Tags
charity, Christ, Christmas, coffee, fruit of the spirit, homeless, longsuffering, love, patience, Thanksgiving
This time of year (Thanksgiving & Christmas) is where you see a lot of holiday cheer, upbeat spirits, lots of community service, and everything around us comes to life! We are sharing our time and space with friends and family – and even people we don’t know because, hey – it’s the holidays, and we are spreading a lot of LOVE…
During this time of the year, this type of behavior is natural; it just feels right. But what about the other 10 months of the year (304 days to be exact!)? Do we share this same liveliness, passion, or caring spirit? Do we make it a habitual practice to feel love and share it whenever, wherever during other times of the year? And what about your personal circles: close friends, family, co-workers? Do they get to feel my love and my sweet spirit throughout the year? I’m not trying to beat you up; but perhaps these are questions we should think about to see if our charitable actions and loving spirit carries on throughout the year. That’s where our Passion Pitch Question comes into play:
In what ways do you exhibit love toward others?
Over this series you can connect & correspond with us on Twitter using the hashtag #LoveAbides
If you’ve been listening into Coffee Connection for a while, you know that I love analysis and defining things – scaling back the surface to get the depth of meaning underneath. So what is the definition of LOVE? Let’s take a look at I Corinthians 13. This chapter basically describes what true love is, how love is carried out, and how we can make it a part of our actions.
VERSES 1, 2, 3 | See, sometimes we have to know what something ISN’T in order for us to fully understand what it actually is. How many of us have ever been involved in one or more community service initiatives? But when we go home; it’s hard for us to get along with those in our house. It’s hard for me to speak to my co-worker. It’s hard to pray for someone when I’m angry with them. Then I am reminded of Proverbs 10:12 – when I am angry at someone, do they feel disconnected from me; do they feel like I hate them; have I allowed strife to set in and reside where love should abide?
Ephesians 4:2 | We see this word “longsuffering” as a bit of a theme here. You see, it is easy for us to share the love of God by joining in a homeless Thanksgiving dinner or getting involved in a Christmas toy drive during the holidays. But we have to drive that bus home throughout the year. Exerting patience, spending time with our loved ones, hearing a co-worker out, keeping it moving when someone cuts you off in traffic, not getting so caught up on proving our point that there is no more Godly love in the mix. That’s what longsuffering is – letting the love of God manifest itself – in both intimate and very public scenarios. These verses really open our eyes to what love isn’t.
VERSES 4, 7, 8, 13 | This word charity is interchangeable with the word love. What needs are we assessing for those people within our personal network? Have we taken inventory?
Now that we understand what love is, we can move forward with open eyes and open hearts to integrate it within our lives, and to modify our behavior in order to let those closest to us feel the love of God from our hearts.
Passion Series 