Session One
OFFENDABLE? NOT ME!
INTRODUCTION:Called to A LOVE War
During a season of intense opposition for my Christian beliefs, the Lord called me to a “Love War.” This call to war demanded that I position my heart in love toward all who were treating me unfairly. I was called to use love as a powerful weapon amid the battle. That season worked in me a deep, lifetime commitment to love. Learning to love became my primary pursuit in life.
Life is full of opportunities to overcome maltreatment with love. You probably are aware of an opportunity or two you are facing right now even. Imagine what the world would like, if we all chose to love one another well. What a wonderful world that would be!
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A.Love: Our Greatest Aim
1 Corinthians 14:1 (TLB)
Let love be your greatest aim.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.
As we see in the scriptures above, we are to make love our greatest aim, and if we do not have love, we have nothing, we are nothing, and we profit nothing. In other words, we can be known for outstanding benevolent acts, operate in mountain-moving faith, and be successful and fruitful in our careers and earthly pursuits, but if we don’t have love, it is all in vain and void of eternal value. Love is the key. Love is the foundation that we are to build life on, for God is love. If we are building our life on God, we are building it on love.
In my love journey, I used the attributes of love that Paul disclosed in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 as my plumbline. Love is:
1. Patient
2. Kind
3. Not jealous
4. Not proud or arrogant
5. Does not act rudely
6. Not selfish or self-seeking
7. Not provoked or offended
8. Does not hold grudges
9. Does not keep track of wrongs
10. Does not rejoice in unrighteousness
11. Rejoices in truth
12. Bears all things
13. Believes all things
14. Endures all things
I wish I could testify that I have fulfilled my love pursuit, but I have NOT! In fact, the more I gaze upon Love Himself (God), the more I see how much I fa