GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 29

We are reading from a daily devotional  called “Running To Win” written by Erwin Lutzer  and the late, great D.L. Moody.   Erwin Lutzer is a light in our day as D.L. Moody was in his.  Besides his many ministries, and many books, Pastor Lutzer was Senior Pastor at Moody Church in Chicago for 36 years and now serves as Pastor Emeritus there.  He is  Chancelor and a former professor at Moody Bible Institute, where he taught Theology and Ministry, and now has numerous radio teachings.

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THE LAST THING

Isaiah 60:1:3

“Arise, shine, for your light has come…and nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

D.L. MOODY

Love must be active, just as light must shine.  As someone has said:  “A man may hoard up his money;  he may bury his talents in a napkin; but there is one thing he cannot hoard up, and that is love.”  You cannot bury it.  It  MUST flow out.  It cannot feed upon itself; it must have an object.

ERWIN LUTZER

Isaiah was talking about God showering Israel with His glory and love, and the nations being drawn in as a result.  God’s love for us, and our love for others can be a testimony to a watching world.  Let me give you a parody of the famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13:

“Though I sing in the choir, though I volunteer for Sunday school, though I am willing to be on the parking committee and thereby miss a Sunday morning service, and though I volunteer for many projects, if I have not love, I am nothing.”

Paul writes, “So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  Why is love the greatest?  The day is going to come when our faith in Christ is going to be unnecessary because we will see Him.  Hope is going to be unnecessary, because hope will be reality.  But love will abide forever.  Love is what God says is the ore excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:31).  Love is at the heart of it all.

Paul is talking about a supernatural kind of love that is contrary to our nature.  That’s why it is so important to realize that love is the distinguishing mark of the church; it is unique, it is a gift from God.  May God rebuke us for our lack of love.

PRAYER

Father, please help me to love others as You do.  May others see Christ’s love in me.

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Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.   Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

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Romans 13:8-10

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.  For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

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Philippians 2:3

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

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Matthew 6:14-15

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

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John 13:34-35

 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

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John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

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