October 29: 1,2,3 John

I'm sure you've all had that assignment in school where you have to look up your name and find out what it means. Depending on your sources, my name means "from the court", "courtly", "courteous", or "snub-nosed". (I'm sure you can pick out my least favorite meaning.) 

A few years back I also read a book of baby names that listed a corresponding Bible verse for each name. The verse for Courtney was 1 John 4:16. That always stuck in my head because my birthday is 4/16!  To further add to the coincidence, when I got a new license plate for my car five years ago, the 3 numbers randomly assigned were 416. 

So, from today's reading, I'd like to share "my" verse with you.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." ~1 John 4:16

The rest of this paragraph is equally as meaningful to me:

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." ~1 John 4:17-20