The Perpetual Motion of Love Avenue Vineyard October 15, 2017

Richard Foster “Holiness means the ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. It means being ‘response-able’, able to respond appropriately to the demands of life. The word ‘virtue’ comes into our New Testament from a long history in Greek philosophical tradition, and it means simply to function well. Virtue is good habits we can rely upon to make our life work. Conversely, vice is bad habits we can rely upon to make our life not work, to make it dysfunctional, as we say. So a holy life simply is a life that works.”

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 “…let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

1 Cor 12:31-13:13 cont’d 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.

1 Cor 12:31-13:13 cont’d 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.

1 Cor 12:31-13:13 cont’d 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

1 Cor 12:31-13:13 cont’d 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

1 Cor 12:31-13:13 cont’d 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

“13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

“True happiness is found in unselfish love, a love which increases in proportion as it is shared. There is no end to the sharing of love, and, therefore, the potential happiness of such love is without limit.” Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

“ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’” Matthew 22:37

C.S. Lewis “To love you as I should, I must worship God as Creator. When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.”

“He who has only doctrinal knowledge and theory, without affection, is never engaged in the goodness of faith.” Jonathan Edwards

“I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32

Revelation 2:1-5 “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance…(these are good things!)3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

Revelation 2:1-5 cont’d 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

The Magicians Nephew “But please, please - won’t you - can’t you give me something that will cure Mother.” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great front feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at it’s face.

The Magicians Nephew cont’d What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.”

The Magicians Nephew cont’d “He was very sad and wasn’t even sure all the time that he had done the right thing: but whenever he remembered the shining tears in Aslan’s eyes he became sure.”