What Love Looks Like

I Corinthians 13: 4-7

We learned how important it is to love one another, now we're going to see what that love looks like. 

Love is patient, 

It "suffers long." This is makrothymeō in the Greek. It means to be "long-spirited;" to have "long patience, to patiently endure." Never give up. 

love is kind 

The Greek word is chrēsteuomai which is translated as "to show oneself useful, or act benevolently; to be kind."

and is not envious; 

This word is zēloō in the Greek, which means, "to covet earnestly; to move with envy." When we love someone, we're not going to scheme to take from him what he has for ourselves. 

love does not brag 

"Vaunteth not itself," essentially, to not be a braggart. 

and is not arrogant, 

Not haughty, does not "puff up" himself with pride. The Greek word here,
physioō, gives the idea of "inflating by blowing" it up, like a balloon.

does not act unbecomingly; 

"Unseemly," aschēmoneō, in an inappropriate way; not in keeping with established standards of taste or proper form. When we love one another, we would not want to embarrass one another with indecorous behavior. 

it does not seek its own, 

This is zēteō, "to seek," as to worship God, or negatively, to plot against a life. A very strong word; we are not to go after what would be for our own selves, to worship ourselves by putting our own benefit primary in life, rather than what would help the one loved. 

is not provoked, 

This is, paroxynō, to not easily get exasperated or stirred up.

does not take into account a wrong suffered, 

King James Version says, thinketh no evil, so this would be to put a positive frame around what was a negative occurrence. To rethink a slight or an insult, as Joseph told his brothers that he knew that they meant to harm him, but God meant it to save all their lives.  

does not rejoice in unrighteousness, 

"Rejoice," chairō, means to be happy about, cheerful, as a greeting. We are not to happily welcome into our lives what is adikia, "legal injustice; or wrongfulness of character, life, or act." We are doing no favor to anyone to allow ourselves to give an "atta-boy" to someone who has an immoral lifestyle. It's unhealthy and hurtful to oneself and the whole society he lives in. 

but rejoices with the truth; 

But we are to sygchairō, "congratulate, to gladly sympathize" with alētheia, "truth, verity." What is in alignment with how God designed this environment to work, and how we can cooperate with it is the truth of any situation. 

And God is Love, so how He wants us to relate with one another is also with love, with wanting the very best for the other, regardless of what it costs us.

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

The "all things" is pas, which includes "all, every, the whole, whatsoever, whosoever." The whole ball of wax. 

"Bears" is stegō, "to roof over, to cover with silence, to endure patiently." All things. 

"Believes" is pisteuō, "to trust completely, implicitly, without reservation." All things. 

"Hopes" is elpizō, "to anticipate with pleasure, expectation with confidence." All things. 

"Endures" is hypomenō, "to stay under (behind), to bear with (trials), have fortitude, persevere, endure, take patiently." All things. 

No matter what happens, no matter what people do to us, no matter how they may mistreat us and slander us and use and abuse us; if we love them with God's Love, then it will make no difference in how we treat them. 

We tend to treat those who love us much better than we treat those who don't like us. Or those we think don't like us. 

But if we love people as God Loves people, and is good to us and gives His own Best and most Precious for us while we're still sinners, then that will take God's Holy Spirit in us loving them through us. 

Love never fails. 

This is why Love never fails, God's Love. That's why we need God's Spirit in us to love others as He Loves us. This is not in us naturally, it is not mere human love; it is God Loving others through us. 

O my Father, You have Loved us with such an expansive, glorious, unlimited, extreme Love! Please teach us Your children how to love one another as You Love us. Show us how to display Your Spirit of Love even in the face of insults and betrayals and abuse. 

Father, show us how to respect the temple we are, while remaining true to Your Truth, and to love the perpetrators even as we call them out on their unrighteousness. 

Father, what goes against how You made us and our Earth actually hurts us and our World. We have destroyed so much of our environment, and so much of our own health and well-being, in turning to man for what is processed and artificial instead of what You have generously provided for us right here. 

And, Father, how we treat one another in our cities and neighborhoods and online is so harmful to ourselves and one another. Please grant us healing and compassion for one another. Teach us how to apply these concepts You have given us in these verses. This is the only way we will be able to do right by one another and ourselves and where we live. 

Cause our love for one another to show the World around us that Jesus really did come to be one of us, to be our Savior and Redeemer and King. And also our Judge. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus of Nazareth is our Lord God Almighty, our Sovereign King, to the glory of Almighty God the Father, forever.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Why Do We Do What We Do?

I Corinthians 13: 1-3

Here is the "more excellent way"--the way of Love.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 

No matter what flowery language I use, my words will convey no more value than just meaningless noise, if I don't love my hearers. 

If I have the gift of prophesy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

No matter what I know, no matter what I've learned from God, and no matter if my faith can terraform the surface of this Earth, I'm still nobody if I don't love the people that God loves. 

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 

Even if I give away a fortune, leaving nothing for myself, and willingly face martyrdom, it still wouldn't be worth anything if I don't love the people around me and treat them with the consideration God gives us all. 

This is how important it is for us to love others, even our enemies, the way Jesus has loved us, even when we were His enemies. 

And the following verses describe what this love looks like.

O my Father, please open our minds and hearts to not just understand what these concepts are, but to cut us deeply to actually love one another graciously and compassionately and sacrificially, no matter what it will take from us. 

Father, You gave us Your very Best, most Precious! Teach us how to do the same for one another. Break our hearts for what breaks Your heart, Father, and strengthen us with Your boldness and faithfulness and energy to go out, to do, to say, to write, to be the witnesses You mean for us to be, to those in each of our little worlds, to build up and help and teach and show Your Love to one another.

And send more workers into Your mission fields, Father, to find those who are looking for You, to rescue the perishing from every evil deed and out of this present evil age, into the safety and rest of Your fold, that there be Your One Fold with One Shepherd. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim in every language that Jesus is Lord God Almighty, our sovereign King, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Order Of Authority In The Church

I Corinthians 12: 27-31

Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. 

Because we are all one body, we need to cooperate with one another for the body to operate effectively. 

So the order of authority that God put into all of His creation also applies to the church.  

And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, 

The apostles were the men who laid the groundwork on the foundation of Christ for the building of the church, so they came first. Now that part is finished. Beware of anyone calling himself an apostle today, because the framework for the church has already been laid.

second prophets, 

Next came those who would speak God's words to the people, explaining how we are to live now according to this New Covenant, instead of the Old Covenant.

third teachers, 

Then the teachers would teach what the prophets had received from God, to disseminate the new ways of thinking throughout the whole church. 

then miracles, 

These were supernatural confirmation of all this new way of thinking and living and relating. 

then gifts of healings, 

This related to the physical health of those who were ill or disabled or demon-possessed.

helps, 

The note on this refers to Numbers 11:17 when God put the Spirit Moses had on some 70 elders of the Hebrew people to help him carry the load of all the people so he wouldn't have to bear this great burden alone. 

administrations, 

These were political abilities to govern the church. 

various kinds of tongues. 

This gift of languages is mentioned last in this particular list.

All are not apostles, are they? 

The answer here is, "No," of course not. 

All are not prophets, are they? 

Again, of course not. 

All are not teachers, are they?  

Same answer, "No."

All are not workers of miracles, are they? 

Again, "No."

All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? 

No, no, and no. No one gift is given to everyone, other than the Holy Spirit, himself, manifested in all the different gifts given to all the people.

But earnestly desire the greater gifts. 

These Corinthians seemed to be fixated on the particular gift of tongues, which Paul will deal with a little later. It happens to be a lesser gift, that has less of an impact on building up Christ's church. Paul wants them to focus more on the more powerful and efficacious gifts rather than the showy ones.

And I show you a still more excellent way. 

This leads into Chapter Thirteen, the Love Chapter. 

O my Father, please help us to have a clear understanding of how You have designed Your church to operate. Teach us to submit to one another, and to obey You in following the directives of our leaders. Lead our church leaders into Your righteous paths so they will lead us aright. 

Father, help us to be Your church, following You, according to Your ways; with the humility to recognize our own positions in Your order of authority, those higher on the ladder submitting to the rest, offering their hand of help in compassion and graciousness. 

And help us all as Your children, to see one another as You see us, treating each other with kindness and gentleness especially when our rough edges rub. 

And send us out into Your fields that are white to harvest. Use us to find every lost lamb that is caught in thickets or lost in crags, so that all Your sheep will be drawn into the safety of the fold, and there will be One Fold with One Shepherd. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

One Body--How Does That Work?

I Corinthians 12: 12-27

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 

All the members of the church make up one body, with Christ as the head. The one Spirit in all of us makes us one body. 

My physical body is alive with a spirit of life in it. Your body is also alive with a spirit of life in it, but not the same as my spirit of life, because you have a different body than I have. 

God's Spirit is in all of us, one Spirit, making us all one body, spiritually.  

For the body is not one member, but many. 

Just as your physical body is made up of many different body-parts, so is Christ's spiritual, mystical body. 

If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 

Hands are very handy, and someone who is not handy may think that they don't have a place because they aren't handy. But feet are needed, too, to go somewhere.  

And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 

An ear cannot see, so it may think it's useless. But we also need to hear the beautiful music.  

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 

We all need different sensibilities, and when we look at one another and envy the ability someone else has, then we are ignoring our own ability, robbing the body of the sense God gave us. So our local body ends up blind or deaf.  

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 

God has decided which people would be in which congregation, using our own desires and personalities to round out the characters of our churches. We need to follow His leading in joining the local church which suits us. 

If they were all one member, where would the body be? 

If everybody were the same in a congregation, it would not be a healthy body. 

But now they are many members, but one body. 

So we are to have many different people in each local church, to round out the good spiritual health of the body, and to do all the things God means for the church to accomplish for His Kingdom.

And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you;" or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 

So one member of a church should never say to another, "You don't fit in here," because maybe that particular congregation needs that one there. 

I think that our different congregations have different "personalities" because we are too particular about the kind of people we want to associate with in our churches. This is not right. God places the members into the body, and we are not to override His choices.  

On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable,
whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,
so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 

All our differences can be irritating to one another, but if we allow those irritations to become divisions, then we are outside God's will for us. 

We are to love one another with a sacrificial love. We don't necessarily have to like one another. But when we see one another with the acceptance and compassion of Christ's Love for us, and act accordingly, then we will find ourselves coming to like them, too. Our feelings will always eventually catch up to our wills, when we decide to do what is right, even when it's uncomfortable. 

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 

If you stub your toe, you are miserable until it heals. And when you get new glasses, you revel in all the clarity you can see now. One toe or one sense of sight affects our whole disposition. 


The body of Christ is no different. When we are behaving ourselves, seeing the way God sees, and understanding with His mind, this will cause our spiritual health as His body to be vibrant, and we will do His will in fulfilling His plan.  

Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. 

We need to remember this, and keep it in mind in all of our interactions with our brothers and sisters in Christ. 


O my Father, thank You for Your wisdom and compassion in putting us into the congregations where we are needed to provide the hands and feet and eyes and ears and hearts and spleens and all the other body parts each local church needs to be spiritually healthy, to accomplish everything You have planned for each one to fulfill. 

Father, our cities are too populated to have only one local church, but we have so many congregations that some are at an extreme without realizing that they are blind or deaf or without the ability to do something that You have determined is necessary. They are spiritually inept or ill in some way or other. Father, show the leadership of these churches what needs to be healed, so that they will seek Your ministrations as their Great Physician. 

Father, may all Your children seek Your face and Your ways, daily, and even moment-to-moment. We desperately need You for healing in so many ways. 

Father, strengthen each of us individually, and our congregations corporately, so that we will be prepared to face all that You have told us is to precede the coming of our Lord and King; which I believe will be very soon, sooner than we expect.

Help us all to be looking for Your coming, and working toward the Day when every person alive will have heard Your Good News and made an informed decision whether to accept or reject Your gracious offer. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim the Lordship and Kingship of Jesus the Son, to the glory of God the Father. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Here Are Some Of The Gifts Explained

I Corinthians 12: 4-11

Now Paul is getting into the gifts themselves.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.
And there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
There are diversities of effects and operations, but it is the same God who works all things in all persons. 

He says that there are many different gifts and ministries and programs that the church is to engage in, but it's all the same Spirit, the same Lord Jesus, and the same God the Father who are working it all out for everybody. He is still in charge.  

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 

And whatever the Spirit gives to each person, it is for the benefit of everyone, not just himself or his little group. 

Now he's going to name some of the gifts. 

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, 

One person will be given the ability to see how all the parts fit together to make the right decision.

and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 

Another person will be able to understand the facts according to God's Word to ascertain what God is saying to the church.  

to another faith by the same Spirit, 

This faith is an extraordinary trust in God to do extraordinary things, without wavering. 

and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 

To lay on hands or speak a word, or otherwise effect the healing of sickness and disease by supernatural means.  

and to another the working of miracles, 

Doing supernatural things that draw attention to God and His Love.

and to another prophecy, 

This can be foretelling future events before they happen, or giving a divinely inspired instruction or exhortation. 

and to another the discerning of spirits, 

This is judicial estimation of spirits, whether they are good or evil. 

to another various kinds of tongues, 

Another person would receive the ability to speak in languages they have never learned; the way Paul was able to preach to people everywhere in the World, no matter what language they spoke. 

and to another the interpretation of tongues. 

And another person would be able to translate these foreign languages into the tongue of the people present in the church service. 

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. 

God's Spirit gives whatever gifts He determines each person needs to have to perform the work He planned for him to do for the furtherance of the Gospel. Each believer receives a spiritual gift when God saves him, and everyone gets their own gifts. No one gift is given to everyone indiscriminately. 

Each child of God is given at least one spiritual gift to use to bless and help one another. The gifts are for the betterment of the whole church, not just the one who has the gift. We are to build up the church, and let those in the church build one another up. We are not to build ourselves up with God's spiritual gifts. 

O my Father, please help Your children to understand about the gifts You give to each of us. Teach us how to use these gifts to build up and benefit others of our sisters and brothers in the Lord. 

Father, please banish the controversies concerning Your gifts of Your Spirit, so that we will not argue or debate the practice of these abilities You give us.

Teach us how to use these abilities so that we will practice them in helping one another according to Your will, Father, Your plan that You are fulfilling in and through us as Your agents, Your witnesses, Your family. 

Strengthen us to accomplish all You have desired, and take pleasure in our work for You. That every living person will be able to hear Your Good News with sufficient understanding to make an informed decision to accept or reject Your gracious Love. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of the Father!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

God's Power Or Demon Power?

I Corinthians 12: 1-3

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.

Paul is going to talk about spiritual gifts, but he prefaces that discussion with this:

You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. 

These people were saved out of a culture that recognized many gods, and worshiped them as idols or statues. Statues have no life, but demons can be behind these statues, to answer prayers or do miracles. So they had been led to honor and adore these idols.

Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed;" 

Jesus took upon Himself the curse God had put on Mankind, and the Scripture says, 

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree; his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that same day; (for he who is hanged is cursed of God;) that your land be not defiled, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:22-23).

That's why they had to take Him down off the Cross before nightfall. But even though Jesus took our curse upon Himself, He was not cursed. 

and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 

When we say that Jesus is our Lord, we're considering Him to be the Boss who tells us what to do. These are not just words, they mean that we are obeying His rules, because we are thinking His thoughts and adopting His attitudes toward life. The only way we can do that is by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. 

This is Paul's introduction to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Why he would cover this first is probably to differentiate between the power of demons through the idols and God's true power through His Holy Spirit in us through His spiritual gifts. 

O my Father, thank You for all Your goodness to all of us every day. You have known us, and even though we are Your enemies who have rebelled against You, You have still Loved us more than we can imagine, sending Your own Son to be our Savior from the power of sin over us. And Redeeming us out of the slave-market of sin to give us New Life in Your own Holy Spirit, causing us to be born spiritually, comparable to how we were born physically. 

And You have equipped us to do Your work, Father; to accomplish Your plans for all of us, for each of us to play our part. You have planned out the whole panoply of existence, before You made any of it. And You have placed us where and when You have for us to play out all You want done. 

Teach us, Father, how to use all the gifts You have given us, along with all our natural abilities You caused us to be born with, with all the different personalities You gave us, from all the experiences we have lived through so far. And You have given to each one of us a heart to love and enjoy and desire what You are pleased to grant us. 

Help us all, my Father, as Your children, to display Your sterling character in each of our relationships, and to use all the tools at our disposal to accomplish with skill all You want done to prepare for the coming of Your Son, our King.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Lord's Supper: What Does It Really Mean?

I Corinthians 11: 17-34

Now in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. 

Now Paul is talking about another matter, that they just are not understanding. So they're not doing any good by it. 

For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you, and in part I believe it. 

Since this is a new section, I don't think he's talking about the kind of divisions he dealt with in chapters one to three, I think he's referring to different views of what the Lord's Supper is supposed to be. 

For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. 

"Factions" refers to different opinions, like an opposing political party. It's rendered as "heresies" in the King James Bible, with a note that it could also be translated "sects." 

This is very strong language, which shows how passionate Paul feels about this issue. Maybe we need to think of the Lord's Supper in more weighty terms.  

Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, 

They were meeting for church, but Paul insists that it is not the right way to meet to celebrate this Ordinance of the church.

for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 

It appears that these Corinthians are bringing their own suppers to the church gathering and not sharing their food, so that some of the members go hungry and others have even showed up inebriated.  

What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you. 

These people are not showing any concern for one another, and Paul refuses to compliment any part of these goings on. 

Now Paul will set them straight about what the Lord's Supper is all about.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, 

He's telling them exactly what the Lord taught him.

that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 
and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. 

Now he describes the Last Supper. The one part, where Jesus institutes this Ordinance. They had already finished the meal, and Jesus picks up a piece of the bread they had been eating, and says that the "bread" we eat is His "body," what nourishes us. Previously He explained to the disciples that,

It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63).

So the physical piece of bread has no worth in the spiritual realm. It is a reminder for us to see, to remember that He took our death on the Cross. 

In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the New Covenant in My Blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. 

In the same way, the cup represents His Blood, that spattered the sides of His altar, the Cross, to wash away our sins. Sins can only be dealt with by blood, the blood of the animal sacrifices covered the sins so that the people could be forgiven, now the Blood of Jesus, God's own Blood, fulfills those sacrifices, and has the unlimited value to wash away all of our sins completely. Now we don't have to offer animals on an altar any more.

The Old Covenant was the animal sacrifices. Now He is instituting a New Covenant, based on the Blood He shed in His Sacrifice to end all other sacrifices.

As often as you drink it, to keep it on our minds continually.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 

This is the whole purpose for this Ordinance: To announce that Jesus has died as the Lamb of God, our atoning Sacrifice; and that He was buried, and rose from the dead, and will return one Day to set up His Kingdom on this Earth.

Therefore whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the Body and the Blood of the Lord. 

This is a very solemn and pivotal Ordinance that we need to take seriously. To be flippant about this is to flip off the whole purpose for which Jesus left His glory in Heaven to become our Savior and Redeemer. To take as trivial the great Sacrifice He suffered for each of us, making it all meaningless.

But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup. 

We are to look at our own hearts, our own weaknesses and failings, and get right with the Lord; giving respect to the importance of remembering what He has accomplished for us by His death and shedding His Blood.  

For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the Body rightly. 

If we do not have the reverence and respect for the Body of our Lord that was broken for us, then we are calling down God's judgment on us to have to pay it personally. 

For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 

The church in Corinth had members who were suffering failing health, and some had even died, because of their attitudes toward the Lord's Supper. This is serious, with consequences.  

But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 

When we face our own sins, and confess them and forsake them, seeing them as God sees them, then He will not pour out His wrath on us, having already put it on Jesus on the Cross in our place.  

But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the World. 

Those in Corinth who are sick and weak and have died are being disciplined by our Loving Father so that He will not have to condemn them with the rest of the World.  

So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 
If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. 

Paul concludes this discussion with giving them practical advice to follow: Consider how sacred this Ordinance is and act accordingly, by eating your meals at home and having consideration for one another. He considers these Christians as his brothers in the Lord, and sincerely wants them to get it right.

And in writing this out for them in this letter, God has also given us this instruction today. This is how we are to think of the Lord's Supper, giving Christ the honor He deserves, and having consideration for one another. 

The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.  

Other items of concern he needed to talk to them about were probably specific to their circumstances at that point in time. 

So there are also items of concern we need to face and deal with in our time. 

Each time has its own problems and concerns, and God has given us all the foundational principles under all the issues we will ever need to take care of each day, in whatever time and culture we are living. 

O my Father, thank You for Your written Word, that we can read and study and draw out all the things You put into it. Every time I turn to it to dig into what You have told us, I find that I come to a fuller, deeper, more expansive understanding than what I had before. 

Father, help all of us Your children to view this Ordinance in the light of what our Lord Jesus did for us, and continually keep in mind how much You Love us, to have sent Him, Your Most Precious, to be our personal Sacrifice! How it must have broken Your heart to do that to Your own Son, but You considered each of us worth that extreme Sacrifice! 

Help us, also, Father, to love one another the way You have Loved us, to be willing to also sacrifice our most precious possessions for the benefit of our brothers and sisters. 

Teach us how to love You back, Father, and to show our love for You in our treatment of those You Love: all the people who live in this World. 

Strengthen us and prosper us to share and go and broadcast Your precious Seed in all the fields of this World, so that every person of every Nation and every tribe and every tongue will hear. Until every person alive, from the smallest child to the most elderly citizen will be able to understand enough to make an informed decision to accept or reject Your gracious offer. 

Then You will send Your Son back to us, to reward the saints, to judge the wicked, and to set up Your Kingdom on this Earth. And Your Kingdom will never end, and will continue to increase throughout all eternity!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!