BAIT THE HOOK WELL! SWING THE BAT!
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
1 Corinthians 13 : 8 LOVE NEVER FAILS!
BAIT THE HOOK WELL --- SWING THE BAT?
Galatians 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
The Bible’s wisdom amazes me. Paul’s writing is so today.
Have you ever heard --- BAIT THE HOOK WELL, THE FISH WILL BITE.
Well, BITTERNESS AND OFFENSE BECOME SATAN’S BEST BAIT! Many will go after the bait of bitterness that would never consider stealing nor sexual sin!
I am pondering spiritual bat swinging! How fun is it to swing the bat? How fun is it to swing the bat back at the erson who swung the bat?
I know it is easy to swing the bat at the people that swung at us. I know it is easy to swing the bat at whoever is swinging the bat, for them swinging the bat, we will swing the bat.
Then we become what we are attacking?
You are wrong? I am right? My thought is valid, your thought is dumb!
I have swung the bat at he who swung the bat, and then others swung the bat, and the next thing you know,
we are all bruised and battered with blisters on our hands from swinging the bat?
Jesus had a neat lesson, I guess that is why, --- love never fails!
He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
I love to ponder and evaluate me. I might love to evaluate you better, but there is little profit in that.
I have learned a lesson, now God help me apply it!
My Dad often said, Don’t be to free with advice, smart people already know it, and fools will never learn it!
God forgive me for being a bat swinger.
God forgive me for swinging the bat, thinking I was going to stop others from swinging their bats by swinging my bat.
It is easier to swing the bat back than it is to develop a plan of deliverance.
Maybe we swing the bat because it is human nature? Maybe we swing the bat because it is easier? Maybe we
swing the bat, because we don’t know anything else to do? Maybe I will get hurt real bad if I lay my bat down
while others are still swinging? Maybe a defensive bat is permissible?
God forgive me for thinking that when I swung the bat I was different from the others that are swinging their bats?
I want everyone else to be different but me, let me stay the same? Then the whole world stays the same?
Change me --- change the world!
Have we ever bit the hand that was there to feed us? Is not revenge birthed in a mean spirit?
I have heard revenge comes from weak and petty minds? What think ye?
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty! --- Proverbs 16:31-32.
Does pride become part of bat swinging? Anger is a weed. Hate is a tree.
I am told that the old Chinese tradition is, he that raises his voice in anger loses the debate, for he shows weakness of his point.
Do we not realize the force of words? Can words hurt as much as a bat?
We cannot force others, love by submission of the heart prevails.
GREAT MEN SEE THAT THE SPIRITUAL IS STRONGER THAN FORCE AND THE MATERIAL WORLD.
GOOD PLANNING AND THINKING AND LOVE WILL ALWAYS CONQUER BRUTE FORCE.
Swinging bats is never a remedy!
It is God, love of God, love of man that makes life interesting, that makes art, writing, and the church worth while.
Love and Faith are the wonderful force that cannot be weighed in a balance or measured in a test of the crucible.
We often want to use people to build the church, this is not the answer --- we must use the church to build people.
Life has a lesson of trial and error, we must grow fruit that will remain, and learn building better bats will not build better churches.
GOD IS NOT JUST A FORCE, HE IS A PRESENCE!
Adolph Hitler said, The means that win the easiest over reason are terror and force.
Well, terror and force can never permanently win. Only LOVE.
Sandwiched between the two greatest chapters on the SPIRITUAL GIFTS comes a little chapter ---
1 Corinthians 13 has 13 verses, WE CALL 1 CORINTHIANS 13 THE LOVE CHAPTER!
THERE ARE AT LEAST 9 MAJOR COMPONENTS OF GOD’S LOVE!
1. GOD’S LOVE IS LONG-SUFFERING AND VERY PATIENT!
1 Cor. 13:4 Love suffereth long ... 7. Beareth all things, endureth all things.
Can we bear pains and trials calmly and without complaint?
Do we practice forbearance?
Are we steadfast under opposition, difficulty, and adversity?
God’s love makes a habit and has a capacity for patience od’s love is always Long-suffering, it is long and patiently endures.
2. LOVE IS ALWAYS EXPRESSED BY KINDNESS --- LOVE IN ACTION
1 Cor. 13:4 Love is kind ...
Are we understanding and listening? One of the kindest deeds love can ever express is simply to listen.
Are you sympathetic? Gentle?
Do you have a helpful nature?
Do you help bring relief? How do you spell relief?
Is your priority other people?
3. GOD’S LOVE IS LIBERAL! LOVES TO GIVE! AND IS VERY GENEROUS!
1 Cor. 13: 4 Love envieth not,
Have you ever heard how they catch monkeys?
They place a few peanuts in a heavy small mouth glass jar.
The monkey puts his hand in the jar and closes it’s hand around the peanuts.
The monkey cannot get it’s hand out of the jar without releasing the peanuts.
So the monkey drags around this heavy jar, and the capturers are able to catch the monkey.
The monkey will forever be held in captivity because he would not let go of a few peanuts.
YOU ARE BORN WITH OPEN HANDS, AND YOU DIE WITH CLOSED FIST!
Matthew 10:8 --- FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE.
2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly,
or of necessity: FOR GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER!
Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, running over shall men give into
your bosom. For with the same measure that ye
mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Do you yield to others? Do you enjoy sharing? Can you commit to another’s trust?
Are you liberal in giving? Do you throw up what you give?
You can give and not love but you can never love without giving!
4.GOD’S LOVE IS SUBMISSIVE AND HUMBLE!
1 Cor. 13: 4 love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up...
How many are puffed up, packed up and ready to blow up?
I am so proud to be humble?
We desire the applause and popularity of the crowd. Are we inclusive or exclusive?
Moses just hit the rock, GOD SAID SPEAK TO THE ROCK!
WE HEAR A CRY TODAY, LET’S MAKE CHURCH ENTERTAINING AND STORY TELLING?
No circus, no bragging ground?
Fasting is supposed to be a quiet behind the scene tool, not displayed on the wall chart?
Do we make excessive claims and search for titular titles?
Are we controlling and desire to manipulate others? Who is the BOSS?
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction...
1 Timothy 3: 6 Not a novice, least being lifted up WITH PRIDE he fall into condemnation of the devil.
5. GOD’S LOVE COOPERATES!
GOD’S LOVE IS A TEAM LOVE, IT SEES THE WHOLE, GROUP- SOCIAL LOVE.
1 Cor. 13 :5 Love does not behave itself unseemingly ---
Godly love acts and works with others, TOGETHER --- does not behave unseemly ---
There is a common purpose, and it is more than me, my, mine, and I.
United we stand, divided we fall.
We are not competing individuals, he who rocks the boat cannot paddle very well.
We need social compassion, manners and courtesy.
Matthew 18:19 That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they ask, it shall be done...
20 For where two or three are gathered TOGETHER in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.
6. GOD’S LOVE IS NEVER DEMANDING AND SELFISH
1 Cor. 13:5 Love does not seek it’s own, is not easily provoked.
My way or the high way? You have to ...!
Ephesian 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the FEAR OF GOD!
7. GOD’S LOVE IS BALANCED AND MODERATE
1 Cor. 13: 5 is not easily provoked, 7. Love beareth all things ---
Philippians 4:5 Let your moderation be made known to all men...
We need to grow Godly traits that grow agreeableness, that would cause us to be sweet and pleasing to others.
We should be good tempered, not always agitated and irritated.
If we are not careful we can spend all our efforts on trivial pursuit.
8. LOVE IS PURE AND RIGHTEOUS
1 Cor. 13: 5 Love thinks no evil. 6.Rejoices not in iniquity,
Love sinners, but hate sin. Love is slow to expose, believes the best, hopes for the best!
9. LOVE IS WHOLEHEARTED, LOVE HAS THE GOD MOTIVES AND GENUINE, WITHOUT RESERVATIONS!
1 Cor. 13: 6 Love thinks no evil. --- Love rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in truth!
Love is not just outward but inward. God’s love is total without pretense.
God’s love is not motivated by outward appearances but is heart to heart.
God’s love is FOR REAL and FOREVER!
Psalms 24:4 He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ...
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart ... for they shall see God!
1 Timothy 1: 5 Now the end of the commandment is LOVE out of a pure heart.
DO YOU LOVE OR ARE YOU PRETTY GOOD AT SWINGING THE BAT?
Are you praying God change the whole world, but leave me alone? Love never fails.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com Help me, pass this on to another?
