What do you say, when you can’t find the words to speak?

I believe the answer is you say nothing at all.

We live in a culture where everyone has an opinion on absolutely every subject under the sun! Not only do they have an opinion, but they they are convinced that they are right and everyone else is wrong!

Have you noticed that not only are we bombarded when we watch television or check out of the grocery store and see every tabloid published, but now to add insult to injury it’s on every device we own?

It feels impossible to call a friend on our cell phones without feeling corrected or accused by something we did or did not do even before we get all the numbers punched in!

Then we try to open up our email and get some work done, but before we can open up a new file we get headline after headline popping up on our screens giving us opinion after opinion after opinion!

We can feel overloaded, accused, defeated and downright wrong before we’ve even had our first cup of coffee!

It seems as though everyone has an opinion and that makes us feel that if we don’t have one something is wrong with us.

I believe that this  is counterculture to what Jesus is saying to us!

I believe that when we don’t have anything to say, we should say nothing at all! Instead of trying to form an opinion, come up with the answer on our own or simply speaking rhetoric to fill empty space, we need to be still and silent before our Lord.

The Truth is there are times in our lives when we are overwhelmed with one situation or another and we simply don’t have words.

Praise God He always has the right words for us!

John 14:1 says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.”

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Psalm 46:10

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” Luke 12:25-26

“Humble yourselves therefore under God‘s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you!“ I Peter 5:6-7

These are just a few of God’s words of Truth that speak words for us and over us when we have no words of our own.

Listening to God and receiving and believing His words bring peace, healing and comfort we could never receive through human words alone.

So, when you find yourself speechless, instead of speaking, read the Words of Truth God believes about you!

TRUTH BOMB

WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE THE WORDS TO SPEAK, LISTEN TO WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY, SOMETIMES SAYING NOTHING AT ALL MAY BE THE BEST THING TO SAY!

Speak Truth Love

Everywhere we look as we drive around or scroll online we see signs claiming,

HE IS RISEN!

We see it on banners hung across church buildings. We see it on signs planted in peoples yards. We see it posted on peoples Facebook‘s and Instagram accounts.

It’s Easter week and we want to celebrate!

But before Sunday came, before the tomb was empty, an entire week of praise, rejection, mocking, betrayal, torture, and death took place.

Praise happened first as Jesus entered Jerusalem!

“HOSANNA, HOSANNA, HOSANNA, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Crowds cheered, palm branches waved and peoples hearts stirred at the thought of the Lord‘s coming!

They had waited so long to be set free.

Their anticipation was high! They were going to be rescued! Their enemies were going to be put in their place! They saw Jesus as a conquering Savior! Someone who would meet their expectations and set them free from everything that plagued them here on this earth!

But their expectations were not met.

Jesus had not come as a conquering savior to destroy their enemy physically here on earth and set them up as the victors. He had come as the once for all savior, for all people, then and now!

JESUS DIDN’T FIT THEIR EXPECTATIONS!

Looking at their situation through their eyes and not God‘s eyes, they quickly changed their reaction.

Instead of “HOSANNA, HOSANNA, HOSANNAH, their cries became,

“CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM!”

When their expectations were not met, they looked to themselves and their understanding and fear and anger took over!

Looking to ourselves for solutions instead of trusting in and waiting on God for our solutions can lead to disaster.

Jesus was then betrayed, lied about, mocked, beaten, tortured and eventually, brutally killed. Until through His final breath He uttered the reason for it all! The answer they had been looking for all along.

“TETELESTHAI”

IT IS FINISHED, IT IS ACCOMPLISHED, IT IS PAID IN FULL!

Jesus had endured the brutality, the misunderstanding, the abuse, the torture, and the death because He is indeed, the only one to meet every expectation that we have!

Because of His death on the cross, we have full covering for our sin, and the ability to have life forever with Him in heaven! 

He did not say, “it is over.“ He said, ”It is finished,” it has been accomplished!

Jesus truly does meet all of our expectations and more. He paid the price for us on the cross, and He completed God‘s perfect will according to God‘s perfect expectations! When we choose to align ourselves with God’s expectations, and see our situation through His eyes, we can then live the lives that He has prepared for us in true freedom! 

We have been set free through the sacrifice of Jesus our PERFECT SAVIOR!

TRUTH BOMB

WHEN WE LOOK AT OUR SITUATION WITH GOD’S EYES AND NOT OUR OWN, JESUS MEETS ALL OUR EXPECTATIONS!

So when you view those beautiful banners, yard signs, and social media posts claiming, HE IS RISEN, raise your hands, Praise God and confidently proclaim,

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Happy Easter Friends!

Speak Truth Love

I love the Psalms, don’t you? It seems like you can flip to the middle of your Bible and any page that falls open you are going to get encouragement either for what you are going through or maybe an attitude that you should have. 

The Psalms are uplifting, they are encouraging, and above all they sing aloud the attributes of God!

One of my favorite Psalms to turn to is Psalm 37. More specifically I love chapter 37, verse 4!

Well, if I’m actually being honest I’d love psalm 37 verse 4b!

I mean come on, who doesn’t want someone to give them the desires of their heart? I am not too proud to admit that I do! After all, I love God with all my heart! To think that He loves me so much that He wants to give me the desires of my heart makes me full of joy!

But there is a problem with my philosophy. I am only reading the part of Psalm 37 that I want to focus on. If I truly read the whole Psalm from verse 1-40, I see God’s entire plan for my desires!

God is not some  “genie in a bottle,“ He is God Almighty! He is the creator of the universe and the creator of me! He wants my desires to be aligned with His desires. And He wants this because He loves me so very much!

It is so easy to think that the minute things don’t go my way, I don’t get something that I want, the way I want it and when I want it and how I want it, that God is not “giving me the desires of my heart!”

I think the truth is that instead of God not giving me my desires, it is me not aligning my desires with God’s desires!

If I simply read verse 4a along with verse 4b, then I’d discover how to align my desires with God’s desires.

In order to receive the desires of my heart from God I must delight myself in Him!

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:4a AND b!

Delighting ourselves in something is to

“please greatly and to take great pleasure in it!” It is a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction and great joy!

Further study into the word, ”delight,” shows at the origin of the word is influenced by LIGHT!

It seems pretty clear to me here that

THE LIGHT Himself, Jesus, wants us to

deLIGHT in His Light and before we know it, His Light is the “desire of our hearts!”

TRUTH BOMB

When we delight ourselves in the light of Jesus we will have the desires of our hearts!

So let’s get busy PRACTICING DELIGHTING!

Speak Truth Love

On Christmas morning do you like opening the biggest present under the tree or does your eye get drawn to the smallest one you can see? 

When it’s your birthday and everyone begins singing that familiar chorus, do you wait with anticipation for a large wrapped gift or a beautiful small box with a tiny ribbon around it?

We tend to believe that the bigger the box the better the gift. But that is not always the case. Sure, a big box can hold a wonderful gift, but often a small box contains a treasure of great value!

Miracles come in all sizes too! I must admit, that most of the time I only ask God for the big miracles. They seem to be on my prayer list for months and years at a time! I think I just assume that God only wants to deal with the big stuff.

This week however, God surprised me with a miracle that would fit into a small beautiful box!

If you read last weeks blog you know that my husband turned 60! We love him so much and wanted to celebrate him BIG! We had been planning for months to surprise him with a ski trip to our favorite place, Lake Tahoe! 

His kids were going to fly in, we had reservations at our favorite sushi restaurant to surprise him, and we would head up the mountain!  It was March and the roads should be clear and easy to travel. Everything had been put into place, tickets were purchased, reservations were made and we were anticipating the joy of celebrating him for a full month ahead of time. Surely the constant rain and snow we had experienced for the last two months would stop! 

As the time drew near, I nervously kept checking my weather app! It kept showing rain and snow. We kept praying and praying and praying! We were asking God for a break in the weather to be able to celebrate and honor the man we love so much.

Two days before we were ready to leave the weather app showed partly cloudy on Wednesday and sunny on Thursday! We would be traveling up the mountain on Wednesday and skiing on Thursday. We headed toward the mountains and kept praying!

In Lake Tahoe it had been snowing for weeks on end! There was so much snow that even as they tried to remove it, there was no place to put it! Highway 80 is the one we would be traveling. It was closed half day on Wednesday and opened up as we approached it! We made it through to our hotel. The mountain we were skiing had been closed that entire day! Thursday morning we woke to sunshine and the mountain was re-opened! We skied a beautiful ski day together on Jim’s actual birthday! The following day we made it down the mountain with partly cloudy weather. We arrived home safe and sound and realized that God had given us a miracle wrapped in a beautiful small box!

As I spent my quiet time with God that next morning, I was struck by the obvious truth that he had given us a small miracle. The rain began to pour again that day and the snow began to fall again in the mountains! As I praised him for this beautiful miracle of time spent together that he gave us, I thought about the big miracles that I had been praying for for over a year!

In that still small voice that only God speaks in, He reminded me that all miracles come from Him! He had blessed me with this small miracle to remind me that HE is still with me in the waiting for the big ones!

TRUTH BOMB

SMALL MIRACLES REMIND US THAT GOD IS STILL WITH US WHILE WE WAIT FOR THE BIG ONES!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not depend on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Are you always grabbing for the big box to open, or are you willing to take hold of the small boxes that God sends your way? 

It may very well be, that God has sent you a small miracle, beautifully wrapped in a box of His love and caring and affirmation to keep you holding on and wait for the bigger miracle just around the corner.

After all, only God can give a miracle and every size holds as great an importance as another!

Speak Truth Love

This Truth Bomb Tuesday special edition is coming to you on Thursday for a very special reason!

Today, March 16th 2023, I celebrate one of the greatest gifts I have ever received!  

Do you ever remember a time when you received a gift so undeserved and so unexpected? In fact, the gift came at a time when you expected anything but!  

In the fall of 1982 I found myself in a brand new city, at a brand new University, in a brand new dorm room all by myself. I was introduced to my roommate, and she asked me if I wanted to go to a Bible study that was held on our campus. We went together and walked from our dorm room to the campus Commons. As we rounded the corner, I looked up and saw the most handsome man I had ever laid eyes on. 

He was tall, dark, and handsome! And completely unassuming! He had on dark 501 jeans and a short sleeve plaid shirt. He said absolutely nothing! His friend, who was with him however, greeted both of us with energy and enthusiasm. We walked inside, and soon learned that the tall, dark, handsome man was leading the study. I was attracted to him initially by the way he looked, but when he began to teach the Word of God, he grabbed hold of my heart!

Fast forward two years and we were engaged and married! The next 38 1/2 years would find us in full-time ministry, on the mission field, and gifted with the two most wonderful children in the world! Who would give us two more children, their spouses and our four perfect grandchildren!

Life has not been perfect, God never promised that, but it has been BLESSED because of the incredible gift that God gave me in Jim Swaney! Today he turns 60 years old! 

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ 

TRUTH BOMB

True gifts come from above!

I believe with all my heart that there are gifts in this life that only God can give. And when he chooses to give you a gift, it is always good and right!  

Jim is that gift to me! Because of him, I have the other greatest gifts in my life… Our children, our grandchildren, and our ministry!

Jim is strong of character and absolutely unwavering. He is the most intelligent man of God that I know and yet he is humble to the core! He is fun and he is funny, he is truly the master of puns! He is the great adventurer, always looking for the next challenge! He loves God most, but loves his family next with all his heart! He is faithful and true, and beyond a shadow of a doubt, the love of my life!

Today, I celebrate the life of Jim Swaney, and I praise my God for the incredible gift of him to me! Happy Birthday!

Speak Truth Love

I hope you didn’t just scroll past my Blog or stop reading because you saw the word WAITING!

I guess if you’ve gotten this far, you’ve hung in there at least through a few sentences. So will you stick with it just a few more? If you do, you may learn that WAITING isn’t all bad!

Now when it comes to waiting in line at the grocery store or Target or even the post office, I am right there with you. I mean nothing is as frustrating as standing in a line at the grocery store that runs clear through to the produce department, when there are only two checkers working! You stand there patiently staring at 10 or more counters with no one working them. Am I the only one that thinks this is absolutely ridiculous?

After all, the Bible says that patience is a virtue, and I know it is one that I do not have!

WAITING is hard. We want what we want and we want it now! Is it all our fault? I don’t think so! We’ve been raised in a microwave, fast food, drive-through, Amazon prime, culture! 

Even if you can’t find it on Amazon prime you could pay for something to be delivered to you quickly! I have to admit that my husband and I ordered something online last night, as we are making a trip up to the mountains soon, and needed it quickly. We paid more money so it could be delivered to us quickly. We simply didn’t have the time to WAIT!

But WAITING Is not always bad. So much can be learned and achieved when we learn to WAIT!

The key to learning to wait is to not give up HOPE! And I believe that the key to not giving up hope is to remember that God is who He says He is, and is the same God during the WAIT!

There is no doubt…WAITING is hard!

So do we give up, and lose HOPE, or do we keep trusting in the One who has always been faithful in the past? Do we trust Him to do what only He can do in the present?

Now I know that waiting in a grocery line, or a Target line, or even in a post office line is one thing. But WAITING, and WAITING, and WAITING for something week after week, month after month, or even year after year can be nothing less than EXCRUCIATING.

These are the times that our faith is put to the test. These are the times that waiting can seem HOPELESS!

Praise God, we are not alone in this!

Hannah waited year after year with a broken heart because she could not have a child. She had a husband who loved her and a God she prayed to faithfully! Still she WAITED.

“I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” I Samuel 15-16

Hannah testifies here to Eli the priest that she has continued to pray even though she has great anxiety and vexation. In an earlier verse it tells us that she goes to the house of the Lord to pray year after year!

Hannah does not stop praying to the Lord through her WAITING.

Hannah trusts and has faith in God even with a broken heart and no quick answer.

Hannah WAITED through her grief and heartache, God heard her prayer, saw her, and finally answered her prayer! 

But not before years and years and years of WAITING.

I do not know what you WAITING for.

But I do know, that just like Hannah, you can wait and hope when you wait on God!

TRUTH BOMB

YOU CAN WAIT WITH HOPE WHEN YOU WAIT ON GOD!

God always will give the right answer. It may not be the answer that we desire, but it will always be the answer that we need!

Hannah received her answer after much WAITING from God.

Hannah’s prayer gives us a glimpse into the kind of faith that never loses hope even in the WAITING!

“There is none holy like the Lord:

For there is none besides you;

There is no rock like our God!” 

I Samuel 2:2

Our God is Faithful and True in the WAITING and out of it!

Speak Truth Love

I started out last week‘s Blog quoting a song by Cool and the Gang. So why not start this week out by quoting a Beatles favorite?

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!

Now most of you are probably humming the, “DA DA DA DA DA’s,” In your heads right now. It is a very well-known song and popular for very good reason. We all want to be loved!

Problem is the kind of love the Beatles are selling, or our world is offering, is not the kind of love we need!

Love really is all we need! But this statement has left out one vital word making it TRUTH!

GOD’S LOVE REALLY IS ALL WE NEED!

As we conclude this month of LOVEuary, let’s focus on the love that truly is all we need.

We began this month with the famous love passage, I Corinthians 13.

While this passage is a great Standard of LOVE, and the goal that we should all strive to achieve, we fall short.

We have good days and bad days. We have successful days and unsuccessful days. We have driven days and lazy days. We also have a God who never has any of these!

The reason that GOD’S LOVE IS REALLY ALL WE NEED, is He embodies the LOVE of I Corinthians today, tomorrow, yesterday and forever!

GOD’S LOVE TRULY NEVER FAILS AND NEVER ENDS!

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. LOVE NEVER ENDS.” 

I Corinthians 13:4

God‘s love is all this over you and more. He loves you when you are patient and when you are not. He loves you when you are kind and when you are not. He loves you when you are humble or jealous or boastful. He loves you when you are arrogant or when you are rude or when you are not. God does not insist on His own way but He desires for you to choose Him! God loves you when you are irritable or in a good mood. God loves you when you are resentful or when you are thankful. He loves you when you rejoice with others and when you do not! 

God knows that we are not perfect and He never withholds His Love from us!

HIS LOVE TRULY NEVER ENDS!

“So now faith, hope and LOVE abide, these three, but the greatest of these is LOVE!”  

I Corinthians 13:13

TRUTH BOMB

GOD’S LOVE TRULY IS ALL WE NEED!

God loves you my friends! It is not based on anything that you do, it is based solely on what He has done for you! 

GOD IS LOVE!

Speak Truth Love

“There’s a party going on right here! It’s a celebration to last throughout the year! So bring your laughter, and your good times too, because we’re going to celebrate and party with you!“

Cool and The Gang are not the only ones who penned these words, or words similar, and are ready to party!

There’s a party right now going on that claims the word FAT! Mardi Gras by definition is FAT TUESDAY! It is literally a day of huge proportion. You can party to your hearts content and take in anything and everything that you can in vast amounts. The more, the better!

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

The French, being heavily Catholic influenced, began the tradition of this gluttonous party right before Ash Wednesday would usher them into the Lenten season. A season that would reflect on the trials and suffering of Jesus Christ. 

Even though, Mardi Gras may be a fun filled day of partying, I am afraid they got it backwards! They are celebrating before they anticipate the suffering. When actually, the greatest celebration, or PARTY if you will, comes after the suffering!

Today, on the worlds calendar, it marks the day before Jesus officially started his ministry here on earth. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, when we reflect, pray and often fast, through the 40 days that occur before the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because Jesus did go to that cross, suffer and die, and was raised again to new life on the third day, we celebrate and party during baptism!

Jesus Himself was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist to show us the way. We are baptized in Christ Jesus, and raised to walk in a new life with him!

Now if that doesn’t give you some thing to “PARTY” about, nothing will!

There may be a party going on in New Orleans today or other places around the world celebrating Mardi Gras. But no party was greater than the one I was apart of this Sunday!

My oldest granddaughter and my oldest grandson chose Jesus and were baptized into him this past Sunday! We celebrated with the best kind of party, this side of heaven! It wasn’t the amount of streamers, in fact there weren’t any. It wasn’t the size of the cake, in fact there wasn’t one. It wasn’t the music, the food, or any of the decorations that made their party the best party in the world. 

It was the fact that they chose on their own to understand what Jesus modeled for us all those many years ago. We are buried to our old lives, and raised into a new life with Jesus Christ that not only encompasses this life on earth, but more gloriously, one in heaven with Him forever because of the sacrifice that He made for us on the cross!

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “You are My Beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  John 3:21-22

There is no greater reason to rejoice, celebrate and throw a party, then when someone is baptized into Christ Jesus, committing to leave their old life behind, and walk in a new life with him!

In fact, don’t take it from me, God‘s Word tells us that it’s such a great celebration that it is when the angels actually party!

“Just so, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  

Luke 15:10

If the angels are throwing a PARTY, then so should we!

TRUTH BOMB

BAPTISM IS THE GREATEST PARTY WE CAN THROW!

Baptism is not only knowing God, it is choosing Him and following Him! That’s why there’s a party going on in heaven for my Cami and my Cade and for all of you who have made the same decision to follow Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior!

As we step into this very sober season of Lent, where we remember the greatest sacrifice ever made on our behalf, may we remember that at the end of it there is a huge party going on!

Speak Truth Love

Yep, It’s That “LOVE” Day Again!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!❤️💗

Do you love it or do you hate it? 

No matter how you feel about February 14th on the calendar, it is a day to be reminded of your most important LOVE!

God loves you so much that He didn’t just say He loved you, He proved it! He not only proved it by sending His son to pay the price for your sin, so that you could feel His LOVE every day even into eternity, but He also sent you a valentine!

We talked about God proving His love for you last week on the blog. If you missed it just read John 3:16!

Today we are going to talk about God‘s valentine to us, His Word, the Bible, His Love letter to us!

Valentine’s Day has always been one of my favorite days! Not just because of the chocolate, although that’s a great perk, but more than anything, because of the Valentines, a.k.a. LOVE notes, that we get to send and receive!

I have shared on my Blog before that

“Words of Affirmation“ is my Love Language! In a nutshell love language simply means the way that I best give and receive LOVE.

So, naturally, I love giving and receiving cards! Especially when someone takes the time to think about what they are writing on that card, and express love through their words to me! Just as much as receiving those cards, I love giving them!

I remember how excited I would get when my mom would take me to the store to buy valentines for my class!

I could hardly wait to select the perfect box! 

I couldn’t wait to receive the class list with everyone’s name on it. Then I would search for the perfect pen, preferably red or pink and then I would fill out and sign every single card one at a time! It was a really special year if I had a valentine sticker to place on the outside of the envelope!  

The only time I would pause was when I would begin to fret over selecting just the right valentine for each and every person. It had to be perfect.

Then would come the time when I would literally agonize over the perfect or “proper,” valentine to send to that one person I had a crush on.

Would it be too much or too little to convey what I was really feeling? Should I send it to them or not? Should I take the risk and muster up all the courage I had to share my true feelings?

I mean after all, it was quite a risk to take. The feelings could be returned or rejected. It would actually be easier and much safer to simply keep them inside, send that “generic“ valentine card and avoid the consequences!

Problem is…If we never take the risk we never have the relationship!

I am so thankful that God was willing to take the risk to tell us that He loves us through the best valentine we will ever receive!

Gods Valentine to us is His Word, The Bible, His LOVE letter to us!

TRUTH BOMB

THE BEST VALENTINE YOU WILL EVER RECEIVE IS FROM GOD!

Gods Word is his valentine, a.k.a. love letter to us! Look at how much God loves us and wants a forever love relationship with us…

“Then the world will know that you sent me,(Jesus), and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  John 17:23

Then in verse 24 he takes it even farther…

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

God loves us so much that he wants to be with us forever in a love relationship!

God loves us, sent his son to prove it, and wants us to be with him in heaven forever! 

That’s what I call TRUE LOVE!

Valentine’s Day can be the best day ever when we realize that we have received the best valentine ever from the God who loves us most!m. Then we can celebrate that love by sharing it with others!

Ephesians 4:32

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God for gave you.“

“Beloved, (or Dearly Loved Ones), let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not live does not know God, because God is LOVE.”

I John 4:7-8

Unlike sending those valentines back in grade school, when we share God’s LOVE He takes the risk for us! We are already loved by God and secure in our relationship with Him! It is only a WIN when we share God‘s love with others. What they do with it is up to them!

So, HAPPY LOVE DAY EVERYONE!

You are loved by the creator of the universe and He sent you a valentine to tell you so!

Speak Truth Love

That’s right…. It’s LOVE month again!

Please notice I did not say it’s valentines month. Even though I happen to be a huge fan of Valentine’s Day! The legend of Saint Valentine is a wonderful one! It does not denote a romantic connection to the day, but instead a true brotherly love connection!  

But that is not what this Blog this month is about. 

This Blog all month long is about God‘s love and how we can take the opportunity to share it with others!

So welcome to love month here on the blog… Lovingly referred to as LOVEUARY!💕

The most famous love chapter in the Bible is first Corinthians 13. Most people love to skip the first several verses and move right into the long list of what love is. But I think we miss out on what love truly is, if we neglect to understand what love isn’t!

Love is not something we just speak about without putting action behind it.

Love is not something we prove to someone by our abilities and knowledge.

Love is not something we earn by giving away everything we possess.

The first three verses of first Corinthians 13 are much less quoted than the ones that follow, yet they hold incredible truth and wisdom on what love is not.

This gives us a beautiful and clear picture into what God’s love truly is!

“If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver at my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”  

I Corinthians 13:1-3

Love cannot be earned and cannot be measured by the words we say or our actions alone. All of the gifts that we have to offer are worthless without love! God‘s love is supreme because it lasts forever. God’s love is even greater than the sacrifices we make!

TRUTH BOMB

God’s love is given freely not earned!

IF WE ARE TO LOVE OTHERS WELL, WE MUST ALSO FREELY GIVE OF OURSELVES!

This is only possible when we understand how much God loves us.

Let’s start with the strongest LOVE of all…. When God demonstrated His LOVE for us by giving us what mattered most to Him, His own son!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not die but live forever.”  

John 3:16

God did not just speak about loving us, He showed us!

God did not just tell us about this great plan He had to love us, He sent His son to prove it!

And finally, God did not tell us we had to do or give away anything to earn it, we simply have to believe!

So, weather you love Valentines Day or not, you can still love “LOVEUARY” and freely love the “others” he has placed in your life!

God’s LOVE is Free, so let’s freely give it!

Happy LOVEUARY!

Speak Truth Love