Audacity of Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-7,13
New Living Translation

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

What is love? Love is sacrifice, compromise, compassion. Love does conquer all. Jesus' love for us conquered hell and death. Dr. King's message of love and nonviolence overcame segregation. Love rejoices with you in good times and is there to hold your hand in bad times. Love accepts you the way you are. Love doesn't give up on you. Love has the audacity to hope, has the audacity to have faith even when circumstances at the time don't reflect the outcome. Love is not afraid of anything. Love is forgiveness.

The audacity of love. Jesus had the audacity to give His life for you. That's love. Dr. King had the audacity to follow the teaching of Jesus and tell people to love people that spat on them, turned hoses and dogs on them, lynched them. When you look back over your life, there has been someone who had the audacity to love you when you were unlovable.

Simply put, God is love.


1 John 4:18 (New American Standard Bible)
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

Audacity of Faith

faith
-belief and trust in and loyalty to God
-belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion
-firm belief in something for which there is no proof
-complete trust
-something that is believed especially with strong conviction

Hebrews 11:1
Contemporary English Version)

Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.

There have been recorded in history people who had the audacity of faith. Abraham is the father of faith. God blessed him for his faith (Gen.12). The bible is full of examples of people who exercised great faith. The three Hebrew boys, Daniel, Job, the list goes on. The Bible teaches us that if we have faith the size of a grain of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. I remember instances in my own life when my faith caused mountains to move. My mother was challenged in her body in 2007. She was taking at least 10 different medications a day. But, our faith said that she would be healed. She has been. She is not 100% yet, but she's getting better. She only takes 2 medications a day. I believe that God will bring it down to zero.

2008 has been a financially challenging year to say the least. There were times when I had to trust God enough to tithe when I didn't know who God was going to provide, but He did. 2008 has been a year that my faith was developed greatly. There were many times when I had no other choice but to trust God. God promised me something 5 years ago. I still have faith that it will manifest. As a matter of fact, have the audacity to believe that it will come to pass in 2009. I have the audacity to believe that God will do miraculous things in 2009. I believe that businesses will thrive, marriages will be put back together, people will be healed,there will be an end to lack, captives(naturally & spiritually) will be set free, deliverance will come.

What do you have the audacity to believe God for? Do this: Dare to believe even when it doesn't look like it is going to happen.

Audacity of Hope

Job 6:10-11 (Amplified Bible)
10 Then would I still have consolation--yes, I would leap [for joy] amid unsparing pain [though I shrink from it]--that I have not concealed or denied the words of the Holy One!
11 What strength have I left, that I should wait and hope? And what is ahead of me, that I should be patient?

audacity
-boldness or daring, esp. with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.
-effrontery or insolence; shameless boldness

hope
–the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best: to give up hope.
-to believe, desire, or trust
–to feel that something desired may happen

President-Elect Barack Obama wrote a book, The Audacity of Hope. He certainly embodies the audacity of hope. Do you? When you are being tested, do you have the audacity to hope against hope. Do you still believe God, do you trust Him? Are you shamelessly bold when standing on the promises of God. Are you confident that what God said, He will do?

When you are not sure about what to do, do this: Hope against hope, to continue to hope, although the outlook does not warrant it. God has it under control.

A Christmas Story

Herman and I locked our general store and dragged ourselves home. It was 11:00 p.m., Christmas Eve of 1949. We were dog tired. We had sold almost all of our toys; and all of the layaways, except one package, had been picked up. Usually we kept the store open until everything had been claimed. We wouldn't have been happy on Christmas knowing that some child's gift was still on the layaway shelf. But the person who had put a dollar down on the package never returned.

Early Christmas morning we and our twelve-year-old son, Tom, opened gifts. But I'll tell you, there was something humdrum about this Christmas. Tom was growing up; I missed his childish exuberance of past years. As soon as breakfast was over Tom left to visit his friend next door. Herman mumbled, "I'm going back to sleep. There's nothing left to stay up for." So there I was alone, feeling let down.

And then it began. A strange, persistent urge. It seemed to be telling me to go to the store. I looked at the sleet and icy sidewalk outside. That's crazy, I said to myself. I tried dismissing the urge, but it wouldn't leave me alone. In fact, it was getting stronger. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer, and I got dressed. Outside, the wind cut right through me and the sleet stung my cheeks. I groped my way to the store, slipping and sliding.

In front stood two boys, one about nine, and the other six. What in the world? "See, I told you she would come!" the older boy said jubilantly. The younger one's face was wet with tears, but when he saw me, his sobbing stopped. "What are you two doing out here?" I scolded, hurrying them into the store. "You should be at home on a day like this!" They were poorly dressed. They had no hats or gloves, and their shoes barely held together. I rubbed their icy hands, and got them up close to the heater.

"We've been waiting for you," replied the older boy. "My little brother Jimmy didn't get any Christmas." He touched Jimmy's shoulder. "We want to buy some skates. That's what he wants. We have these three dollars," he said, pulling the bills from his pocket. I looked at the money. I looked at their expectant faces. And then I looked around the store. "I'm sorry," I said, "but we have no --" Then my eye caught sight of the lay-away shelf with its lone package. "Wait a minute," I told the boys. I walked over, picked up the package, unwrapped it and, miracle of miracles, there was a pair of skates! Jimmy reached for them. Lord, let them be his size. And miracle added upon miracle, they were his size.

The older boy presented the dollars to me. "No," I told him, "I want you to have these skates, and I want you to use your money to get some gloves." The boys just blinked at first. Then their eyes became like saucers, and their grins stretched wide when they understood I was giving them the skates. What I saw in Jimmy's eyes was a blessing. It was pure joy, and it was beautiful. My spirits rose.

We walked out together, and as I locked the door, I turned to the older brother and said, "How did you know I would come?" I wasn't prepared for his reply. His gaze was steady, and he answered me softly. "I asked Jesus to send you."

The tingles in my spine weren't from the cold. God had planned this. As we waved good-bye, I turned home for a brighter Christmas.


Author unknown

God’s Promises are Trustworthy

There are literally hundreds of promises in the Word of God, and each one of them is worthy of implicit trust. What does this mean? If we are to trust the promises of God implicitly, what does that trust entail?

Trust, as it is defined by Webster, is “...assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” To trust God’s promises, therefore, means that we rely with assurance on God’s character, ability, strength, and truth as it is revealed to us in His Word.

The first condition we must meet in order to trust the promises of God is to trust Christ for salvation. When this happens, we know it, because God’s Word clearly states, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the son of God” (1 John 5:13).

The promises of God open the doors to salvation for us. Many of us were saved in response to the faith that rose in our hearts when we heard God’s promises being declared. Some of the promises related to salvation are:

But as many as receive him, to them

gave he power to become the sons of God,

even to them that believe on his name.

(John 1:12)


For God so loved the world, that he

gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever

believeth in him should not perish, but have

everlasting life. (John 3:16)

For by grace are ye saved through

faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the

gift of God: Not of works, lest any man

should boast. (Eph. 2:8-9)



Each of the above Scriptures are salvation promises. When they are proclaimed to the heart of an unbeliever, faith is imparted that enables the unsaved to belive and receive God’s blessed promise of salvation. When this happens, a marvelous miracle of personal transformation takes place.


The same process occurs when we listen carefully to any promise of God. His promises are worthy of trust because He is our faithful Father. When we know God’s Word, we leaarn His promises, and faith to appropriate His promises is imparted to us in the manner Paul outlines: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17)


This phenomenon goes into operation whenever we hear any promise of God. The promise is proclaimed, and faith comes to back it up. Then we choose to believe and receive it. We claim the promise through prayer. Praying God’s promises, therefore, is claiming God’s promises. Believing God’s promises is receiving God’s promises.


The Word of God promises so many things to us. Some of those blessings/promises are as follows: abundance, victory, hope, faith, peace, joy, growth, righteousness, wisdom, power, protection, eternal life, revival, rest, faith, trust, stability, stregth, love, the Holy Spirit, patience, kindness, goodness, prosperity, health, peace, security, deliverance, dominion, authority, truth, forgiveness, and countless other gifts from the hands of God.