What I FUSS Over - Conclusion: Love Stone

Over the past few Thursdays I've been going through my pouch, stone by stone to explain what I mean by the FUSS (Four Unused Smooth Stones) and how it helps me live out my life as God wills me to be a man.

The fourth and final stone is the last one in the pouch now. The first of course the was the Living Stone, the Cornerstone that is Jesus the Messiah who slew the Goliath that was my sin with his death upon the cross.

That left me with Four Unused Smooth Stones (likening to David as he left the field, having slain Goliath with the first of the five stones he picked up, with four stones still in his pouch)

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NIV) is where I derived the symbolism of each of my stones as a reminder as how to live out my life as a man saved by Jesus the Messiah. It stated "Be on your guard; stand firm in the FAITH; be men of COURAGE; be STRONG." and I focused on those previous 3 words as the first 3 of the remaining stones and conclude today with the last part of the passage "Do everything in LOVE"

Hmmm...Warrior Marines like myself can handle FAITH, I mean come on, our motto is Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful). COURAGE? STRENGTH? No problem! But do everything in LOVE????? What? Well, using scripture to interpret scripture leads me right to 1 Corinthians 13. We so often read it in the context of our romantic love (have you been to a wedding where it WASN'T read?) but read it in the context of our manhood. It's quite illuminating

Verse 1: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Verse 2: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Verse 3: If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Verse 4-6: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Verse 7: It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Verse 8: Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Verse 9-10: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

Verse 11: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Verse 12: Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Verse 13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Pretty powerful when you put it in the context of manhood. It helps understand how a boy would have the confidence to face a giant, or the Son of Man to face death upon the Cross...AND WIN!