Morning Devotions: 1 Corinthians 13:1 Make a joyful noise

Make a Joyful noise. 1 Corinthians 13:1

I want to give credit to whoever took this picture,
but I do not know who it is.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1 nasu

The Apostle Paul, the former butcher of Jerusalem, was zealous for the Almighty, hating followers of The Way (Acts 22:4-5). He was there when the first Spirit filled believer in Y’shua (Jesus) was killed for his faith (Stephen in Acts 7:57 to 8:1) and was responsible for dragging believers and their families to prison. He was filled with hate for followers of The Way... until Y’shua met him on the road to Damascus (Acts 22:6-11). You may ask, is there any evidence that Paul actually killed people? No there is not, but neither is their evidence that Hitler actually took a life, though we know he is responsible for the death of millions. Having hate in your heart makes you a murderer in the eyes of the Almighty 

"But I (Y’shua) say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ' You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.  Matthew 5:22 nasu 

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.   1 John 3:15

  
Paul knew what it meant to have murderous hate for someone. Yet he was an expert in the Torah and Prophets. Yet the Almighty would one day use his testimony to bring understanding to an uncountable number of people through the ages. How can that be? It is because love redeems even the worst hater. 
  
Look at Paul’s example. Hypothetically, if a person (like Paul, the author of 1 Corinthians 13) uses the language of men to deliver the message of angels, but does it without love, he becomes like the clang of a gong making the noise of lament (sadness). 
  
Why did Paul use the "clanging cymbals-gong example? From the beginning of the temple era, singers were appointed to accompany the choir with the joyful noise of cymbals (1 Chronicles 15:19). Think of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The climax of the piece involves cymbals and is truly joyful! Now think of the sad wail of a huge gong, struck once, struck again, often hit at a funeral. A heartbreaking tome from what is nearly the same instrument. Paul has been both of these. One sound is a lament, a heartbreaking, empty wail. The other is exciting, joyful, lively. The difference is that one is the cry of death and the other is the sound of the joy of life in Y'shua!
  
You have been given the message of love, play it forward. Do so out of duty or the vanity of the educated and it might sound like a message of death. But clang those cymbals with joy in chorus with others from the love of a heart filled by Y'shua-Jesus, and it is life giving! You get to choose. 
February 11, 2016
Mrs. Hagerty

Morning Devotions; 1 Corinthians 13

1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, is written as an acrostic in Hebrew. We loose that in both English and Greek, but in Hebrew Paul had a lesson for us to learn from the picture language of the Hebrew alphabet. 

For instance…. 
Aleph: the first Hebrew letter represents the mighty leader, it is the first letter for both man and love. People are primary in creation. Love is primary with the Almighty. In love the Almighty gave Adam something that the rest of creation does not have, he gave language. Animals can communicate, but only men have language. We can say any crazy thing we want with our gift of language but if we speak without the love (ahab) of the Almighty we are just an irritating noise to a world hungry for the love of YHVH (the LORD). 

  
Love is primary to a believer in Y’shua-Jesus. In this world we have freedom to use our natural gifts to pursue just about anything we want. We can “follow our hearts” down any path in life that we believe will make us happy and fulfilled. But if the love that is from the Spirit of Y’shua does not own and direct us on The Way (the path of righteous living for the Almighty) then whatever we think we have to say is no more then irritating background noise. Our greatest accomplishments in education (verse 2) amount to nothing without love. 

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.        1 Corinthians 13:2 nasu

If it were true that all we needed to “go to heaven” was more good deeds then bad, so that we are motivated to give away our wealth to the hungry, or gave ourselves as a consecration offering to the Almighty (a burnt offering, or what we might refer to as a "suicide bombing"), thinking that our life is a fair trade-in for heaven, we will end up with nothing but filthy ashes. It is only Y’shua, living in our hearts because of his love covenant with us, that gives our life and sacrifices any value. 

  
According to verse 5, all of our accomplishments and self-effort tend to make us proud, arrogant. What we do in selfish effort is for our self, not for the love of the Almighty and the people he loves. We do what we do for our own ego which is easily crushed and made bitter. However the Love of the Almighty sets me free to rest in hope (not "hope so" but knowledge that eternal life is mine to live now and in the after-life) instead of spending my time trying to earn my way to paradise. I am humbled by the love gift of Y’shua-Jesus and walk His Way in His Love. I speak what I know to be truth, not for applause but for the love of the Almighty and for others. I keep speaking truth in love because the author of love will be coming soon and there is no time to waste! 

Love is patient, love is kind and  is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.                1 Corinthians 13:4-7 

For now…. We see our future dimly, so we walk by faith in the truth. We like evidence of faith but we know that the evidence we see is not the full picture of the great love to come. 
  
For now… we know the little bits about eternal life that will one day come together like a puzzle when Y’shua-Jesus returns for us. 
  
For now… it is enough that we are fully known by the Beloved who fully loves us. That my friends is the greatest thing about the believers life!

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.  But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.   1 Corinthians 13:12-13  

Mrs. Hagerty, December 2, 2015

Stay the course... 1 Corinthians 15:58

 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Cor 15:58

We will be changed, at the last trumpet of a soon coming Yom Teru’ah (The feast of trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah, a.k.a. the day and hour which no one knows). At that final trumpet sound, who we are in Y’shua will be revealed for who we really are. Imperishable, immortal. Hallelujah! For we who believe, death has already been swallowed up in victory (1 Cor.15:54, quoting Isaiah 28:8, and I Cor. 15:57)

Why then are we still walking the earth where thorns (the meaning of “sting” in Hos. 13:14 quoted by Paul) are still able to make our labor that of tears, pain and loss? It is because the world is full of souls who do not know anything but the entanglement of the thorns of death. The only future most know for certain is death, an end that we all resist with every cell in our body! The work of YHVH does not include the idea of pain, only abundance of joy, so why do we still cry, if not for the beloved souls who do not know the joy of YHVH (the LORD in English) in Y’shua (Jesus). Just as Y’shua came in flesh to labor for souls trapped in the thorns of sin and death, embracing the ultimate sting of nails and a crown, so we also labor with tears, exhaustion, pain, and pointless work, knowing that what we do here on earth is for the kingdom of heaven and has far greater value to our God then what we perceive with our senses.

Just be diligent to stay the course, The Way, and walk pleasing to our God. The thorns will not sting you, but you must work to proclaim the truth, setting souls free by the power that set you free, which is Y'shua!

Obstruction Point Trail north east of Hurricane Ridge in Washington's Olympic National Park

The Air I Breath

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.

The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 RSV

Receive- freely and deliberately accepted, bought by another.
Spiritual- pertaining to the nature of spirit (wind, breath)

We who believe have received the Breath of Elohiym, the Spirit of God. Messiah paid for the gift with his blood. With this gift we can begin to understand the gifts given to us by Elohiym/God. We can know how to live in the Grace of Faith.

The Wisdom of man is nothing more than his interpretation of his experience or his teachers. The world is filled with opinions. The world presents the same information to us. How we interpret the information is wildly different because of multiple factors. Each one does his best to understand how to respond to the circumstance and choices that come to us. Each person in the world wants to know how to live based on what they see, know, and experience. A toss of the dice, a guessing game at best, and at worst there is hate for those who choose a different way.

The grace of Elohiym/God has provided the way of truth. Truth is spiritually understood. The Word of God is truth. Before we choose to receive the Breath/Spirit of God, we might have looked at the Bible and tried to understand it as if it was philosophy rather than truth that is understood by the Spirit of God. God alone is able to open our understanding of His Word and how we should live with that Word as our foundation and light in this World. Even thought it has been translated into a language that we understand, we will not be able to make sense of Scripture unless we first receive the Gift of the Spirit which is from God.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, Ephesians 1:15-21 RSV