Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Fear Factor

I am teaching a class on Overcoming Your Giants, dealing with fear. A couple of Sundays ago I was reading my new Bible (The Message) during announcements at church and I ran across a passage that caused me great fear. It spoke to me so plainly in this version. See what you think.
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I Corinthians 13
The Way of Love
1If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.3If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

4Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
5Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,
"Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
6Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
7Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
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Yes, I have fear. I am afraid that this type of love is not in my life and without it I am nothing!! I have so much work to do.

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