From the Coach's Desk - February 2025

I have always advocated for the use of comparative translations and paraphrases in sermon preparation. There are many benefits to this practice, not the least of which is you learn how to say the same thing in different ways, and how to say it creatively. 

Since Valentine’s Day occurs in February, I thought it would be beneficial to focus on love, and what better way to do that than to listen to what the Apostle Paul says about it in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. 

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

‍² If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

‍^3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

David L. Allen