All Bible references are obtained from the New Testament, The Message Bible, (c) 1993

We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother's bosom, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

The above was originally written in Greek by the Apostle Paul, and in 1993 transliterated into English by Eugene Peterson (titled “The Message”) using contemporary English with an idiomatic style. This entire article was God’s birthday gift to me on my birthday at the beginning of 2009. I was very overwhelmed as He taught me that day, all I could do was note the points I could possibly forget. Now I’m writing it into a full note, and I want to share it with you.

Everything required to be successful, please God and enjoy life has been delivered into our hands. So why don’t we all prosper by it? Why do some suffer and experience sorrow and disaster? It’s because this provision is an invitation (2nd Peter 1:3), an invitation to represent God, the best invitation we ever received! When you receive an invitation, you need to sign an R.S.V.P. (a readiness response). Let me explain with an analogy.

Your name is Jack Robinson, cousin to Michelle Obama (nee Robinson). This evening, the U.S. President wants to give someone the privilege of representing him at an executive conference. He discusses with Michelle and she introduces you (suggests you). He is confident because he loves and trusts her, so he sends you an invitation with the presidential seal, having R.S.V.P. information. You are expected to respond, and if you will be too busy to attend, (no hard feelings!) there are a million people ready to replace you. If you agree to respond, that means you are saying you are ready to make Barack Obama proud by conducting the meeting in ways he would do himself, and ways he would approve of. If you do not respond on time, maybe there will be a next time. Just maybe. But tomorrow is too late sometimes.

2nd Peter 1:3 says, “Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!” Similarly, Eph 2:18 speaks about the One, Jesus, “He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father”, and Eph 3:12 says about our Faith in God, “When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go”.

Bros Paul in the introductory verse, has helped us describe three items you need to tick on this marvelous R.S.V.P., “But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God (translated ‘the God-kind of Faith’), hope unswervingly, love extravagantly (translated ‘Charity’). And the best (greatest) of the three is love.” These three indicate our expected conduct in order to consummate the God-character using this invitation to the God-life.

Faith, Hope, Love. Let us consider the ordering carefully. When you consummately represent the Father in matters of Faith (trusting steadily in God), only God knows because it’s an inner-man R.S.V.P. you are completing. Few spiritual men may understand, but they are just scratching the surface. Faith is an internal matter. On the other hand, matters of unswerving hope can be seen or understood by man as well, because hope can often be reasoned out, it’s a matter of the soul. This unswerving hope can only be God-like if the Faith matters had been previously addressed with God on the inside. Representing the Father in matters of charity (extravagant love) is the required item that is most easily understood by all men! Once again, you cannot truly love extravagantly if your faith and hope indications are not settled. Such persons that attempt such are just wasting their time! (Read more at 1st Corinthians 13:1-8, the passage that begins our introductory verse).

To understand our “Jack Robinson & Obama” example, let me further describe some roles. This is NOT a teaching on the Trinity, it is an analogy to help me express my point. Michelle Obama represents the Son, known on earth as Christ Jesus. Barack Obama represents the Holy Spirit, and the President of the United States of America represents God the Father. Do you get it? Michelle loves Jack and recommends him, inviting him because there is a blood relationship between them, and because of her, Jack is both welcome to the Obama family at the White House, and to the office of the Presidency of the United States. The President loves His first lady, so he accepts her rich invitation of Jack. Now, only Barack Obama (Holy Spirit) knows what goes on in the heart of the United States President (The Father), so when Jack agrees to attend the conference, he goes to the White House to get a briefing from Barack Obama. It’s Barack Obama, and not the president that he speaks to, because He doesn’t treat him “officially”. He tells Jack what to do in place of the President that will make Him proud. It doesn’t end there, he keeps his private line open to you so that if you are ever in doubt at any second, you can place a call through to Barack Obama, he will tell you what the President (represented by Jack) is ought to do. Yes, there was a time when the only open line available to Jack was Michelle’s line, and Jack would have had to ask her what to do, but this is a far better helper!

Hope you are not shocked? You are actually representing God. Yes, in all the weightiness of the possible descriptions! And that is what informs the assurance of your success. So where do eight cardinals come in? I found out that all of the above was just scratching the surface of the matter. Going a little deeper, one discovers (with understanding) eight cardinals with which your degree of consummation can be measured; gradually providing un-ignorable success and proving an assurance that you will not trip, stumble or fall, and the road before you will widen out for you. But that’s not all, these eight also provide trusted antidotes against two deadly poisons: blindness (an inability to see far, and an ability to quickly forget all that God has saved one from, or ignore His provisions) and barrenness (being of no use, making no impact in life, and having an inability to produce awesome results).

The cardinals are: Faith -> Virtue -> Knowledge -> Temperance -> Patience -> Godliness ->Brotherly Kindness -> Charity

If you recall, I early said there was a progressive tendency from Faith to Love, as the attributes get more apparent to human beings. Those three attributes are like landmarks on the eight cardinals. The more you move to the right, the more attributes man appreciates in your life. The more you move to the left, the more attributes God appreciates in your life. E.g. Heb 11:6 “It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.”

On the other hand, Romans 13:8-10 says, “Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code--don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other don't you can think of--finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.”

In between these two (Faith and Love), lie the remaining six, and the progression is the same direction (from Faith to Love). I will quickly describe these attributes, using definitions that I reasoned out. The definitions have been done in a way that explains all possible means (I think) for each word.

FAITH: [/b]Complete confidence in a person or plan. Loyalty or allegiance to a cause.

[b]VIRTUE: Holy Living. Admirable qualities, attributes and traits. Moral excellence. The quality of doing the right and avoiding the wrong.

KNOWLEDGE: A better understanding. Knowledge is the (psychological) result of perception and learning, and reasoning. Each of these three (perception, learning, reasoning) are in three steps:

      Perception:-
   1. Initial sketchy notion {esthesis} involved when detecting a pattern
   2. Becoming aware of the supposed/ambient truth about the pattern
   3. An insightful formation of a concept via this initial experience

      Learning:-
   1. Making enquiries to ascertain truth of concepts perceived
   2. Acquiring skills that will provide deeper insight and greater certainty into the pattern
   3. Gradually committing the ambient truth to memory

      Reasoning:-
   1. Acquiring research skills in the development of the extents {constrains & intentions} of the pattern
   2. Imparting the research findings in a way that will intelligently present logical and coherent truth even to those who do not know the pattern
   3. Becoming the pattern itself

TEMPERANCE: Sobriety, abstinence, avoiding excess, saying no

PATIENCE: Hopefully waiting, not giving up, tolerating delay and incompetence, delaying in enforcing rights/claims/privileges, good-natured refrain from acting

GODLINESS: Living righteously and God-like. The outward appearance of an inner consecration to a Deity. Having or showing or expressing devotional reverence for the Deity.

BROTHERLY KINDNESS: Possessing marked motivation for the alleviation of suffering. To be considerate, sympathetic, warm-hearted, humane, forgiving and giving (directed towards those who love you)

CHARITY: Love. An act or activity that benefits the public at large.

How do they wrap up together? Simple: men do not want to hear about your brotherly kindness or godliness or patience or even knowledge if you do not display extravagant charity (lower on the scale). God does not want to hear about your virtue or knowledge or temperance or patience if your faith (higher on the scale) is lacking. And so on… I’m sure you get the pattern.

I really need to stop now, but I wish I could write more, there’s so much on my heart!

(c) Mavenbox 2009

Ref The Obama analogy etc . . .

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Re: Who Is Jesus Christ?
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Re: Jesus Is A Prophet Of God And Not A God : Bible
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why do people post very long OP's . . .why?

@tiatma: WOW! I am just seeing the posts! Believe me!! Who is Recognize? I think I will like to read more of his posts, but, sigh, no time! no time!! Now, don't even go down that "Mavenbox is the same person as Recognize" path, or the "plagiarism" path. LOL. If we say the same thing, it only means that we have apprehended the truth in the same manner. Thanks to the Holy Spirit's revelation, and all Glory be to God through His Son Christ Jesus.

@noetic: I'm so sorry for the long post. LOL. I don't usually have much time on Nairaland due to my busy schedule so I try to make up with long posts. Time is very short, you know, and the fields are over-ready for harvest.

Besides, NL does not have a section for articles, most of people's posts are DISCUSSIONS, not articles. I most often write articles, but I enjoy discussions too. Point taken!

The OP is a rich piece, I recommend to everyone.