1 Corinthians 13 (msg)

On a day where love sometimes seems forced upon us, remember what love is really supposed to look like, not a cupid and a arrow through a heart.

1 Corinthians 13

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. ²If 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. ^3-7If 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.

 ^8-10Love 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.

 ¹¹When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

 ¹²We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

 ¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love

Alvin

So first of all I would like to just say I'm sorry for taking so long to update this blog, life has been so busy here with outreach teams coming back, and classes being combined with the other schools in different locations. In other words we haven't had a normal week in 2 weeks and we won't have a normal week for 2 more weeks. :) Joy of ministry!  :)
Alright so if your still reading by this point, good work! :) I'll give you all a story then I'll update you on what's going on inside of me, sound good? Good I was going to tell you anyways. (lame I know, but I'm bored) Okay so a few weeks ago we went down into the city to do street ministry, and before we headed down we were praying and asking God for words, images, and guidance on where to go in the city. Well while praying I heard the words, 16th street, Wazzee st, red, and Inn. When I heard these I was kinda like okay well I'll go, but I'm pretty sure there aren't Inn's downtown on 16th street (super nice mall street). As we walked down to 16th and Wazzee I saw this red sign, and above the sign is a sign that reads Hotel, at this point I was like what the heck! So we start looking for people to talk to, the first people I'm pretty sure thought we were going to steal stuff from them, this is how our convo went. "Hello Mama, how are you? Can we pray for you? (Husband comes up) Sure you can....(while walking away)" All we could do was laugh and think of how self centred we can be. After this incidence we walked across the street and started talking to a homeless man named Alvin. We were able to buy him a burrito (homeless mans dream!) and then sit outside and eat it with him, because he was to ashamed to eat in inside. While talking to him and hearing his life story you could tell that his family didn't know that he was homeless and he didn't want them to know because he was afraid they would reject him. So while we were praying for him I felt 2 things, 1. that he was to know that his family will love him, and that Jesus delights in him even if he is homeless, and 2 that we were supposed to ask him where he lived and to go and see and sit in that place.
So we were saying our goodbyes and I couldn't stop thinking about where he lived so we asked if we could follow him to his home and he lead us down this alley. (I know what you all are thinking, YOU CRAZY why would you walk down an alley at night? At that point it didn't even matter to me, I knew I was supposed to go and experience some of what this man deals with daily, and that it was a huge way Jesus wanted to show him that people do care about him) So I didn't even ask the girls in my group they just followed, and we got to his spot in the alley after he had pointed out everyone else and he told us he lived underneath this oil heater when he can't get into the shelters. So I crawled back to feel the "heat" coming out from it and my whole worldview changed in an instant. Just think last week we had -30 degree temps here not even windchill just a temp! So as we were getting ready to leave he told us that he wanted to walk us to a main street so he knew we were safe. When we arrived at a safer area he shock our hands and left with such a bubbly joy inside of him. Alvin will be a man I will never forget, although he has nothing, God used him so much to teach me so much about humility.

Okay life update, life is really good, I found a church here I really enjoy and I'm super excited to start going and building relationships there. Our teachings we have had so far are, Fear of the Lord, Father heart of God, Character of God, Kingdom world view, and now spiritual warfare. They have all been good in there own unique ways and I feel like my whole view of God has been changed, and I'm so excited to see what he is doing in my life, my family, my friends, my roommates, and the world, its crazy how good he is to us. One thing that really hit me was this quote... "God is loving huh? Well then where was he when I was hurting, when I was being abused, when I felt abandoned? (you fill in your pain) He was sitting there weeping with you, he was hurting with you, he was feeling the pain of seeing his child being abused, and abandoned. Then why didn't he do anything? Because if he would control everything so that there would be no pain, then there would be no love. You can't have one without the other." So remember God is in your suffering and pain, and he WILL use that for His good one day, just have faith and believe He will! Love you all!