Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray for the church (and other things -- 7:00 PM Wed., LHF time).

"And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in tongues of men or of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." (1 Cor. 12:31b-13:3)

God gives spiritual gifts not so that we can show off spiritual gifts, but rather so that he can show his love through the Church. Clanging cymbals and resounding gongs are lifeless objects which do nothing more than bring attention to themselves. When we use the gifts God has given us -- spiritual or otherwise -- without love, we are only lifeless objects that make noise. Our purpose is only to bring attention to ourselves. Nothing is gained without love.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Cor. 13:4-13:8a)

The real nature of love is explained in these verses. Love is patient and kind. Kindness is an act that you do for the benefit of someone else rather than for your own benefit. And also -- love is not impatient. When you are impatient you are focussing on yourself -- on your ability to make things go the way you want them to in the time you want them to happen. Love focuses on the one who is loved, not on itself.

Love does not envy. When you envy you want something that someone else has -- maybe possessions, maybe popularity, maybe status or power. But love wants to give what it has -- time, money, possessions, or whatever -- for the benefit of the one who is loved. Love does not envy.

Love does not boast and is not proud. When you boast you are trying to build yourself up in the eyes of others. Love doesn't do that. Love rejoices in the success of the one who is loved and praises God. (Note: We are very subtle in the way we boast. Knowing that boasting will make us look bad to our hearers, we try very hard to make our remarks sound like something other than boasting. You need to recognize this and resist it.) Love does not boast and is not proud.

Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking. Rudeness comes from the mindset that says, "My plans and purposes are more important than anyone else's -- and, in fact, I am more important than anyone else." If you think this way you will certainly not think that it matters how you treat other people -- either in word or in deed. (Except that you may, at times, treat others well if you need their cooperation to gain your own objective.) Love is not like this. Love, in lowliness of mind, considers others as more important than itself. Love is not rude or self-seeking.

Love is not easily angered. The kind of anger the apostle Paul is talking about here is not the kind of anger people may have when God is insulted, or when another person who is made in God's image is mistreated, or when some other part of God's creation is misused or mistreated. No, the kind of anger being spoken of here arises when you yourself (the most important person in the world) or something you perceive as belonging to you is mistreated. Again, love is not like this. Love sees the one who is doing the mistreating as more important than itself and prays for him or her.

Love keeps no record of wrongs. Keeping records of wrongs means adding them up as you would add up debt in a ledger -- the more wrongs, the more the debt. Love doesn't add up wrongs. Love forgives wrongs and cancels the debt. If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matt. 6:14,15) While he was dying for our sins on the cross, Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Love keeps no record of wrongs.

Love doesn't delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Do you ever delight in evil? Do you have a morbid interest in scandals and disasters? Do you like to talk about them? Do you like to gossip or to hear gossip (perhaps with the excuse of sharing prayer topics)? Do you secretly (or maybe even openly) delight when someone you don't like falls into sin or fails in some other way? Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. The truth is that God loves us and sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. He didn't send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. That is the most wonderful, delightful news that there is.

Love always protects. Literally, this means love puts a roof over or covers over. Love protects from every kind of harm. It also covers over the faults of the one who is loved rather than exposing them. Love always protects.

Love always trusts. People are not trustworthy, but God is absolutely trustworthy. Jesus said that he did not entrust himself to men because he knew what was in a man. But Jesus entrusted himself to the Righteous Judge to the point of dying for untrustworthy men in order to save them (that is, us) from eternal punishment and give us life for ever and ever in his presence. People are untrustworthy, but we can love and trust them because the God who made them is absolutely trustworthy. Love always trusts.

Love always hopes. The word "hope" as it is used in the bible, is not hope as in, "I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow (but it probably will)." Biblical hope is the assurance that the thing hoped for is actually going to happen. Biblical hope comes from faith. And faith is the gift of God. When you pray for God to save someone you love from eternal destruction, do you have the assurance that he will do it? Love always hopes.

Love always perseveres. Love never gives up. Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8) to show that we should always pray and not give up. Love does not give up on the one who is loved. Love does not give up on trusting in God. Love always perseveres.

Love never fails. Love never fails because it is the essential nature of the one who created the universe and everything in it including us. Love never fails because God never fails. His love endures forever (Psalm 136).

Praise be to him who is able to keep us from falling and present us before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy -- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Pray for the Church to reveal the love of God.

Come on Wednesday and pray for the Church. The Church is the overflowing abundance, the wealth beyond measure and the full and perfect nature of God who fulfills and completes everything in every way.

Grace and peace,
Dean Svoboda

PS: You can also bring you own prayer requests and pray for them with your brothers and sisters in Christ (i.e., with the Church). Bring your requests to God with thanksgiving and receive his peace.

PPS: Pass this invitation along to others in your household or to someone who doesn't have an e-mail address in the LHF directory