2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.Now what do you say?”6 They were using this question as a trap,in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stoneat her.”8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,”Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
John 8:56-59 New International Version
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Love In Difficult Times(NOTES)
Matthew
2:13 New International Version
The
Escape to Egypt
13 When they
had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he
said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell
you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
Matthew
8:25 New International Version
25 The
disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
Matthew
10:6 New International Version
6 Go rather
to the lost sheep of Israel.
Acts 16:9-10 New International Version
9 During the
night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come
over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready
at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the
gospel to them.
2 Timothy
4:11 New International Version
11 Only Luke
is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my
ministry.
Colossians
4:14 New International Version
14 Our dear
friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.
Luke
14:21 New International Version
21 “The
servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house
became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and
alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the
lame.’
Isaiah
6:1-5 New International Version
Isaiah’s
Commission
1 In the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a
throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim,
each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they
covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to
one another:
“Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the
sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was
filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to
me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people
of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Proverbs
22:6 New International Version
6 Start
children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not
turn from it.
Deuteronomy
21:18-21 New International Version
A
Rebellious Son
18 If
someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and
mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and
mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his
town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and
rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all
the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from
among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Matthew
18:1-9 New International Version
The
Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven
18 At that
time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called
a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I
tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of
this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one
such child in my name welcomes me.
Causing
to Stumble
6 “If anyone
causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be
better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be
drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that
cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through
whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off
and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than
to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your
eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you
to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of
hell.
If there is one thing believers in Jesus should be known for, it is Love. They are to serve one another in Love, love their neighbors as themselves, live a life of Love, and love with actions and in truth.
‘True Love’ is sacrificial action and selfless generosity displayed both in speech and in actions.*
So, if Jesus and His followers are all about love, why do some people love to hate them ? Why are there, according to one estimate, 200 million persecuted believers in the world today ?
Jesus told us why. He said to His disciples, “Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed”.
Jesus is the Light. When He walked this earth, people hated Him because He exposed the darkness of their sin. We are now His light in this world; therefore, the world will also hate us. Our task is to be channels of God’s love and light, even if we are hated in return. – Dave Branon_
Some will hate you, some will love you; some will flatter, some will slight. Cease from man, and look above you, Trust in God and do the right -Macleod “Love in return for love is natural, but love in return for hate is supernatural.”
Putting Love Into Practice In his book Christians in the Marketplace, Bill Hybels says that people outside the faith often say, “Show me” before they say, “Tell me.”
I knew a young man in Germany named Wolfgang who modeled Hybels’ principle at a building site where he worked. As an enthusiastic believer, Wolfgang always read his Bible during lunch.
Though his fellow workers jeered, he didn’t stop his daily reading. He simply prayed for a way to demonstrate Christ’s love to them. When the workers went home at night, they always left their muddy boots behind.
Wolfgang began staying late after work to clean their boots. The men were puzzled at first but then realized that Wolfgang was the only one among them who would perform this humble service.
Not only did they come to respect him, but sometimes they even asked him to read the Bible to them. Only eternity will reveal the full effect of Wolfgang’s shining life.
But this we know: When his co-workers saw his good works, they started listening to his God. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may … glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
If you long to lead the people around you to Jesus, radiate His love by doing practical deeds for God’s glory alone.— Joanie Yoder A Christian’s life is a window through which others can see Jesus
John 15:1-17 New International Version The Vine and the Branches
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful.
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Genesis 45:1-8 New International Version Joseph Makes Himself Known
1Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.[a] 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
Genesis 45:10-15 New International Version
10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’ 12 “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.” 14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
1 Corinthians 13 The Message The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. 3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first, ”Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. 8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
In August 1983, Russell Stendal was taken hostage into the jungle of Columbia, by a band of guerrilla soldiers. For nearly 5 months he learned what it really means to love one’s enemies.
He wrote a letter home, saying, “I am in danger only of losing my life; they are in danger of losing their souls.”
Through kindness, Russell befriended his guards. One day the commander told him, “We can’t kill you face to face; we like you. So we will have to kill you in your sleep.”
God enabled Russell to forgive, but for the next 10 days and nights he couldn’t sleep. A submachine gun was repeatedly thrust in his face under his mosquito net, but the guards couldn’t bring themselves to pull the trigger.
On January 3, 1984, Russell was released. When he said goodbye, tears fill the eyes of some of his captors.
You can love as God, not in quantity, but in quality, because God’s own nature has been begotten in you, and awaits the opportunity of approving itself before men and angels.
🌞 🦅 🔥 🐮 🦁 Whispers … 💫 This is the place of my love 🧚🏻♂️
These moments, when you set aside time to seek my face and know my heart, are my delight. Your quiet moments are my treasure, for this is when I can pour my love into you and share my strength with you.
This is the time I free you of anxiety and care. Now, in the calm of my presence. Are you weary ? Linger with me in this quiet place of my love. You will be amazed at the miracle of mercy that comes to you. You will be astounded by how my Spirit refreshes and empowers you.
Today, I release to you my gift of encouragement! Let it flood your being and saturate every dry place. It will strengthen you inside and out. I am the God of battles who has won the victory for you, both today and forever.
When you are weak, I will make you strong. As your days are, so will your strength be. And the secret of my strength is found in the presence of my endless, tangible love. Encouragement from heaven will be your portion, filling you with hope this day. This is the place you belong. This is the place of my love.
💫 *My love restores you* 🧚🏻♂️ Do not be afraid to follow me into the unknown, for I am the One who leads you and restores your life. I have placed my glorious treasure within you, and I care for you. This year will be a year of restoration in your life.
*You will be restored in my love, strengthened in my grace, and surrounded with songs of joy.*
I will restore you. Never limit me. I will restore your family and those you love. All will know that I am the One who gives back what has been lost. Don’t doubt that my grace is enough for you and for your family. I will restore your mind and your heart as you come before me. Crooked things will be made straight within you, healing your spirit and soothing your soul.
I will restore your dreams. I will fulfill those desires within you and bring them to completion. You will touch the lives of others. In the whispers of the night, I will watch over every word I speak to you, and it will be fulfilled. You will see that *my ways are perfect and my love restores*.👼- Brian Simmons and G Rodriguez 🎊 💖 *Yes, God Loves You* 😘 🌹
