write to you for you, yourselves have been taught by God To Love one Another. So there were some things going on in the church in Thessaloniki. A and I think paul is saying here, you know, I shouldn’t have to be writing this to you. You’ve been taught by God that you need to love one another. So I look at that um, John 1335 by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have judgmental spirits and correct them every time they tweet something you don’t like.
[0:33:05] Emily: Uh the second book of the opinions.
[0:33:09] Lois: Okay, okay, let me try it again, John 1335 by all by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you call out everything that you see and name it as false teaching or if you judge somebody for what they’re wearing um and attribute it to their spiritual growth or if you and I could go on right, right, I’m being silly.
[0:33:41] Emily: That’s so good that we’re doing
[0:33:44] Lois: John 1335 says by this is talking about love. All people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Mm I encountered um an atheist on social media this week, um just not somebody that I follow, but just threw something. Somebody sent me, I decided to kind of read and I read on through the thread and in that thread, um somebody popped in and said you know well God’s not real so data and set a couple of other things and and they were kind of snarky you know and Uh huh someone popped on and usually I’ll just scroll through those things but somebody popped on and said um something along the lines of that’s not true. Um I was talking about heaven and hell and God being real. That’s not true. You’ll find out in the end that God is real. Ah You’ll you’ll find out at the end that God is real shame on you, I’ll pray for you. Wait did you hear what just happened in that tweet? You have an opportunity to show someone that does not believe that God is real. Or maybe used to believe that God was real but because of everything and the pain in their life, whatever they’ve walked through, maybe they went through abuse themselves or that that in their mind no longer believes that God is real and instead of engaging them in a way that is healthy and loving and say, so, you know, what do you mean by that? Or how did you come the conclusion and just show love for that person? You literally have someone who is claiming to be a believer telling somebody well, you’ll find out in the end that God is real, then goes on to shame them. Which that’s a that’s another podcast because shame does not come from the father, shame them and then say, I’ll pray for you. Can I just tell you as believers, us as believers, that is not how we win the world by this. All people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another and if you have love for others, that’s what, that’s where it flows from.
[0:36:27] Emily: So coming off of what it doesn’t look like to love people Well, uh I love to give just some practical ways. How can we love people motivated by God and his spirit directing us? What are some practical ways that we can love people?
[0:36:49] Lois: That’s good.
[0:36:51] Emily: This is partly inspired by a post by beth more that you sent me like at the end of May. So I want to give her credit because she just, she just dumped out so many nuggets
[0:37:06] Lois: and you know that comes from her being a woman of the word and a woman in the word, which is something that you and I I want all of our listeners to be, we all we all want to be. So I’m I’m thankful for that.
[0:37:21] Emily: Can’t wait to hear it. So the first one his people feel loved when they are listened to. So maybe I won’t spend a whole lot of time on each one, but when a friend comes to you and says, wow, this is falling apart. I saw somewhere else, I can’t remember where, I think it was a instagram, real, someone suggested doing this when somebody comes to you and it’s like all you know up in their emotions and like not having a great time. We can ask, hey, wow, do you want to talk about that or would you, would you rather be distracted from that? And then if they say, oh I want to talk about it, then you can then you can ask them, do you want me to help you find a solution or do you just want to vent? And asking those questions, postures are hard not to fix it, but to just sit
[0:38:15] Lois: with them, wow, that is so good. I I love that
[0:38:21] Emily: because I’m a natural fixer, so it’s good for me to remember to sit. Mhm. And listen, the next one is willing to be a giver and not just a taker in this affection, impoverished
[0:38:36] Lois: culture, who you got, you got to read that again.
[0:38:41] Emily: Be willing to be a giver and not just a taker in this affection, impoverished culture.
[0:38:48] Lois: Everybody
[0:38:50] Emily: needs to be nurtured. Right now, everybody could use some extra love and compassion.
[0:38:56] Lois: Everybody’s you know, we’ve all needed nurturing and love and compassion as scripture has told us to show love, But even more so I think coming out of 2020, Um which I’ve heard it said before, but 2020 in a lot of ways was just like um a dumpster fire, like it just was. But but in the midst of all of that we saw people step up and and love each other. Well even in difficult times. But yes I agree. And even more so now I think that showing compassion and love and people needing that nurturing is is so good. That’s so good Emily.
[0:39:40] Emily: Mm Yeah. So the next one from Best Post she said the friends that love me best don’t let me take myself too seriously and I love that when when we start to fret or like ah did you see what someone so said about me or like
[0:40:00] Lois: whatever
[0:40:02] Emily: like they don’t let it take ourselves too seriously.
[0:40:04] Lois: Yes
[0:40:05] Emily: fun but so necessary. Um Then don’t wait to be asked. You know we say oh let me know if I can do anything for you
[0:40:19] Lois: but just go do yeah
[0:40:22] Emily: go bring somebody a coffee. Go follow those weird nudges. We’ve talked about this like the weird things when God says, go talk to that person send so and so a text drop by some groceries for this friend. And you’re like, they don’t need that, but you have no idea what the Holy Spirit is orchestrating and just do it, do those weird things and watch the Holy Spirit work and use the little
[0:40:53] Lois: random stuff. So good and yes, when somebody, whatever situation it is um whether they’ve had somebody passed away or they’re going through a difficult time or if they have had a surgery or they’re just a mom of young ones that’s just completely worn out. Most of us, if somebody says um you know, call me if you need anything, I’m not calling you, you know, I mean we just, most of us are not like that. Um I think that’s where some more true community comes in and we can talk about that at another time, but just say I want to let you know, I’m I’m bringing pizza over on thursday night um You want cheese or pepperoni, you know?
[0:41:44] Emily: Yes.
[0:41:45] Lois: Yes. Yeah.
[0:41:47] Emily: Just do it. Absolutely. That’s good. So I have I think it’s like three others uh uh good people that love well call each other out to which kind of goes along with not letting us take ourselves too seriously, but when we we have to earn this place in people’s life, but to be able to have somebody who’s going to check us is so valuable so that we don’t get off into left field and away from God’s truth.
[0:42:22] Lois: And when you say that though, and I I just want to sit on that for just a second. When you when you mentioned that it’s true that we need to earn that and that would be our closest community. Also, I see a lot of people um speaking truth, but not in love. Mhm Love has to be your motivating factor. Not I need to prove I’m right, that person’s wrong this and this. No love has to be the motivating factor. And if it’s not, then we need to zip our lips and not say anything until the Holy Spirit prompts us to do so. But I think that’s in our inner circle of friends, because we have plenty of um armchair quarterbacks on social media that just love to call everybody out. And I’m not saying that I don’t ever call anybody out. Um but there are certain types of of calling out that that’s just for tight community only, so not everybody gets to speak into your life.
[0:43:36] Emily: Exactly, I love what you said, zip your lip. If it’s not if it’s not guided by God’s love. So the last one is kind of the opposite of that. And using our words to remind each other of God’s faithfulness and preach the gospel over your people, remind them how loved they are, remind them that jesus came when we didn’t deserve it. God demonstrates his love toward us when we don’t deserve it. It’s not that we earn it. We need that reminder over and over and over again. And if you can surround yourself with people that will preach the gospel to you and be the kind of person that points people back to jesus. You are a good friend. So she ended that post with love. Well help somebody make it
[0:44:32] Lois: mm she’s good. So good. It makes me think of Cory Asbury song reckless love. And I know that that song when it initially came out a few years ago took some heat because people misunderstood the message of the song. They misunderstood that um he was talking about you know God not being in control. It’s just reckless and just know what it goes back to the verse that you read earlier about God’s love being lavished on us. That’s
[0:45:11] Emily: yes,
[0:45:12] Lois: like it doesn’t reckless love it doesn’t make sense for him to love me the way that he does and it’s overwhelming and I’m so thankful for it. Mm It makes me
[0:45:24] Emily: feel so good.
[0:45:27] Lois: Well I would love to close out our time by reading what most everyone knows as the love chapter. But I would love to read it in um what I think is just a beautiful poetry form by Eugene Peterson. I’d love to read 1st Corinthians 13 from the message. And as yeah. And as I’m as I’m reading this um I just pray that it speaks to you, speaks over you and that you tangibly feel that God sees you, he loves you. And because of that, you can see others and you can love others. Well, if I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy, but don’t love, I am nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day. And if I have faith that says to a mountain jump and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing if I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr. But I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So no matter what I say, what I believe in what I do, I am bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, it doesn’t have a swelled head. It doesn’t force itself on others. It’s it isn’t always me. 1st. Love doesn’t fly off the handle. It doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel takes pleasure in the following or the flowering of truth puts up with things, trusts God always, always looks for the best. Never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies inspired speech. It will be over someday praying in tongues that will end. Understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the complete arrives, our incompletes will be cancelled. We don’t yet see things clearly were squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright. We’ll see it all then see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly, just as he knows us. But for right now, until that completeness we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation trust steadily in God hope unswervingly, love extravagantly, And the best of these three is Love.