Thoughts

Today, I watched the funeral of George W. Bush on television. I wasn't able to watch it yesterday because of medical appointments. Today is not going to be a writing on the political part of the story, but on the aspects of the heart and the mind.

I was very moved by the service. The aspects of love were continually expressed. The hope and faith in our Lord were a constant theme throughout the undisputed Christian service. Consistent reminders of the hope and faith of the promises of God were reminded and expounded upon. I found myself nodding in agreement when each writing was expounded upon.

If we have not love. The scriptures from "The Love Chapter" of the Bible were read with emotion, and vibrance - and resonated. If we have the gifts of all prophecy - and the faith to move mountains - but have not love - we are nothing.

After this, I read on a post on another blog of a former minister's heartfelt post on his relationship with his ex-wife who is battling stage four brain cancer. And I was touched by the same thing - that spirit of love that resonated.

This resonating spirit of emotion is something to think about. If all of us could concentrate and embrace - and yes, absorb, the words of the Love Chapter, as read in 1 Corinthians 13(NIV):

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 It does not matter what language we speak, or how well we can speak them, or what gifts we possess.

It doesn't matter if we claim to be a "prophet", or one who can interpret all "mysteries". And it does not matter how much we give, or how much we labor for others if we are doing so with the wrong mindset. What matters is love.

Love, first. The greatest of the three - Faith and Hope. The three that remain. God IS Love. Christ reconciled us TO love, because God IS Love. The Father IS Love. Those who are in Christ are in the Father, and those who are in Christ will love, because the nature of God is love. Pure and unconditional, unearned, and a free gift. It is this spirit of perfection in the full clarity of the dimension of love that the Spirit of God brings in full power.

Words to think about.