From: "Phil Rembleski" <PHIl@rescuechurchofchrist.org>

To: "1111RESCUEMEMBERS"

Cc:

Sent: Tue, Dec 5, 2023 at 5:57 AM

Subject: 12-5-23 THOUGHTS

12-5-23   THOUGHTS

LOVE  is central in God’s design for His creation!  The thoughts from our passages are simple.  Our very definition as followers of God, comes from our practicing the ideas contained in the words below.  The key is in 1John 4:11   Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  

John 13:35  "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
1Thes 4:9-12    Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10  for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, 11  and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, 12  so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
1Cor 13:3-8a    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.  4  Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5  does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails;
1John 3:14    We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.  He who does not love abides in death.
1John 4:7-12   Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.   8  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  9  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  12  No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

My Prayer:
Help us, O God, to mature in our knowledge of love and the behaviors that make love happen. May we truly love for the benefit of others, and not for our own selves.  Help us to know the joy of living for others rather than for ourselves.  May a powerful fellowship of love abound in every place where the saints of God worship.  May our neighbors be blessed by our presence in the community.    In the name of our Savior,       Amen.