Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Saturday 17 February 2024

Where does your help come from?

   Where does your help come from?

The Psalmist writes,

"I lift up my eyes to the hills— 

where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the LORD, 

the Maker of heaven and earth." 

                                               Psalm 121:1,2.

Where does your help come from? Do you rely on your wealth? Your family and friends? Your government? Your Lawyer? Your doctor?

While all of these things can help us. Ultimately all of them will fail us eventually. Ultimately we will find we need God.

It is to God we need to be turning every day of our lives. Thanking Him for life and what we have. 

Please think about it.

Saturday 8 February 2020

The Christian and Love

The Christian and Love
Jesus when asked,
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: " ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.'
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40
He also said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,...” Matthew 5:43,44
So what is true Christian love? The apostle Paul tells us,
“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....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 
But the greatest of these is love.”  
                                                             1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.
This to me is the definition of true Christian love. You cannot be a Christian and not believe this.
As Christians. As true believers in Christ Jesus we must love like this. The Apostle John tells us,
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.  
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  1 John 4:11-16.
Please think about it.

Sunday 8 December 2019

Love the Lord your God

Love the Lord your God
In the book of Deuteronomy we read,
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  Deuteronomy 6:5-7.
Jesus when asked,
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  
This is the first and greatest commandment.  
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40.
So my first question to you if you claim to be a believer in Christ Jesus is; Do you truly “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind?”
My second question is; Do you “love your neighbour as yourself?”
My third question do you impress the importance of your faith on your children?
Please think about it.

Wednesday 4 December 2019

A Reason

A Reason
John’s gospel records these words,
“Jesus wept.” 
           John 11:35.
Christians believe Jesus is God incarnate. God in the flesh. The apostle John states,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  
He was with God in the beginning. 
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  
In him was life, and that life was the light of men....
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. " John 1:1-4,14.
The writer of Hebrews states,
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:3.
Many non-Christians ask the question if God is all powerful and all knowing why would he even bother entering the world He created?
I think the simple answer is to show mortal man that He fully understands the human condition.
Jesus while on this earth functioned as a normal man. He knew what it was like to feel the mundane things of this life. The sun on your face. The smell of dust after a rain. The radiant smell of flowers. The smell of cattle.
Jesus knew what it was like to have a loving mother and father.
Jesus knew what it was like to play as a child. To have friends and enemies.
Jesus also knew what it was like to be wrongfully convicted of a crime, to be beaten and put to death.
In his short thirty-three years on this earth Jesus experienced all that there was to experience about being human. The good and the bad.
Charles H. Spurgeon said,
“A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears.” Charles H. Spurgeon.
When we stand before God we can never say “you are almighty and do not know what it is to be human.” because he does.
Not only that in dying for us he showed in human terms how far he would go to point us to heaven.
Billy Graham the American Evangelist said,
“God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, 'I love you.'” Billy Graham.
Jesus speaking of himself said,
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son". John 3:16-18.
If this statement is false there is nothing to fear. If it is true. At the very least there is a lot to consider.
Please think about it.