In the book of Corinthians, in Chapter 13, Paul the Apostle, chosen personally by Jesus while on the road to Damascus, had much to say about love being the greatest of all the heavenly gifts.
Paul said these words:
“I may speak in different languages of people or even angels. But if I don’t have love, I am only a noisy bell [gong] or a crashing [clanging] cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God [mysteries] and have all knowledge, and I may have faith so great I can move mountains. But even with all of these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing if I do not have love.”
The above words are true for all of us. Especially all of us who call ourselves Christians.
Love is our highest calling, and Jesus is our greatest example of what real love looks like.
Jesus once said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Not long after He said that, Jesus laid down His life for His friends.
Jesus demonstrated the greatest gift of all on the hill called Calvary. He offered up his body as a sacrifice for everyone who had ever sinned, which, as it turns out, is everyone reaching the age of accountability who has ever lived and breathed in the air on planet Earth.
All who trust in and believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior become His dear friends. He then bestows upon his friends the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit, begins to transform our worldly, sinful hearts into hearts like the heart of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The goal of Jesus is to change our hearts into hearts just like His own heart. Hearts that are filled with mercy and compassion and in a spirit of selflessness. Hearts that are willing to put the welfare of others above our own. Tender hearts that weep at the thought that anyone might perish.
Hearts filled with thankfulness for all that God has done for each of us.
Gracious, tender, merciful, compassionate hearts that are as gentle as a dove and yet as brave and courageous as a lion.
Hearts like the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah.
Hearts like the heart of Jesus.
This is what Paul was talking about to the Corinthians.
Any one of us could embody every gift under the sun, and yet without love, all of those gifts would be in jeopardy of slipping into the abyss of vanity.
Without the love of God, “all is vanity under the sun.”
Earthly love can be interpreted many different ways, for example: “Love is a battlefield,” or “Love isn’t always on time,” or “If you can’t be with the one you Love, then, honey, Love the one you’re with,” or “I wanna know what Love is,” or even “All you need is Love.”
These words and lyrics make for some very catchy songs; however, they have little to do with the kind of love Jesus exemplified when He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” and then proving it by doing that very thing.
Our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit love each of us and provide for each of us in sometimes amazing ways.
Something that happened in my life at the age of 20 years old, something I call the $5 miracle, was instrumental in me learning something about how much God loved me and was looking out for my little family that, at the time, consisted of my wife Toni and I and our daughter Jamie, who was two months old.
It was in the summer of the year 1967 that Toni and I sold nearly everything we owned and left the house we had been renting in Topanga Canyon from Honest John, the wrestler. A house that soon after crumbled and fell onto Topanga Canyon Blvd. But that is another story.
We took that money from selling most all of our stuff and bought plane tickets to the island of Maui. We arrived with Jamie and our cat named Beverly and two hundred dollars in our pocket.
We rented a small house in Kihei from Johnny Akina for $35 a month and bought a 1949 Plymouth for $50 from a friendly Chinese man named George in Wailuku.
I began looking for a job, but as one might guess, it wasn’t too long before the money we had left over had begun to run out. Well, I was able to find a job at the Maui Hilton Hotel as a waiter in the Lokelani dining room. However, the job was not scheduled to start until about four days from when I got it, and at that point, the money had completely run out, and we had no food left or anything at all to feed our little girl, Jamie.
Faced with this predicament, I walked down to Charlie Young Beach in Kihei to pray. In 1967, there were very few people on Maui, and especially in Kihei.
There was not one other soul on the beach, which was about half a mile long from one end to the other.
I walked about halfway down the beach and randomly sat down at the high-tide line and began to pray.
I remember saying something like, “Lord, thank you for the job at the Hilton, but as you must know, it doesn’t start for a few days, and we have no money left and nothing to feed Jamie.
I then felt the urge to open my eyes and look down at the water. To my complete shock, I saw a five-dollar bill wash up out of the ocean straight to where I was sitting. I didn’t even have to move an inch. I reached down and picked it up in utter disbelief. I dried it off in the breeze, still wondering if this actually just happened.
As I realized that it did actually just happen, I began running along the beach, jumping up and down, clicking my barefoot heels together and praising the Lord with all of my heart.
I ran home and told Toni what had happened, and she could barely believe it either.
Back in those days, even on Maui, five dollars went a long way, and it was just enough to pull us through until my new job as a waiter at the Hilton kicked in. Since, as a waiter, there were tips involved, I didn’t have to wait for a paycheck to have some money. Because of God’s love for us, we were able to buy what we needed for Jamie.
To this day, I am amazed at this miraculous story and how it set me on the path of knowing the wonders of God’s love and also knowing that He can do anything.
It still gives me goosebumps, or chicken skin, as the Hawaiians would say.
I could have sat down anywhere on that beach on that given day and missed out on the “Five Dollar Miracle.”
But I didn’t. Instead, I sat down in the exact spot that Almighty, All-Knowing, and All-Merciful God led me to. The spot where a miracle would take place.
The love of God knows no boundaries. No boundaries indeed, no boundaries whatsoever.
Recounting this story of the “Five-Dollar Miracle” reminds me not only of how much God loves me but also of how much I love Him.
It is what set me on a path to pursue that which Paul, the chosen apostle of Jesus, described to the Corinthians as the “greatest gift of all.”
And the greatest gift of all, as Paul so beautifully articulated in Corinthians Chapter 13, is Love.
Your good friend in Jesus,
Rick Segoine
The post The Five-Dollar Miracle :: By Rick Segoine appeared first on Rapture Ready.
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