Not everyone can heal the sick. Not everyone can speak different kinds of languages. Not everyone can tell what these languages mean. I want you to desire the best gifts. So I will show you a much better way. 1 Corinthians 12:30-31 (CEV)
My husband is a wonderful teacher. He brings his passion for God’s Word into every class. Some may think it is all about his knowledge and ability to read Hebrew and Greek. And that is a wonderful thing! But it is also about the hours he has sat at God’s feet and just listened to what God wanted to teach him. Freely God has given to Henry and so freely Henry gives to all who ask.
I love to read 1 Corinthians 13. It is such beautiful prose. It’s message cuts through me no matter how many times I read it. But one day, as I listened to Henry teach about spiritual gifts, he strongly urged all of us to read 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 all together. I did that and saw how 1 Corinthians 13 impacted how I look at chapters 12 and 14 on spiritual gifts. And again how 12 and 14 impacted chapter 13. Give it a read yourself!
This week is what many call Passion Week. It is my absolute favorite week in the whole year. Yes, even more than Christmas! It is a week when I feel soaked in the love of my Savior. It is a time when I feel overwhelmed with what Jesus did for me.
Jesus healed the sick. Jesus spoke to people no matter their station in life or whether they were Jew or Gentile. It was His Spirit who enabled Peter on the day of Pentecost to speak to literally hundreds of people from all over the known world and they heard him in their own language! Jesus could do all this but it is His love that saved me and set me truly free. If there wasn’t Jesus’ love for me and you and everyone of God’s children, we would have nothing.
God’s love is the best way for everything I do. If I do not have His love when I write these devotions, then the words would be nothing. If I do not have love when I receive an email or phone call from someone who needs prayer or an ear to listen, then I have nothing. God’s love is enough for anyone. And in those emails, phone calls, and these devotions, we need a reminder, a testimony of God’s love. Whether we are speaking to each other around the family dinner table or in the local soup kitchen or on a mission trip on their other side of the world – God loves is the foundation of whatever message He wants us to share. It is His best gift. It is the message in the passion of this week.
I hope, I pray for every person reading this to feel a quickening in their spirit to soak themselves in the Word of Christ’s passion this week. Read the gospel accounts and accept His love that has saved us.
Matthew 26-28
Mark 14-16
Luke 22-24
John 18-20
At the Cross written and sung by Brian Doerksen
