AGAPE

SCRIPTURE

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.

~I Corinthians13:3, NLT

QUOTE

Loving kindness is Christianity with its working clothes on.

~Dave Branon

Paul said, “Even if I said everything that needed to be said, did everything that needed to be done, believed everything that needed to be believed and gave everything that needed to be given–And I was not motivated by Agape, there would be no reward for me. What we do matters to people but why we do it matters to God. People observe our actions: God observes our attitude. Here lies the basic difference between Christianity and religion. Religion can inspire the deed but it cannot purify the motive. Christ can inspire the deed and purify the motive. When we walk in the Spirit, we fulfill the royal law which is to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. The love that Paul speaks of is Agape: it does not come with our DNA, it comes with a new birth from above. I call Agape “Love from above”: it is an imputed love not an inherent love.

• TODAY WE PRAY FOR STUDENTS. Pray specifically that REVIVAL break out among our YOUTH. Pray also for them to withstand temptation. They have more to deal with than we adults.
• No Deacon’s meeting Sunday.
• Baby Shower today at the Cochrans [2:00-4:00] and Front Pew Sunday for Katie Sparkman.
• REMEMBER: GOLDEN GIRLS next Saturday.
• Good trip to Rome yesterday. It is a beautiful drive from Gadsden to Rome on 411. Had a good visit with Uncle Floyd and got to see a couple of cousins [Mike and Terri] that I have not seen in a very long time. I am aggravated at myself for not getting a picture.
• Due to all the extra curricular that I have been involved in: No LCBS extra this week.