God Is Love

God is love and the Christian is to show Love.... But first... you must love Jesus.

You cannot truly love your brother or sister if you do not truly love Jesus.

He died for you and freed you from sin.  He showed his love for you by dying for you.

Do you love Jesus?

How is it manifested in your life?

Do you hide from Him or seek Him?

Do you wait for Him in prayer or only on Sundays?

What does it mean to Love Jesus?

It means to put Him first.

It means to obey Him.

It means to love one another.

It means to love God.

The great question which all rational beings must answer is this: "Do you love Jesus Christ?"   As Christians we must ask it often. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments"

Refiners Fire

Malachi 3:2-3

Who can endure the day of His coming 

And who can stand the day He appears?

For He is like a refiners fire and like a launderers soap

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; 

He will purge the sons of Levi

And purge them as gold and silver

That they may offer to the Lord

An offering in righteousness

The refiner’s fire that Jesus takes us through, He went through Himself. He went through it and suffered and died for our sake so that we would not have to deal with the flames ourselves. Jesus took that fire upon Himself, though He did not have to, and Jesus offers us salvation from our sins because of what he did.

But then Jesus tells us that if we truly want to follow Him, we are going to have to go where He leads. Jesus doesn't promise us complete prosperity and ease of life. What Jesus does promise is a life that is good.

1Peter 1:6-7

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith - greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Promises, Promises Promises!

In Genesis God makes a clear and comprehensive promise to Abram 'I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great, And so you will be a blessing'. When we as humans make promises we enter in to a contract usually with the intention of fulfilling the contract being made, an example when a groom and bride stand facing each other on their wedding day they make  promises to one another with the full intention of keeping them, many fail in the promises made during their wedding vows .

 Not so with God when he makes promises you can be confident  he will fulfill them he is faithful . The problem arises when the promises do not come to fruition within our time scale, as was the case for Abram. 
God promised that he would have descendants that would become a nation that takes time which Abram clearly did not factor into the promise,  having descendants does not happen over night, but he makes a common mistake he helps God out, through his own scheme rather than waiting for God's plan to come about. Patience is not a gift many of us have but it is a fruit of the Spirit which is given by God and developed within us all we need to do is to ask for it, it is not instant, it is a life time lesson for some of us to learn but learn it we must.
 Blessings Ray     

And Jesus said......

Jesus said 'I am the way, the truth and the life no one can come to the Father except through me'


Jesus said 'I am the Way' he is the one who leads to the path of life, it is only through Him that we can be with God. If you turn up at an airport wanting to travel to South Africa then you need to board a plane that is heading to South Africa, no other plane will take you there. Jesus is the only way to the Father.
 Jesus said 'I am the truth' no other man on this earth can claim to be such. There is no one on this planet who never lied or did anything wrong, so no one can claim to be the truth, except Jesus because He is God himself and there is no sin or lie within Him.


Jesus said 'I am the Life' What is the meaning of life about which Jesus is talking? Are we dead and do we need life? Lets see what it is about. We read in Romans 3:23, 'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' And also in Romans 6:23 'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.'


All have sinned and so we are lifeless because our soul is dead in sin. because of our sins we are heading towards death - eternal death. But Jesus came into this world to save us from hell. He gave His precious life for us. he shed His precious blood on the cross to purchase freedom for us.


He gave His life for us but now we have to claim life - eternal life, so that we may never die but live forever. Jesus came to give us eternal life - a life that will never fade. He came to give us life abundant and it is available free of cost because Jesus paid the price for it on the cross.


The Good News of Jesus is for all; it welcomes all just as we are. but if that loving invitation into God's Kingdom is to be accepted, it requires radical change of those parts of our human nature that fall short of God's will for His creation. you may recall that the very first recorded words of Jesus in Mark's account 1:15 are these 'The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the Gospel/the Good News.' The challenge to repent, to turn away from what is selfish and sinful, in order to receive something better - that challenge has always provoked a mixed response.


We are called to preach the whole Gospel, not an edited version, not an inoffensive Gospel like lead free petrol or wheat free bread the gospel only comes with power if there is repentance. 


Blessings
Ray