His Love Endures

 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?
And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.


Ruth 1:16-17
But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

"Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me."


I Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.


I John 4:7-19
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

We love, because He first loved us.

Faith, Hope, and Love

The last the couple of week and a bit of my life have been a bit of a blur due to it just been completely covered in emotion. It wasn't till Monday on the way home from the Thanksgiving Service for my dear friend that passed away that I began to process everything that had happened in the last 3weeks (Just want to thank The Kerith Centre for catering for all the Fpers and just for an emotional but amazing day.) Since Monday there has really been a sense of hope in me like I still go through the emotional stuff which is expected but It's all in Gods hands. For a while now God has been teaching me how to love unconditionally no matter what was going on but just to love others as God loves us. For me it's been a massive challenge during this Fp year as I've been through so many relational difficulties which resulted with me walking away from a lot of people and just feeling very bitter. Since going to Mobilise (A New Frontiers Student and Twenties conference which is just really awesome (click here to see a few highlights of the conference this year. Might see a few familar faces hehe) God really begun to heal some of the open wounds and help me to get over a lot of the bitterness. I was really reminded of the work God was doing in me with all the hurt just going to watch Toy Story 3 with a bunch of Fpers earlier this week. It was an amazing film like Toy Story has always been one of my favourite films when on a lazy day just pigging out on Ben and Jerry's (aaahhh soo yummy!!!). The thing that really stood out to me was no matter what happened they were all in it together no matter what faced them and at times even went out of there way for one another (don't want to give the storyline away but it is a must see film trust me seen it 3 times so SICK!!). Even after getting home and talking to my Mum about the film she laid down a challenge by saying "Sol its good that your really getting what a strong Christian community is, but what about those closer to home".  I couldn't answer had nothing to that just walked up to my deep in thought and just said the one prayer I've Prayed so much which is "God you know.  I can honestly say my faith is now firmly routed for example last night I thought I'm going to go to a half night of prayer which I just got blown away at some the things that were said through other people just confirming stuff I've already heard before. Just to finish I can say is that I'm the one verse thats been on my heart is 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13 which reads;

  

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I've shared this gem of a scripture with a lot of people and just whats God has challenged me with and it has blessed a lot of people to the point a friend put it as his Facebook status. I don't know what God's doing but he is in control and I'm gonna just see how it all pans out because all I know is I find rest in Him.

Whats to do?.....There's no point but God only you know

Since last week there has been a lot of people I cut out my life trying to see how I'm doing and all the rest and It's just like why now? For me personally I just want to put on my headphones, wear my glasses and ignore them completely. Last night I began to think after a bit of an argument that left me feeling angry. TI he one thought kept running through my head and its just kept playing in my head all day today "Since October this whole thing has been going on, attempts to sort it failed or if it was half sorted it was with the notion things are going to be weird for a while, I walk away for the final time have a tragic accident in which I lose a friend and its all Soly you alright. Get on your horse and jog on don't need it despite the accident Nothing has changed". When it comes to it I can honestly say I've just gone on with my life pressed into God and just got used to not having them in my life and if anything forgotten about them because I've focused on my Fp family which relationally has helped get over them. 

If I think back God challenged me to live in unconditional love and stuff of which im trying to do but I can't. I look at Jesus's life and just how he was still able to go to Peter and stuff like nothing had happened and use him to be one of the first Christian Martyrs even though he denied ever knowing Jesus 3 times in Jesus's greatest hour of needed someone by his side. Or even the story of Joseph how he was his sold in to slavery by his brothers but in the end he was united with his brothers as Prime Minister of Egypt. To be honest the only people I need in my life are my family, Fp Family and a handful of others when it comes to anyone else I don't know but with God sending challenges I don't know what I can do but say father I don't have a clue with anything at the moment but only you know and I'm just gonna trust in you for I know you work all things for the good of those who love you.

Food for thought

This is a spur of the moment so I'm going to keep going till I run out of thoughts. For the last couple of weeks I have been in a world of my own and just thinking about life and just reflecting and here's a few thoughts I want to share. The last couple of months have been a rollacoaster emotionally, relationally, spiritually and mentally. Life for me in the last 12 months have gone from like "This is awesome"  to "I can't take no more of this". One thing I have noticed throughout all of this is my emotional,spiritually and mentally well being are very interlinked. For example when ever something happened that hurt me I would then react to what I thought was right for me. I think I was reading a book or having a conversation with someone but this statement made sense to me "Hold your thoughts and emotions captive in hard times in difficult times because they will hold you". That only started to make sense as I've been reflecting and it actually makes sense when you think about it. As a Christian I've been thinking about life and stuff and just problems and situations that life will throw at us but you know the saying "Lets nip is while its still a bud" well from just my reflections I think that's exactly  what we are called to do regardless of the situation or over time the situation will just spiral out of control and will get naturally fueled over being unresolved. I was thinking about an analogy just to make sense and pretty much help you picture what I mean and here's what I got. Unresolved issues are like being stuck in Quick sand the more you try to run or struggle the deeper you go. What you need to do is one pray for guidance, two seek counsel from wiser people and three ask for help so you can get out before the situations begins to affect you in major ways.

In Ephesians 2:14-17 it reads

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.  And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

Reconciliation means “the procurement of peace between two warring parties.” God is never reconciled to man, but man is always reconciled to God. The war was over when Jesus, through the cross, brought man back to God. Man left God in the garden and God has sought a means through the centuries of bringing man back to Him. He succeeded through the cross. This is the ministry and message of reconciliation. The message is the war is over it's time for peace.

Charles Spurgeon on Love

"He loved you without beginning. Before years, and centuries, and millenniums began to be counted, your name was on his heart. Eternal thoughts of love have been in God’s bosom towards you. He has loved you without a pause; there never was a minute in which he did not love you. Your name once engraved upon his hands has never been erased, nor has he ever blotted it out of the Book of Life. Since you have been in this world he has loved you most patiently. You have often provoked him; you have rebelled against him times without number, yet he has never stayed the outflow of his heart towards you; and, blessed be his name, he never will. You are his, and you always shall be his. Jesus saith, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” God’s love to you is without boundary. He could not love you more, for he loves you like a God; and he never will love you less. All his heart belongs to you. “As the Father hath loved me,” saith Jesus, “even so have I loved you.”

That is Love.

Love is the answer

 

This post has been on my heart for a while and for me personally it been something that God has been challenging me with for a while now and it's the whole subject of Love.

Love is a very powerful word and these days especially with our day and age more precisely in youth culture the word "Love" always brings to extremes, one of which is the whole boyfriend and girlfriend being very lovey dovey and the other extreme is the use of the word just thrown around loosely for example a guy telling a girl he loves her just to satisfy his own sexual desires. Over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about this whole subject of love and I started of by reading the Gospels and seeing the way Christ lived his life and just the Love he displayed to those who were classified as the outcasts of society. I then began to look at myself and think about how I measure up to his standard and without a doubt I failed but I began to notice a lot of things about my understanding of Love.

Firstly I read 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1-13 which reads;

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I also began to look for passages that mentioned one anothering. Here's what I found

Wash one another’s feet—John 13:14.
Love one another—John 13:3; 15:12, 17; Romans 13:8; I Peter 1:22; I John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11.
In honor preferring one another—Romans 12:10.
Don’t judge one another—Romans 14:13.
Receive one another—Romans 15:7.
Salute one another—Romans 16:16.*
Greet one another—I Cor. 16:20, II Cor. 13:12, I Peter 5:14.
Serve one another—Gal. 5:13.
Don’t provoke one another or envy one another—Gal. 5:26.
Bear one another’s burdens—Gal. 6:2.
Forbear one another in love—Eph. 4:2, Col. 3:13.
Forgive one another—Eph. 4:32, Col. 3:13.
Teach and admonish one another with song—Col. 3:16.
Comfort one another—I Thess. 4:18.
Edify one another—I Thess. 5:11.
Exhort one another— Heb. 3:13; 10:25.
Consider one another to provoke unto love and good works—Heb. 10:24.

The Biblical view on Love is so different to what we see in the World. We live in the a "Me,Myself and I" World where everything is based on what can I get to make myself happy and it's very individualistic. As I was thinking about my view on Love I began to think about the whole concept of "The focus of your attention". Like being a very big Football fan this World Cup I have seen my hopes rise and fall with how well the team I was supporting were doing. For example Ghana went out to Uruguay and for the whole game my attention was fully focused on Ghana and I was going for it willing them on but when the went out on penalties I just began to feel like noooo this can't be what happened. This can be the applied to some Christians that put all their attention and energy into worthless things especially with relationships. both parties in the relationship will put all there attention in making the relationship work and stuff that sometimes their own walk with God will determined to how their relationship is doing. I began to think about the passage in 1 Corinthians and for me personally the love that is spoken in that passage is Unconditional Love and this is what God has been challenging me to do. Just a study of Jesus life shows that he loved us so much that he done two of the greatest acts of love of all time. Firstly Jesus gave up his Heavenly Privilege and humbled himself to be a human being just like us. Just think if we were Jesus and we were in his shoes and we had to come down to the Earth full of sin, for me personally I wouldn't be able to that but because he loved us so much he did and to top it all of he died for all the sin of the world that had been committed and the sin yet to come but also to bridge the gap between mankind and God. Now that is Love and that's the challenge for me and also to you to Love as Christ did but remember its Unconditional Love as Jesus showed us we show others.