Message from Bro. Joe:
Monday night (2/15/16) I had a stroke. My right arm and speech were affected the most. My arm strength is getting better daily but the speech is taking longer to improve. I have told my family that I could probably preach a 30 minute sermon but it would all be one sentence. Praise the LORD - so far so good! We are going to Phoebe North for Inpatient Rehab on Saturday (2/20/2016). Please be praying for us. Faith will post one blog post a week for a few weeks. Bro. Joe Typed by Faith “Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. 7. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” If we want examples of what real Christian love does, we can turn to the four gospels and observe how Jesus behaved. The Bible encourages us to be like Christ. This does not mean that we are to be more religious and legalistic; rather, it means that, among other things, we will be more loving. It means that we will practice the agape love that is framed for us in 1 Corinthians 13. I hope that these three posts on real Christian love will make an impact in our lives. The world is crying out for us to be authentically Christian, and the formula for that is right here in 1 Corinthians 13. “Love…rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” “Iniquity” is a word for sin that means “twisted.” Christian love will not allow us to be twisted in our thinking about sin. Sin has been so twisted in American society today to the point that no sin is seen as sin anymore. We are fast becoming an “anything goes” society. This twistedness (My computer tells me that this is not a word, but what does my computer know?) has even found its way into the churches. But we shouldn’t be surprised, the world system has always been twisted, because it is run by the “eternal twister” himself – Satan. I could point out a lot of ways that we have become guilty of iniquity, but I will concentrate on one, the one that I think is one of the most important: We have twisted our fellowship with each other by giving in to anger and a party spirit. Real Christian love “rejoices in truth.” We need to face the truth about ourselves, even if it hurts. We should certainly not be proud of ourselves when we act less than loving toward people. “Love…bears all things.” The NIV translates this as “love protects all things.” I have no idea what that means. I will stick with the KJV translation of “bears all things.” What this means is that we will be patient in all our relationships – home, work, church, etc. The Bible tells us to bear with each other. I think that it means a little more than “putting up” with each other, although I will admit that in my case this has been my reaction. I am sure, however, that other people have “put up” with me at some time or other. (There are probably some “amen’s” going on out there at this moment. Lol) We can bear with each other in love, or we can hate each like the devil wants us to. We might as well admit that one of the biggest problems in our lives is other people. How we react to other people makes a huge difference in our witness to the world. “Love… believes all things and hopes all things.” This does not mean that real Christian love is naïve. It means that we are willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, and accept them. Hope and belief definitely go together. It is our belief in God and belief in other people that gives us an outlook of hopefulness in the world. It is for certain that there are many people who make it difficult for us to “believe all things” and “hope all things.” That is where our faith in Christ comes in. He gives us the desire to believe, to trust and to hope. “Love… endures all things.” We would call this “keeping on keeping on.” Life can grind us down and make us just want to give up, quit and retreat into a shell. Satan will certainly try our endurance. If the early Christians had not had this kind of love, things would be a lot different in the church today. If Christians in countries today where they are persecuted did not “endure all things,” they would just quit and there would be no churches. We need to learn to love like this, and endure all of the slings and arrows of Satan and the world, and continue to give a Christian witness to a world that is in dire need of a Christian witness. If we love people as Jesus does, we will endure to the end. Bro. Joe
4 Comments
Deanie Campbell
2/19/2016 08:34:10 pm
Letting Daddy (Rudy Rigsby) and Aunt Ruby (Sullivan) know how you are. We all are pulling for your complete recovery very quickly!!
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Alice Strickland Brock
2/19/2016 09:30:43 pm
So glad you are improving! Praying for a speedy recovery! Thank you for your posts.
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Margaret M Jones
2/20/2016 09:25:27 am
I look forward to reading your messages every morning. So, in my heart I knew something was wrong when there was no devotions for a few days, was going to call you today. You know you are special to me and my family. Thank you Faith for keeping us informed. Praying for a speedy recovery.
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Joe & Janet Palmer
2/21/2016 11:12:44 pm
So glad to hear you are going to rehab. We have been praying for all of you keeping up with y'all through Bro Chad
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