I Need a Tennis Racket

I Need a Tennis Racket?

“If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing”1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (ESV)

In “The Foremost Webster’s Paperback Dictionary” the definition of love has about five different ideas on what love is. One of them is meant for tennis. Number five says, “A score of zero in tennis”. I think if we take the Scripture reference I am using today we can come up with a zero being the score without love. This chapter starts with Paul plainly coming out and saying that even with a long list of accomplishments if he has not love he is nothing or has gained nothing. So…If I cannot love my neighbor, cannot love myself or I cannot love the Lord my God with all strength, mind, heart and soul, I am nothing? I am a zero? I need to look at this.

Paul tells the spiritually seeking Corinthians a great deal on the subject of love. He walks into the subject by saying, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” Jaws must have dropped in that crowd, after all the church in Corinth was shooting for the stars with acquiring spiritual gifts. Prior to Paul addressing the issue of love he had to tell these Corinthians how dumb they were for following idols, there being different ministries but the same Spirit and there maybe diversity but still unity in one Church body. It was important that Paul gather all this together so he can tell them the secret ingredient that makes all this the unified body of Christ.

Can you imagine the noise that went on as some Corinthian preachers started to make the attempt to speak another language? If there was no Holy Spirit in the language it must have sounded like fingernails against a chalkboard. Nope that is not good preaching! And to give all your stuff away so everyone can see what you are doing. In that port city they would have taken and left you feeling foolish in front of people. And to this day we’ve had times where Buddhist monks have set themselves on fire as a sign of their protesting the lack of a spiritual oneness with each other. I wonder what The Creator said to them when they came face to face?

Matthew Henry titles his chapter on this part of 1 Corinthians as “THE NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE OF THE GRACE OF LOVE.” Within the introduction he writes, “Without this, the most glorious gifts are of no account to us, of no esteem in the sight of God. A clear head and a deep understanding, are of no value without a benevolent and charitable heart. There may be an open and lavish hand, where there is not a liberal and charitable heart. Doing good to others will do none to us, if it be not done from love to God, and good-will to men.”

Looking at these three verses I come to the conclusion that if there is no love of God or love for His people when I step into action I am doing whatever I’m doing for no heavenly gain. It reminds of a saying that goes like this…”If it serves no purpose in eternity it is eternally useless.” I sometimes look at what I do for a living and wonder if there is a use for fence and railing in God’s Kingdom. Well He gave me a talent to make this stuff…let’s see what happens at another time. After all there is a decorative purpose for some of what I make as long as I am making it to the Glory of God. -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 5; 1 Samuel 1-3; Luke 8:26-56

Dig This Quote: “Have you ever thought that Jesus wants you to love Him not merely with your love but with the love which God the Father has for Him? How is this possible? It is possible because of the new birth. Becoming a Christian means getting a new nature, which is given by God. Practically speaking this means that God comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit and begins to give us new affections, new emotions namely the emotions of God. It is the presence of God the Spirit in our lives that causes us to love Jesus with the new love of God the Father.” “Pierced By The Word” John Piper

Determined Digging: Level 1 -- Psalm 119:11; Level 2 -- Psalm 51:5-9

TAKE THE CHALLENGE: May is fast approaching and we will be hosting our 2nd annual Family Freedom Walk on Saturday, May 8th. You can help in two ways. 1. walk – call guest services to obtain a walk package, solicit sponsors and come to the walk. 2. (this is a fun one) Sponsor Freedom Fighters for the walk. We are having a friendly competition between the 2 groups of devotional readers (Freedom Fighters and Victory Call). Our goal is to raise more funds for the Freedom Fighters team than the women raise for the Victory Call team.

If you would like to join the fun, simply go to this link on our website https://01.secure.elexio.com/donations.aspx?id=366346&websiteurl=http://www.americaskeswick.org&siteid=2184 fill out the information and indicate in the “DESIGNATION” area : Family Freedom Walk: Freedom Fighters or if you prefer make your check out to America’s KESWICK and put in the memo line: FFW/Freedom Fighters and mail to : America’s KESWICK 601 Route 530 Whiting, NJ 08759. ALL DONATIONS MUST ARRIVE NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY, MAY 5TH in order to be counted for our TEAM. Come on men, we can do it!!!