Category: Love

Wickedness

Psalm 5 New International Version

Psalm 5^[a]

For the director of music. For pipes. A psalm of David.

¹Listen to my words, Lord,
    consider my lament.
²Hear my cry for help,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.

³In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
    in the morning I lay my requests before you
    and wait expectantly.
⁴For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
    with you, evil people are not welcome.
⁵The arrogant cannot stand
    in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
⁶    you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
    you, Lord, detest.
⁷But I, by your great love,
    can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
    toward your holy temple.

⁸Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies—
    make your way straight before me.
⁹Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;
    their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
    with their tongues they tell lies.
¹⁰Declare them guilty, O God!
    Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their many sins,
    for they have rebelled against you.
¹¹But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
    let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
    that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

¹²Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favour as with a shield.

Learn how to forgive

Hosea 2 New International Version

“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor[b] a door of hope.
There she will respond[c] as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

16 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.[d]’
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in[e] righteousness and justice,
in[f] love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in[g] faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the Lord.

Could I forgive the person that stabbed/shot a member of my family? It’s a question you can’t really answer till your in that position. So all i’m going to say is it would be a tough one for me to answer. Could you forgive?

Thankyou Lord

Psalm 107New International Version

Psalm 107

¹Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

²Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
³those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.^[a]

⁴Some wandered in desert wastelands,
    finding no way to a city where they could settle.
⁵They were hungry and thirsty,
    and their lives ebbed away.
⁶Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he delivered them from their distress.
⁷He led them by a straight way
    to a city where they could settle.
⁸Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
⁹for he satisfies the thirsty
    and fills the hungry with good things.

¹⁰Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,
    prisoners suffering in iron chains,
¹¹because they rebelled against God’s commands
    and despised the plans of the Most High.
¹²So he subjected them to bitter labor;
    they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
¹³Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress.
¹⁴He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
    and broke away their chains.
¹⁵Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
¹⁶for he breaks down gates of bronze
    and cuts through bars of iron.

¹⁷Some became fools through their rebellious ways
    and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
¹⁸They loathed all food
    and drew near the gates of death.
¹⁹Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress.
²⁰He sent out his word and healed them;
    he rescued them from the grave.
²¹Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
²²Let them sacrifice thank offerings
    and tell of his works with songs of joy.

²³Some went out on the sea in ships;
    they were merchants on the mighty waters.
²⁴They saw the works of the Lord,
    his wonderful deeds in the deep.
²⁵For he spoke and stirred up a tempest
    that lifted high the waves.
²⁶They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
    in their peril their courage melted away.
²⁷They reeled and staggered like drunkards;
    they were at their wits’ end.
²⁸Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he brought them out of their distress.
²⁹He stilled the storm to a whisper;
    the waves of the sea^[b] were hushed.
³⁰They were glad when it grew calm,
    and he guided them to their desired haven.
³¹Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
³²Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
    and praise him in the council of the elders.

³³He turned rivers into a desert,
    flowing springs into thirsty ground,
³⁴and fruitful land into a salt waste,
    because of the wickedness of those who lived there.
³⁵He turned the desert into pools of water
    and the parched ground into flowing springs;
³⁶there he brought the hungry to live,
    and they founded a city where they could settle.
³⁷They sowed fields and planted vineyards
    that yielded a fruitful harvest;
³⁸he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased,
    and he did not let their herds diminish.

³⁹Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled
    by oppression, calamity and sorrow;
⁴⁰he who pours contempt on nobles
    made them wander in a trackless waste.
⁴¹But he lifted the needy out of their affliction
    and increased their families like flocks.
⁴²The upright see and rejoice,
    but all the wicked shut their mouths.

⁴³Let the one who is wise heed these things
and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.

The Deep love of Jesus

Ephesians 3The Message

The Secret Plan of God

3 ^1-3This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.

^4-6As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

^7-8This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

^8-10And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

^11-13All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

* * *

^14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

^20-21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

Friendship

Proverbs 18:24

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

John 15:12-15

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
And what a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer

Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer

I couldn’t find the lyrics for this beautiful song, ‘Endless Friend’ they are a reminder that no matter what our problem is we can turn to Jesus in prayer as our friend for help.

Will you come to Jesus

Philippians 2 New International Version

Imitating Christ’s Humility

2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

1 Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room
For Thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.

2 Heaven’s arches rang when the angels sang,
Proclaiming Thy royal degree;
But of lowly birth didst Thou come to earth,
And in great humility.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.

3 Thou camest, O Lord, with the living word
That should set Thy people free;
But with mocking scorn, and with crown of thorn,
They bore Thee to Calvary.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.

4 When the heavens shall ring, and the angels sing,
At Thy coming to victory,
Let Thy voice call me home, saying “Yet there is room,
There is room at My side for thee.”
My heart shall rejoice, Lord Jesus,
When Thou comest and callest for me.

Wonderful words set to a equally wonderful tune ‘Margaret’. This as you see is an arrangement of the hymn tune where you will hear i come in a few times.

God’s Guidance

Psalm 48^[a]

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,
in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

²Beautiful in its loftiness,
    the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon^[b] is Mount Zion,
    the city of the Great King.
³God is in her citadels;
    he has shown himself to be her fortress.

⁴When the kings joined forces,
    when they advanced together,
⁵they saw her and were astounded;
    they fled in terror.
⁶Trembling seized them there,
    pain like that of a woman in labour.
⁷You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish
    shattered by an east wind.

⁸As we have heard, Image result for psalm 48 14
    so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty,
    in the city of our God:
God makes her secure
    forever.^[c]

⁹Within your temple, O God,
    we meditate on your unfailing love.
¹⁰Like your name, O God,
    your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
    your right hand is filled with righteousness.
¹¹Mount Zion rejoices,
    the villages of Judah are glad
    because of your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, go around her,
    count her towers,
¹³consider well her ramparts,
    view her citadels,
that you may tell of them
    to the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide even to the end.

Family

Ideally, our family will be the one we were born into. But it might be a group of friends, people who have been through the same experiences as you, or people brought together by love.

The author Jane Howard wrote, “Call it a clan, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.”

As the actor Michael J Fox pointed out, “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything!”

Compelling Love

1 Corinthians 8 11-13

For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

I really don’t think i have to say much in this blog today because I think the words and especially the video speak for themselves. As we look at the video we thank not just The Salvation Army for the work they do in the poorer countries but also organisations such as Christian Aid, Oxfam Bernardos etc, the list is endless. Finally I would ask you to pray for the families affected in these

countries. See the source image

Compelled by love,
Called to serve
Wherever there are souls in need.
Compelled by love,
Called to find the lonely
And the lost.
Touched by God’s grace,
I’ll love where hearts are hurting.
How can I offer less than all
When I am born again by his forgiving?
I’m compelled by love.

Compelled by love,
Called to toil
Wherever there are mouths to feed.
Compelled by love,
Called to work where life is at its worst.
Moved by God’s grace,
I’ll prove that I am willing.
How can I offer less than all
When his love fills my heart,
My spirit thrilling?
I’m compelled by love.

Compelled by love,
Called to follow Christ
No matter where he leads.
Compelled by love,
Called to give and not to count the cost.
Filled with God’s grace,
I’ll lead a life worth living.
How can I offer less than all
When I am made anew by his infilling?
His love calls me, his love claims me,
I’m compelled by love.

Light and Understanding

Psalm 119 New International Version

פ Pe

¹²⁹Your statutes are wonderful;
therefore I obey them.
¹³⁰The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.

¹³¹I open my mouth and pant,
    longing for your commands.
¹³²Turn to me and have mercy on me,
    as you always do to those who love your name.
¹³³Direct my footsteps according to your word;
    let no sin rule over me.
¹³⁴Redeem me from human oppression,
    that I may obey your precepts.
¹³⁵Make your face shine on your servant
    and teach me your decrees.
¹³⁶Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
    for your law is not obeyed.