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Sept.14.04: Light for the Day - "Papa's Sermon"
-- 1 John 4:11,12
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
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Busy in his study, a minister was preparing his sermon for the coming Sunday. He reached to the shelf at his side for a book, and then remembered that he had left it downstairs. His little daughter was playing
in the bedroom, and he called her. She came, running, eager and
delighted at the thought that Papa needed her. He explained carefully where
she could find the book, and she went gladly, returning in a moment with
a book which he saw at a glance was the wrong one. But he hardly looked at the book as he took it and laid it on the table.
He looked only at the eager face of his daughter, wreathed in smiles. Gathering her
close to his heart, he kissed her and said, "Thank you, darling." And when she had gone back happy and contented to her play he went quietly
for the book he needed.
I think I should like to listen to the sermons that man would preach.
-- Author unknown
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-- Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
-- Ephesians 6:1-4
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 "Honor your father and mother" -- which is the first commandment with a
promise --
3 "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."
{Deut. 5:16}
4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
-- Matthew 22:37-40
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
-- 1 John 4:18,19
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment.
The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because He first loved us.
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-- 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
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.
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.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the
flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
5 It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
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.
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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
-- Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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-- Psalm 78:2-7
2 I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things
from of old—
3 what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next
generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, His power, and the wonders
He has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel,
which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget His
deeds but would keep His commands.
-- Psalm 71:18,19
18 Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I
declare your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.
19 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, You who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You?
-- Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead,
bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
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