{"id":853,"date":"2018-02-16T07:37:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T15:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=853"},"modified":"2018-02-16T07:37:48","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T15:37:48","slug":"devotion-2-corinthians-1311-14-love-without-ceasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=853","title":{"rendered":"Devotion 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 Love Without Ceasing"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Corinthians 13:11-14<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a011\u00a0Finally, brothers and sisters,\u00a0rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace.\u00a0And the God of love\u00a0and peace\u00a0will be with you. 12\u00a0Greet one another with a holy kiss.\u00a013\u00a0All God\u2019s people here send their greetings.\u00a0\u00a014\u00a0May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0and the love of God,\u00a0and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit\u00a0be with you all.<\/span><\/p>\n

How much do we love the family we are born into?\u00a0 Of course we love them immensely.\u00a0 Through all the family struggles and all the family fun, we love each other.\u00a0 There may subjects that are best not talked about, but we love each other.\u00a0 Always we love each other.\u00a0 We do not easily walk away from such bonds.\u00a0 Such is the deep bond (and greater) that we have for each other in Christ.\u00a0 I truly love the children of my brothers and sister in Christ.\u00a0 We, all children and adults in Christ, are family. Do we realize the deep bond?\u00a0 Family, the Word of God is clear that only those who love and serve the Lord will be forever together with Christ (1 Timothy 2:5<\/b>).\u00a0 Heartbreakingly sad is that there are those in our natural families who reject Jesus.\u00a0 The Word of God is clear that, at death, unless one already knows Jesus as Savior and Lord, they will not dwell with God (Hebrews 9:27<\/b>).\u00a0 But we know who will dwell eternally with God, all our brothers and sisters who truly love and serve God. Though we certainly disagree with each other about some things (sometimes strongly) we are united together by the blood of Christ.\u00a0 Family, Jesus said that we must love God with everything that we are and love each other as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40<\/b>).\u00a0 These two commandments fulfill all that has been revealed to us in the Law and the Prophets.\u00a0 Everything hangs on love.\u00a0 Everything.<\/p>\n

Since we are eternally bonded in love, but not yet in heaven, out of love, let us not hurt each other, but encourage each other.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need to agree on everything.\u00a0 Two people who greatly love God can disagree on things.\u00a0 What should not happen is that we should break fellowship and speak against each other over earthly matters.\u00a0 We must, if we are in Christ, love each other (1 John 4:7-8<\/b>).\u00a0 \u00a0We must remember that the love we are called to is a proactive love (Matthew 25:31-46, Luke 10:25-37<\/b>).\u00a0 It seeks out to encourage and to do good.\u00a0 It rushes out to the sides of those in need.\u00a0 It overlooks differences of opinion and hurtful words not only because we love them, but the origin of our love for each other is the love of God within.\u00a0 The love of God breaks down walls, forgives offenses, and loves when love seems impossible.\u00a0 We all were once wallowing in detestable stench (Isaiah 64:6<\/b>) and still God loved and saved us. That is the love that we are to have for each other.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need to agree with each other to love each other.\u00a0 Never let the love of bondage be broken.\u00a0 Always, from the pure love of God, do good to each other. Restore loving relationships that have been damaged.\u00a0 Find the common ground of the love of God.\u00a0 Avoid what separates and dwell in the love of God that unites.\u00a0 Let the love and peace of God perfect us and unite us.\u00a0 Truly love and so be excited with joy to see each other.\u00a0 Give a holy hug to each other.\u00a0 Let the expression on our faces, when we see each other, be easily read as joy and love.<\/p>\n

The Golden Rule that God gave to us does not say to avoid evil, it says to do good (Matthew 7:12<\/b>).\u00a0 In doing so we show who is within us.\u00a0 By being active in displaying the love of God to the world we are then inactive in doing evil.\u00a0 If our time is filled \u201cdoing love\u201d then we will have not have time for evil.\u00a0 The love of God is the answer.\u00a0 May we live in it today!\u00a0 May we all walk in the awareness of God\u2019s blessing in our lives.\u00a0 It all starts with the love of God!\u00a0 May the love of God overflow and pour out of us in gratefulness to Him and in love for each other!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Corinthians 13:11-14\u00a0–\u00a011\u00a0Finally, brothers and sisters,\u00a0rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace.\u00a0And the God of love\u00a0and peace\u00a0will be with you. 12\u00a0Greet one another with a holy kiss.\u00a013\u00a0All God\u2019s people here send their greetings.\u00a0\u00a014\u00a0May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0and the love of God,\u00a0and the fellowship of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[129,104,103,100,106,101,94,17,2036],"class_list":["post-853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-corinthians","tag-hebrews","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-timothy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions\/854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}