Month: August 2020

TeacherStudent

THE GREATEST OF THESE

IF ONLY WE WOULD ALL LIVE WHAT LOVE IS.

I Corinthians 13: 1-13

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

LOVE IS: 4-7

Patient–

Kind–

Not jealous or boastful–

Not arrogant or rude–

Does not insist on its own way–

Is not irritable or resentful–

Does not rejoice at wrong–

Rejoices in the right–

Bears all things–

Believes all things–

Endures all things.

8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

WE MUST BE THE EXAMPLES– 

and LIVE WHAT LOVE IS.

“So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

(Sharon G. Tate blog 08/23/2020) teacherforjesus.com  Meditations on God’s Word

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EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT—

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:1-3) **********************************************************

August 11th, 2020. My father had been gone three years. Although I am at peace that his spirit is with the Lord, I miss the man, my dad, every day. His passing left an empty space in my heart that no one else could fill. I was not looking forward to waking up to this day of remembrance of his last, labored breaths.

This day, however, started out, not with images of dying and death, but of life and living. I looked at my phone. The first image showing on Facebook in my feed was a video of a baby, just a few hours old. My great-niece Zoey. Her name means “life.” The day became one of life renewed in my dad’s great-granddaughter. She was not quite due yet. A breach baby. More of a struggle to enter the world, but God brought her safely through on August 11th. On the date of her great-granddad’s passing, she entered. A life remembrance was now born on this day. The cry of new life, not the last breaths of life departing.

God has a way of bringing good out of heartache. We may be unable to see it until we change our focus to Him. There are little miracles all around us just waiting to be noticed with wonder and awe and gratitude.

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

“Every good and perfect gift is from above.” Here, below, we are the recipients. To receive His gifts, however, they must be opened with our sight, hearing, sense of smell, taste, touch. He gave us these five senses, along with the sense to use them and a heart to appreciate and love these gifts. Yet, He, also, gave us the option of choice to not use these senses and open our heart to His gifts.

This day, I chose the life image that I saw and heard in the video, a new baby born to remind me that God is a life-giving, life-sustaining Father. I envisioned my dad gently holding his great-granddaughter, talking to her with the biggest smile on his face. God gives us these gifts on, otherwise, dark days, if we are open to them– and open them up to experience clearly with His Light.

Dad is ahead of us going home to the Father. The greatest, most perfect gift awaits beyond this life when we join the Lord and abide where Jesus awaits in our eternal Home. Until then, His gifts abound all around us. Hear the life-cry of the newborn. See the beauty of the sunrise. Taste the richness of fruit picked from trees. Smell the aroma of lilacs. Touch the wrinkled hands of your elderly neighbor. Choose the gifts. Open them on the days of chaos in the news, violence around the world, strife in your town, disagreements at home, unrest in your heart—

–REMEMBER–

“I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”

(Sharon G. Tate 08/16/2020 blog) teacherforjesus.com  Meditations on God’s Word

TeacherStudent

Peace Within Amid Chaos Without

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)
******************************************
Stillness. A slight mist in the air,
Low fog suspended over the pond.
A bird dropped by and then another.
Perched on top of the deck rail,
Chirping toward the rising sun,
Their song in perfect harmony.

**********************

As fog lifted and mist departed,
 PEACE entered my soul.
 A gift. A moment from God.
Did I say, “Thank you, Lord?”
The moments are many and daily if our eyes see, our ears hear, and our minds open to the unfolding gifts from our God.
PEACE may not be a word we think of much in today’s societal and pandemic chaos. It seems elusive and difficult to find. Yet, here it was in the early morning dawn. So simple. Yet, so magnificent.
“THANK YOU, LORD.”

(Sharon G. Tate blog 08/02/2020) teacherforjesus.com Meditations on God’s Word