FOREWORD (Listen or Read)
LOVE NEVER FAILS! (1Co. 13:8) Words of victory, power, hope
and encouragement. Oh, do we dare believe? Can it really be possible? For most of my life, I have embraced teachings built on well-defined arguments for why LOVE SOMETIMES FAILS. Not that it wanted to fail or lacked the power to succeed; it just didn’t work out sometimes. As a matter of fact, it didn’t work out most of the time. The simple but profound truth in this study has radically altered the way I now see the One who is Love.
Friends have warned me that truth can be found in the strangest places. The truth in this book found me on the road back from a medical outreach in the Aztec villages of Mexico. For the past few years, I had watched Gerry labor in what he calls his “helps” ministry for the Kingdom—a dental ministry where he would labor for days well into the night, demonstrating practically the Father’s love. As we went on different outreaches, I came to notice a pattern—one that to this day continues:
Gerry would be the first one up and running, working late into the night, with a gentle, caring spirit throughout. On the day scheduled for return, when everyone else would be packed and waiting, he was finishing up one last patient. After watching him for several clinics, I had to know what made him tick. What was his secret? As the trips down would sometimes take 8 to 10 hours, we had plenty of time to talk. The study you hold in your hands reflects his view of God, and the life I saw lived is the fruit of that. It is a simple truth that can be summed up in three mighty words—LOVE NEVER FAILS!
I confess that when I first heard him expound on this, it hit me like a ton of bricks. So simple and yet so radically different from that which I had heard all my life. A truth that will, as all truth does, set you free. When this truth caught up with me, I was marveling at God’s never-ending love for Israel as shared by the Apostle Paul in Romans, in spite of their persistence in unbelief. With two little words, Gerry turned my world upside down, or should I say right side up, “Why Israel?” And with that began a deeper study into this One who is Love, who is working out His victory and will not stop until He becomes “all in all.”
Come hear again the Good News shared by the angel with some shepherds one night outside of Bethlehem—Good News of great joy to all people! Rekindle the fire as you hear again of the One who is making all things new. Rejoice again as you ponder our Father who will not rest until all His children are safely home. Marvel at His wisdom in working out His master plan for the ages to see His will accomplished—that none should perish. Worship afresh the living God, who is the Savior of all men. Watch the Word unfold before you, as the mystery (hidden for ages) brings a peace that passes all understanding. Stand in amazement as you experience the One who is Love, doing what He does best—transforming His creation into His likeness. Our God truly is an awesome God and this study is another affirmation to His never-ending, never-failing LOVE.
My prayer for you as you journey through this was expressed so well by the Apostle Paul—“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you.…that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen!”
(Ep. 1:17-18; 3:16-19 RSV; 3:20-21 NIV).
David Nuckols – 2006
Bread of Life Frontier Missions,
Brownsville, Texas
