Devotion Sunday 2/13/11
Its Valentines Day eve. Have you made you arrangements? Do you have the chocolate and flowers bought? Has the singles awarness party been planned?
Even if we had it all figured out weeks ago, God still had us beat. He had us picked out as His Valentine before the world began. And He planned to send His son for us as the best Valentines gift we could ever get, a true testament of His perfect love. He spent eternity preparing that gift for us. What gift of love to we have to give back?
Prayer: Lord, remind us of how much you love us daily, and teach us to love as you do. Amen.
Its Valentines Day eve. Have you made you arrangements? Do you have the chocolate and flowers bought? Has the singles awarness party been planned?
Even if we had it all figured out weeks ago, God still had us beat. He had us picked out as His Valentine before the world began. And He planned to send His son for us as the best Valentines gift we could ever get, a true testament of His perfect love. He spent eternity preparing that gift for us. What gift of love to we have to give back?
Prayer: Lord, remind us of how much you love us daily, and teach us to love as you do. Amen.
Devotion Monday 2/14/11
Through Neil Harrington
Valentines day is the holiday of flowers, candy, teddy bears, secret admires, and just "love" in general. But what is love exactly? Is it a warm, fuzzy feeling inside that you get? Is just pure physical attraction. Not according to the bible. Love at times is choosing to do so and do things for others. It's not all about "me", it should be about others. Jesus is the perfect example of love. Of course dying on the cross for us was the ultimate gift, but I'm going to focus on one aspect of Jesus' character, which was compassion. If you notice in the gospels there are many accounts that say, Jesus felt compassion for the people or he felt pity on them, or felt compassion for them. What does compassion mean though? Compassion is defined as: a feeling of distress and pity for the suffering or misfortune of another, often including the desire to alleviate it
[from Old French, from Late Latin compassiō fellow feeling, from compatī to suffer with, from Latin com- with + patī to bear, suffer].
Luke 10 29:37 gives us a perfect example of love and compassion. Jesus teaches in a parable.
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus
said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” esus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Prayer for the day: Heavenly Father, help us to be more compassionate towards others and to love and to chose to love others even when it's difficult or even if we don't get along with that person. Help us to shine Your light and spread Your Lord. In Jesus name, amen.
Happy Day of Love from all the devotional writers. May you feel God's love today!
The link below has a few examples of Jesus showing compassion to other people
http://dianagrayministries.net/bible/bso_compassion.html
Through Neil Harrington
Valentines day is the holiday of flowers, candy, teddy bears, secret admires, and just "love" in general. But what is love exactly? Is it a warm, fuzzy feeling inside that you get? Is just pure physical attraction. Not according to the bible. Love at times is choosing to do so and do things for others. It's not all about "me", it should be about others. Jesus is the perfect example of love. Of course dying on the cross for us was the ultimate gift, but I'm going to focus on one aspect of Jesus' character, which was compassion. If you notice in the gospels there are many accounts that say, Jesus felt compassion for the people or he felt pity on them, or felt compassion for them. What does compassion mean though? Compassion is defined as: a feeling of distress and pity for the suffering or misfortune of another, often including the desire to alleviate it
[from Old French, from Late Latin compassiō fellow feeling, from compatī to suffer with, from Latin com- with + patī to bear, suffer].
Luke 10 29:37 gives us a perfect example of love and compassion. Jesus teaches in a parable.
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus
said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” esus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Prayer for the day: Heavenly Father, help us to be more compassionate towards others and to love and to chose to love others even when it's difficult or even if we don't get along with that person. Help us to shine Your light and spread Your Lord. In Jesus name, amen.
Happy Day of Love from all the devotional writers. May you feel God's love today!
The link below has a few examples of Jesus showing compassion to other people
http://dianagrayministries.net/bible/bso_compassion.html
Devotion Tuesday 2/15/11
By Joseph
Continuing with our Valentines Day love theme...
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Not many of us will be asked to die for a friend of ours, though I have many that I'm sure would do just that for me, and I know that I would for any of them. That is what Christ says there is no greater love than, to do just that.
What we can do is lay down our "lives" and our own desires and serve others, and so show our friends and familes this love. In the end, that's what it is all about, loving God and loving others.
As Jesus was saying this particular piece of Scripture, he was drawing that much closer to the death on the cross that he knew he must suffer. In this way it was almost like a prediction of his death in my mind. It was like him saying, there is no greater love than this, and guess what I am about to do for each of you...
Christ is also saying that same thing to you. He did it for you, because he loves you. Go and spread that love.
Prayer: Lord, help us to show love to those around us today and every day. Help us to remember the love you showed to us on the cross. Amen.
By Joseph
Continuing with our Valentines Day love theme...
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Not many of us will be asked to die for a friend of ours, though I have many that I'm sure would do just that for me, and I know that I would for any of them. That is what Christ says there is no greater love than, to do just that.
What we can do is lay down our "lives" and our own desires and serve others, and so show our friends and familes this love. In the end, that's what it is all about, loving God and loving others.
As Jesus was saying this particular piece of Scripture, he was drawing that much closer to the death on the cross that he knew he must suffer. In this way it was almost like a prediction of his death in my mind. It was like him saying, there is no greater love than this, and guess what I am about to do for each of you...
Christ is also saying that same thing to you. He did it for you, because he loves you. Go and spread that love.
Prayer: Lord, help us to show love to those around us today and every day. Help us to remember the love you showed to us on the cross. Amen.
Devotion Wednesday 2/16/11
By Joseph
Valentines Week Continues
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is no 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... and now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13)
This verse in and of itself is a devotion. Talking with Lindsey Brummel, there is some disection that can occur from this verse. Patience should be placed in bold and all caps. Love does not always seem kind, but true love, love from God, love from family and friends, and love from a spouse all are. Love is about giving completely of oneself to the love receiver.
Love does not have a list that it checks twice, forgiveness is key. Love is like a protective shield, guarding, hoping, keeping on the keeping on. "Failure is not an option" for NASA in Apollo 13, nor is it an option for love.
Sure a lot of that there is just rambling, and not the best devotion I've ever written, but a little rewording of the classic love passage. Hopefully we can take a little lesson from it on what loving each other looks like. Thats the exact same love that God shows us.
Prayer: Help us to show each other love as you intended it to be, in all its pureness.
By Joseph
Valentines Week Continues
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is no 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... and now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13)
This verse in and of itself is a devotion. Talking with Lindsey Brummel, there is some disection that can occur from this verse. Patience should be placed in bold and all caps. Love does not always seem kind, but true love, love from God, love from family and friends, and love from a spouse all are. Love is about giving completely of oneself to the love receiver.
Love does not have a list that it checks twice, forgiveness is key. Love is like a protective shield, guarding, hoping, keeping on the keeping on. "Failure is not an option" for NASA in Apollo 13, nor is it an option for love.
Sure a lot of that there is just rambling, and not the best devotion I've ever written, but a little rewording of the classic love passage. Hopefully we can take a little lesson from it on what loving each other looks like. Thats the exact same love that God shows us.
Prayer: Help us to show each other love as you intended it to be, in all its pureness.
Devotion Thursday 2/17/11
Through Cody Seidel
Love is such an important word, probably one of the more important ones. According to BibleGateway.com the word love is used 686 times in the Bible. Wow! I mean for such a simple word, it is used a lot. Granted it is not Jesus or God, but still that is quite a few times in my opinion. We all feel love for someone in our lives (parents, friends, significant others). First of all, our love shows others who we are and who we stand for, Christ. Secondly, when we show that love, we are much happier most of the time because we are living for our Savior. I love to show my love to others because it makes me happy, and I am living for the Lord. This is what we should all be trying to do in our lives while showing our love to others, not only our friends but also our enemies.
Prayer: Dear Lord thank you for giving us the wonderful gift of love. Please help us to live and love for you and help us show our love as Christians not only to friends but also to our enemies.
Through Cody Seidel
Love is such an important word, probably one of the more important ones. According to BibleGateway.com the word love is used 686 times in the Bible. Wow! I mean for such a simple word, it is used a lot. Granted it is not Jesus or God, but still that is quite a few times in my opinion. We all feel love for someone in our lives (parents, friends, significant others). First of all, our love shows others who we are and who we stand for, Christ. Secondly, when we show that love, we are much happier most of the time because we are living for our Savior. I love to show my love to others because it makes me happy, and I am living for the Lord. This is what we should all be trying to do in our lives while showing our love to others, not only our friends but also our enemies.
Prayer: Dear Lord thank you for giving us the wonderful gift of love. Please help us to live and love for you and help us show our love as Christians not only to friends but also to our enemies.
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