4.16.2017 (4.17.2017)
Scripture Read 1 Corinthians 13-14
Nugget 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, 14:1,3b, 4b, 12
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. … Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. … those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. … those who prophecy build up the church. ….So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.”
Devotional Thought: I confess there are times when I am impatient, I am in a hurry. I am in a hurry to get to where God leads and I am in a hurry for those God has trusted me to lead, to follow, to trust where God is leading us. I confess that persons who obstruct others from carrying out mission and ministry cause me to be act unkindly. I confess that those persons who block my ability to lead the rest of the congregation, who refuse to allow me to join with them, much less join with me, make me irritable. The thing is that God in every appointment I have served so far, God sent me there to build up. Those who are obstacles to building up, those who are obstacles to building fellowship, those who are obstacles to journeying into the future are not just obstacles to me but to the move of God. I am dreadfully sorry for losing my patience and for a moment not displaying love, I was wrong. But I will not stop trying to build up the people, congregations and churches that God sends me to. I will trust God to either change hearts, or cause those people to get out of the way.