To Magnify the Love of Christ!

Whereas the love of God has been the dominant theme of thought and encouragement in recent days, the following came to mind while viewing 1st Corinthians 13:1-7

If I had all knowledge;
Speak to angels and to men,
Without love I would be lost
For God I would offend.

For as a clanging cymbal
Or the sound of noisy gong,
With emptiness I would be filled,
True love not be my song.

And if prophetic powers
Were all mine and mysteries
And if all faith as mountains moved
Before me as one flees,

I would not yet then apprehend
The love by which God gave
His Son for me and nothing be
To Christ not then be clave.

If all I had I gave away,
My body to be burned,
But have not love, then nothing gained,
For God I would have spurned.

But Oh what joy Christ doth give
Through love that never ends.
For patiently His kindness shows
On Him I can depend.

For He removeth from me
All things of which my boast,
My envy, and my arrogance,
My way I craved the most.

My rudeness and resentfulness,
As irate in wrongdoing.
God undertook to put to death
Through Christ by His Own choosing.

Oh wondrous, matchless love of God
That rejoiceth with the Truth.
His love empowers us to bear
All things to show the proof--

Believing all that comes from Him
With hope then to endure
To magnify the love of Christ
Who died to make us pure.

Michael E. Wood
September 20, 2010