iCrucified

and so it should be now too as we live for God’s Kingdom today…

40 Days Living the Jesus Creed [Days 34-35]

LtJC – Day 34:

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:8-12)

Jesus Creed Thoughts for the day…

• “What we do is not eternal. What is eternal is the relationships spiritual gifts establish”
  • Our gifts forge relationships
  • Our relationships will remain
  • The relationship with God and with others that “gifts” forge is what will remain
• “Exercise your gifts to establish those lasting relationships”

“Our spiritual gifts are given to nurture what will remain forever: Love”

LtJC – Day 35:

“And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love…” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Jesus Creed Thoughts for the day…

• “Life dedicated to the Jesus Creed kind of love (agape) is an ongoing (and sacrificial) act of faith and hope”
  • Faith means trusting God at His word and letting the good word of God transform how we live (2 Corinthians 5:7)
  • Hope: we are called to press forward in light of God’s promise and in the teeth sometimes of the odds coming against us. (Romans 4:18)
• “We hope for justice in this world, and we live as if that kingdom of justice were already here, because Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:10). …A Jesus Creed kind of love acts on this hope.

Love is hopeful because of God…

My takeaway: The nitty gritty reality of Jesus Creed love is a love that moves beyond niceties and tolerance and engages the lives of other people showing them “Christ-in-us” and a life lived in and for the Kingdom of God. Here. Now. Today.

“Ultimately there was and will be one thing: endless delight in God’s love with the overflow of joy as we enter into that love forever.” Scot McKnight