The Greatest of These...

Roar, man it's been a while since I've posted here. Sorry about that folks, life's been rather... well life.

NaNoWriMo went rather well, but writing so much in such little time is such a drain me. there were times I spend a few hours cranking out thousands of words and leave the moment feeling so empty as if I'd poured all that I was in there, which of course is good for writing but bad when you're then mentally exhausted and needing to drive home lol.

This time of year, churches are usually going about getting ready for the best birthday of all, our Lord Jesus Christ. I even volunteered to help with the production of my own church's Christmas Celebration services as the main camera man (w00!). You'd think that my Sunday school would be around the same topic as that...

Not quite.

Since September we've been going over Simon Peter before his ministry began, and here's a few things I've observed since then:

- Even though Christ know you're going to fall, He's still looking out for you
- You will fall, but its your responsibility to stand up and continue walking forward, He will you strength and grace to do so
- /When/ you arise and return to Him, He wants you to go and strengthen your bothers and sisters,
   This is where we find our task to have a testimony of our walk with Christ, or at least a great example of it.
- Satan will try and shift you, to separate you, but Christ will use it to rid you of unnecessary things so that He may replace it with something greater.
-Peter is still a world in progress, which I've always loved to read considering what he's to become in the later books.
- He meets Peter where he denied him and with each question addresses the issues with Peter's heart.
- We don't need to worry about our fellow Christians in the sense of wondering why we aren't doing the same things they would be...whether it's missions, ministry, charity, etc. We follow Him out of our love for Him.
-Christ looks forward, not backwards

When we mess up, we need to first humble ourselves before God. While humility is something we generally do not like, it allows god to lift us up for His glory as well as helps us to realize His sovereignty. We must also cast all our fears and anxieties on him -- for, what is there that we can worry about that He cannot help us with? Always be vigilant against attacks and snares, stand firm, know that you are not alone in your suffering. Call upon your brethren to watch your back. Above all remember the promise that God is watching over you and has called you through your sufferings to restore you. There is nothing we go through that God cannot use, He doesn't waste experiences.

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The last two classes were the most powerful of the previous, at least in my opinion. We covered Ephesians 3:16-21

¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (NKJV)

Within each Christian there is the power that is the Holy Spirit that comes to us on through our acceptance of Christ. This spirit guides us, teaches us, disciplines us, so that Christ may dwell in us so that we have a firm rooting in His love. This power we receive from all of that is given to us to understand the vastness (How wide.. how high... how long.. and how deep) the love of Christ is. He has done so much for us, even so far as setting things in motion so that when the moment of our need comes, the blessings come right on time.

When we pray, the foundation of that prayer needs to be the love of Christ. When the verse about understanding the love of Christ. We were told in class that the originally translation was to apprehend, to lay hold of the understand of how much Christ loves us, and take it and make it our own.  The wonderful thing about this is that it's not restricted to certain Christians, but to all saints.

 To think, all the things God gives us-- so much power through Him, all to apprehend how much He loves us.

...Faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor 13:13b). I've always loved 1 Corinthians 13, but after last Sunday night I've received a new appreciation for the passage.

Towards the end of the message, our teacher gives us another Billustration of a childhood Christmases and the  parents would give gifts layered above each other in a single package. He would get the first box and be happy,then is surprised when his parents prompt him to keep digging. He does so and finds another present better than the first and is excited and overjoyed, but is prompted to dig deeper. He's surprised but does so and finds what the parents were so excited to give him and he becomes overfilled with love and joy.

That, is one if not the best illustration of what is to become saved. Yes, there is eternal life and that's amazing, but there is so much more beyond that and we have to keep digging under the layers to find the power, and the love that Christ has for us.

It was love that brought Christ into the world in order to save it, for a perfect man to die so that the imperfect may be cleansed.  It is love that causes parents to go out of their way to protect and lift up their children. It is love, and the greatest of love that allows one to lay down their life for another.

Love, is the greatest thing to have and more so to give. His love, is the greatest of all.

Merry Christmas :) And a wonderful new year.

John.
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Paradigm verses for 12/11/2011
Ephesians 3:17-21
1 Corinthians 13:13
Colossians 2:9-10
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Side note:

Another topic that we've been going over is prayer. I need to better myself in that portion of my spiritual walk, and I was hope those who come across this to pray for me that I will gather the will power to not only pray more often, but to pray for things that go beyond the scope of "me". Also, if you'd like for me to pray for something, I'd be honored to. Already since last week, some amazing things have happened from it, but that's something for another conversation :) Thank you all!