1Corinthians 13: 6

It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

Love Feast, day #6.

Hey, hey, hey we are growing hooray!

I know if you have been faithful to meditate the verses of this chapter daily there is tremendous growth and refreshing in your spirit, soul and body. God loves for us to grow and develop in His love. God knows that the person who will seek to grow in His love will always love Him and love their neighbor, thus we live in continual victory. Victory is maintained in our lives by our obedience to love not by how many fights we win over the devil, he is already defeated.

Our love verse today speaks of injustice. Let us explore a little more about this word.

Injustice defined:

• Unfair or unjust treatment of somebody, or an instance of this.

Similar words to injustice are; unfairness, prejudice, inequality, bias, wrong and discrimination.

We are never to rejoice or celebrate unfairness or discrimination even if it’s you who are the one seemingly being favored in the situation. God’s favor does not work through injustice. Love rejoices when the truth and what is right prevails. It is right to do right, even if it seems wrong. We live in a day when people call wrong right and what’s right wrong. Well God is not like man, He is a just God.

This verse also speaks of rejoicing not at unrighteousness. The bible tells us that all unrighteousness is sin. To live a life of sin is to live a life totally separated from God. That is a very horrible place to be. There is nothing funny about sin. Sin is extremely destructive and deadly. It destroys marriages and families, it destroys hopes and dreams, it is a dark and unrelenting terror to the soul. Sin is not a game; it is death and total separation from God. We should not rejoice at unrighteous things. The word unrighteous implies sinful or evil. It is being out of fellowship with God. Oh my, what a dreadful existence. I know because I was once there; dead in trespasses and sins, separated from the life and covenant of God. Oh what misery and fear. The devil is full of darkness and wickedness, nothing he does or stands for is good. When his kingdom does something we are never to side with darkness, no matter who the devil uses to perform his evil deeds. We are light in the Lord, light is to have no union or fellowship with darkness. Rejoice not at unrighteousness. We are on the Lord’s side, which is love’s side.

We rejoice when love prevails! Love is truth.

NURTURING NUGGETS BLOG IS AN EXTENSION OF CATHY HARRIS MINISTRIES. VISIT OUR WEB-SITE @ www.detoxifyingthesoul.com

1 Corinthians 13:5 (AMP) 

It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

 LOVE FEAST DAY #5.

We are making progress!

 Love is good. Love is God. Making progress in love is a major step towards spiritual maturity. We cannot grow and flourish without love. Love is vital; we cannot live a life of faith without it.

Love is pure. 

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1John 1:5

Darkness defined:

• The absence or lack of light.

 There is no darkness in the Love of God. It is not tainted or corrupt. Human pride is dark. Pride is from the kingdom of darkness. There is no light in pride. Pride is destructive and full of deceptive qualities. Pride is evil and un-submissive to God; it flows from a rebellious nature.

Love is not rude. It acknowledges that you are there. Have you ever been around people who tried to act like they didn’t see you so they would not have to speak to you, well that’s rude and unmannerly. When we have respect of persons, that’s rude and unmannerly. Love is sensitive to the Holy Ghost to discern everything around it. Love values all people because all people were created by God.

Love is not selfish, always wanting things my way. It is not always pointing to me, myself and I. Love does not have to be the center of attraction every where it goes. It does not push itself to the front of the line in an effort to be seen and heard. The nature of love will always esteem others above itself. Love is never insecure in the midst of God working through others. Love will always rejoice when it sees others getting blessed.

Love is not touchy or moody, being up one day and down the next. Love does not retaliate or have a resentful attitude. Love does not worry or carry cares, it is free indeed.

Love does not rehearse the wrong/bad things that have happened to it. Love turns it head when wronged by others, it never holds a grudge. Love does not go around telling everyone, “But you don’t know what they did to me” it is uncontaminated by spiritual wounds and offences.

Love is good.

Love is God.

Love grows!

Continue to let God’s love work in you and develop in you so that you will soon look just like Jesus!

NURTURING NUGGETS BLOG IS AN EXTENSION OF CATHY HARRIS MINISTRIES. VISIT OUR WEB-SITE @ www.detoxifyingthesoul.com

Love Feast:

 13 days of pure indulgence on the subject of Love. The caterer is the Holy Ghost. The meals are free yet priceless. The results are endless. Remember to meditate, speak aloud and do your daily LOVE FEAST verse. Take hold of what it is saying to you. Squeeze out all the nutrients from it, like a juicer extracts juice from an orange. Go ahead drain it dry and every time you put it up to your mouth to partake of its substance you will find it replenished, hot and ready to flow again and again and again into your inner most being.

 Feast defined:

• An elaborate meal for many people that celebrates an occasion.

• Something that provides a great deal of pleasure.

1 Corinthians 13:4 (AMP)

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. There is no greater quest than to seek to know and grow in Love. God is Love. Your willingness and eagerness to go on this LOVE FEAST is an indication of your determination to please God by letting the love of God in your heart grow, permeate, penetrate and control every fiber of your being. You are on the right course; you are in the right lane, not the vain glory lane that leads to godless gain and pain. You are in the love lane that leads to eternal gain without strain as you rule and reign with Christ.

 Today we will delve into our meal with hungry hearts and receptive minds and yielded bodies to receive our impartation and revelation of the Word of Love, by grace.

 Day #4 of the LOVE FEAST unveils verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 13. This is a very strong and powerful verse spoken by Paul from the Holy Ghost and we so desperately need to take it to heart. Paul reveals to us that the Love of God, not human love, endures long and is patient and kind. Let’s look at those three elements of love before we proceed with the remainder of the verse.

Many times when I think of the word endure I think of going through hard or difficult situations without quitting the good things; like faith, joy, peace, positive word confessions etc. This includes taking a stand for what is righteous and godly and never backing down off what you believe. Love will always remain stalwart and victorious even when the temptation, test or trial is long gone. Love can not only outlast the devils attempts to defeat, kill, steal and destroy from you, it will bring you out with a shout! Love will never stop half way through the situation and say, “well I guess you’re on your own now, this is as far as I can go.” No, it will stick with you forever, even when you are not faithful, love abides faithfully at your side, making the devil step aside, keeping you from foolish pride as it guides you to certain victory!

Love is patient. The opposite of patient is impatient, which is the same as edgy, intolerant, annoyed and irritated. Patience is not just an acquired mental strength of learning how to courteously wait. The patience that Paul is referring to is a supernatural force that flows out of true love. It cannot be humanly bought or taught because its supplier is God. It is not of this world and should not be confused with human courtesy or etiquette. The bible tells us in the book of James to let patience have its perfect work in us. That tells us that patience has a job or a purpose. It has an assignment or a mandate in our lives.

Love is the originator of perfection, everything it touches it seeks to perfect. One of loves tools or instruments that it uses to help it achieve this perfection is patience. Look at it like this, Love is the surgeon and patience is his scalpel helping to cut away the unfruitful residual of our past that lie dormant in our mind, will, emotions and body waiting for the opportunity to rise up and rob us of our destiny. Patience will cut away every defect and imperfection of your soul, things like; attitudes, dysfunctional coping mechanisms, and faulty traditions of men, being irritable, intolerance, mood swings and many other insignificant things that keep us idle and unfruitful.

Let patience have her perfect work in you so that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing. Once you have yielded to the work of patience it completes you, then whenever you are faced with a hardship or difficulty patience has already cut away everything that would have hindered the flow of love in you and through you. So part of growing in love is to be pruned by patience. When you are yielding to patience you are in love and everyone around you appreciates that.

The remaining part of verse 4 is pretty simple. Love is kind. It is not mean spirited or moody. It is not sharp tongued or snappy. Love is kind. When I think of kindness I think of compassion because it is not phony it is genuine. You don’t have to have the gift of discerning of spirit to know when someone doesn’t like you. It takes the love of God to root out, pull down and destroy mean attitudes of the flesh. People can fake it for awhile but then it starts creeping out of their pores; you can see it in their face even though they are smiling at you. Love is never envious or boils over with jealousy.

Wow, that is powerful, jealousy and envy are rottenness to the very bones of our flesh, and it is foul and more deadly than a serpents bite. It will strip a person of life and take them to the grave on an early flight. Be on your guard and don’t let it bite, keep it defeated under your feet and send its cousins gossip and slander to flight.

Love does not seek the honor or praise of men for it is not vainglorious. Love is not always thinking and talking about itself; it’s needs and it’s wants. Love is not big-headed and conceited, always bragging on self. We use to say these kinds of people were “full of it,” just absolutely full of themselves………look at me, look at what I’ve done, lookie, lookie, lookie I got a cookie…………..oops sorry I got carried away 🙂

Love is not full of pride or haughty. Love compliments others and is sincerely excited when they are blessed. Love is of the heart and can easily be perceived by people saved and unsaved. Many characteristics of love people try to emulate because it makes them look as though they are spiritually mature but the heart knows the genuine from the fake. I remember when I was a young girl not even living for God I could tell when people would treat you with genuine love or just putting on a show for the crowd or just for their own conscience. Love is consistently the same.

GOD IS LOVE ! YA!

Nurturing Nuggets blog is an extension of Cathy Harris MInistries. Visit our web-site @ www.detoxifyingthesoul.com

1 Corinthians 13:3

 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 Welcome to day#3 of, LOVE FEAST.

How sweet it is to grow and develop in the love of God. Participating in this LOVE FEAST should increase your awareness of the love of God in your heart throughout the day. Because of your saturation and meditation in the Word of God, on the subject of love you should begin to notice a change in your inward and outward attitudes and behaviors. You will begin to notice a more God focused mentality and way of living. No more me, myself and I, living a life of self-focus, which promotes stagnation and spiritual growth retardation. Love promotes Holy Spirit led activity which produces abundant life. Where ever love goes healing, peace, deliverance, strength, joy, direction, power, etc.…………………… grows and flows!

Now in verse 3 of our studies today, Paul drives in the nail of revelation further as he paints a picture of the unprofitable works of man-made love. The works described in this verse are almost breath taking and seemingly filled with compassion. However, according to Paul these heroic deeds can be done without love being anywhere in sight. To give not just some of my goods but all my goods to fed the poor would require a person being full of love……………..one would think. The truth be told, people do things for different reasons and all of those reasons are not always to glorify God. When something is rooted, grounded and founded in the Love of God it will always glorify God, always. It is hard to imagine people giving there last for selfish purposes but they do. It is hard to imagine someone giving their body to be burned for selfish purposes but they do. A heart that is not controlled by love is generally motivated and influenced by this world which is corrupt and self centered. People do weird things to receive honor and acceptance from each other. Jesus said in John 5:41-44:

I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:3 that to do all these seemingly good works without love will be of no profit.

Profit defined:

• An advantage or benefit derived from an activity.

There is absolutely no advantage or benefit for me in doing anything outside of love. It is empty labor. People may praise you but God sees not as man sees, God looks on the heart. Faith pleases God and faith works by love.

No love+ no faith= no pleasing God. Know love + know faith= know pleasing God.

 Our life’s focus should be to please God. Love influences us to always put God first, He is our High Priority! HE IS OUR FIRST LOVE !

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (John 8:36)

Nurturing Nuggets blog is an extension of Cathy Harris Ministries. Visit our web-site @ www.detoxifyingthesoul.com

1 Corinthians 13:2

 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

 Today is day #2 of our 13 day LOVE FEAST journey.

 I had such a wonderful time experiencing the awesome power of day #1, verse 1, on yesterday it was simply marvelous. Nothing compares to the joys of partaking of concentrated hefty heaping of God’s Word, it fills and satisfies like no other food on earth. It is indeed comfort food for the spirit, soul and body. It leaves no room for artificial fillers.

 As we continue on our journey through 1Corinthians 13:1-13, Paul stays focus on his path to chisel away at the corrupt root of self-righteous love in order that he may plant and build a firm foundation on the true love of God. Paul reminds us here that without love we are nothing. It doesn’t matter the impressive show of gifts and talents one may possess and display before others, they are all meaningless without love.

 The list of qualities and giftings Paul mentioned in this verse would have one immediately think, “Well how can a person have such powerful giftings but have not charity? I like the way the Amplified Bible Translation of “I am nothing”. It says, “… but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).”

 Love is the greater and without it we are useless to the work of God and His Kingdom. Love brings life and purpose to all these gifts, without love they are meaningless and self motivated not seeking to give God the glory. Love is a fruit of the spirit that is imparted to every born-again believer in Christ, according to Romans 5:5. Love is in us but we must yield to its control, we must let it be an active part of every part of our lives. Love in us is kind of like sugar you add to a package of Kool-Aid. When you added the sugar you stirred it well to mix it thoroughly with the Kool-Aid so that when you drink the Kool-Aid mixture it bringings great delight to your taste buds. However, if you let the Kool-Aid mixture sit in the refrigerator for a couple days without actively stirring it all the sugar will sink to the bottom of the pitcher, separating the two substances leaving you with a bitter tasting solution. The sugar was still in the pitcher but it was not actively mixed with the Kool-Aid therefore it could not effective do its job; the drink was useless or tasteless. Well we have love in our heart but if we just let it sit there and never activate it or only activate it every now and then many things that flow out of our lives are useless or tasteless. The Kool-Aid in and of its self is not a bad thing but it was made to have sugar added. The gifts that Paul mentioned in this verse were created to have love added otherwise they are incomplete or useless. We are born-again believer’s created to have love added otherwise we too are useless nobodies. Love sweetens the life of the believer.

 So be sweet to all you meet by stirring up the love in your heart daily.

Nurturing Nuggets blog is an extension of Cathy Harris Ministries, visit our web-site @ www.detoxifyingthesoul.com

1 Corinthians 13:1

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

For the next 13 days I will be taking us through a journey in 1 Corinthians 13, one verse a day. I call this a LOVE FEAST. Each day we will explore, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the love of God that has been given to us to live by. These truths were put here in the bible for us to help us grow and mature in His love.

Today let us begin with verse 1. Love speaks and it has a distinct language. It has a particular sound.

I thought it very interesting that Paul by the Holy Spirit started out this love feast talking to us about our speech or our words. Many may think what does that have to do with love, well; evidently it is of high priority. The origin of our words are very important, now I am not speaking of whether the word is Greek, Hebrew or Latin, I am referring to their spiritual origin. What kingdom was it sent from: darkness or light? Jesus reminds us in scripture that the words He spoke were not His own words but the words of the Father which sent Him.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:1. Though I speak with the tongues or we can say languages of men and of angels. Now, I had to ask the Holy Spirit about the language of angels. He reminded me that when angels were seen in scripture speaking to others they were most always speaking the words of God. Angels are defined as messengers sent from God. Now we know that when God sends someone they are generally sent to speak the words that He sent them to say. Well if this be true, and I believe it is, then Paul was saying though you are speaking God’s word, right out of the bible but don’t possess God’s love you become just an echo or empty, vain sound. Words that are not born out of love just sound like meaningless noise coming out of your mouth because they have no place in your heart. Without love these words have no root and nothing to make them fruitful or life producing.

Have you ever sat down to eat a meal and the table was set very pretty and everything looked just right and the food presentation was wonderful and very appealing to the sight but when you put it in your mouth the taste was very disappointing. By all appearance it should have been very palatable but turned out to be very tasteless. The main ingredient was missing. Love is the main ingredient of any word sent forth from God. Someone can pick up a bible and start reading or quoting it, however that does not necessarily activate its power. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit is what activates the power of the Word, it’s a Divine Connection. That which is spiritual cannot be activated by that which is carnal, unbelieving or ungodly, there’s no connection. The words maybe the same but when they are spoken they sound like mere noise coming from the mouth of those who have become as sounding brass and tinkling symbols. They are instruments which lack substance. They are hollow and unpleasant to the hearing.

Now notice Paul said we become sounding brass, indicating there was a progression. Other words similar to become are: turn out to be, turn into, develop into, be converted into, grow to be, and happen to. Wow, that really helps us to see that it happened over time. A little here and a little there, we begin to nullify love’s power in our live’s  through words. Our words should be saturated with the warm genuine breath of love.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, Matthew 24:12. The word wax is translated grow in other bible translations.

Oh, my we must press in and pursue this love so that we will not be those who grow cold or become sounding brass.

NURTURING NUGGETS BLOG IS AN EXTENSION OF CATHY HARRIS MINISTRIES @ www.detoxifyingthesoul.com