Here Is Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (The Message)
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Have you experienced love in your life?
Have you ever been badly hurt by someone you love, or by someone you thought loved you? Or have you hurt someone you love or loves you and then felt deep sorry afterwards?

There is only one TRUE true which is available free of charge, with no ties attached, and that is the love of God. As the above bible verses says, we can go through our life doing good deeds and helping others, but if we don't truly know God's love in our lives we have achieved nothing.

God's love is everything - Accept God's love into your life today!

Here Is Love (by Matt Redman)

Here is love, vast as the ocean

Lovingkindness as the flood

When the Prince of Life, our Ransom

Shed for us His precious blood

Who His love will not remember?

Who can cease to sing His praise?

He can never be forgotten

Throughout Heav'n's eternal days

On the mount of crucifixion

Fountains opened deep and wide

Through the floodgates of God's mercy

Flowed a vast a gracious tide

Grace and love, like mighty rivers

Poured incessant from above

And Heav'n's peace and perfect justice

Kissed a guilty world in love

Chorus:

No love is higher, no love is wider

No love is deeper, no love is truer

No love is higher, no love is wider

No love is like Your love, o Lord

Not Responsible

Have you ever felt responsible for every bad thing that happened, whether it was your responsibility or not?

When we allow ourselves to play the blame yourself game, the guilt which follows dries up our soul. withers our spirit and brings a depression around us - So don't do it!

I'm not saying that we shouldn't take responsibility for what is ours. However I am saying, don't blame yourself for everything bad that happens as it quite simply is not for you to take on that blame.

1 Corinthians 4:4
My conscience is clear, but that isn't what matters. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.

God is the only one who will judge us and so He will set the record straight as far as who is responsible for everything that happens. So, stop taking responsibility for things that are not yours, because it's not your stuff!

The Choice To Love

We often hear people saying that we can choose our friends but we can't choose our relatives, and that is true. However with God's help we can choose to love the ones you haven't chosen!

It can be very difficult at times to love some people, especially those who are bitter and disillusioned because it is definitely easier to love happy people, chosen friends or our own flesh and blood.

Sometimes the circumstances which we face in life make it very difficult for us to love and can often turn us from God. But these are the times when it is most important for us to turn to God as He will make us stronger people and help us to love those we find most difficult to love.

1 Corinthians 13:7
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

We don't have it within ourselves to love everyone we come across. However God will give us His love with which to love those we find difficult to love.

Do you get discouraged when you try to love some people and they react as if they don't want to know you? I know I certainly do - it's difficult in these circumstances not to get discouraged. However God understands we are different people and we have our differences and loves the unlovable.

Don't forget that God loves all of us! This love is ours for the asking, the taking and the loving.

Love Endures Forever

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (New Living Translation)
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Well know words from scripture which I'm sure you've heard many times before. Just because you've heard them many times, do still actually consider what those words mean?

Love is stronger than anything else, it will endure through anything. Love will never desert you even when you feel unloved, as God will always love you. God's love will last forever. God's love for you will endure no matter what you may have done in your life - God's love for you lasts forever.

Today I ask you to join me in thanking God for loving us unconditionally.

I Could Sing of Your Love Forever
Written by Martin Smith

Over the mountains and the sea,
Your river runs with love for me,
and I will open up my heart
and let the Healer set me free.
I'm happy to be in the truth,
and I will daily lift my hands:
for I will always sing of when
Your love came down. [Yeah!]

I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever. [Repeat]

Oh, I feel like dancing -
it's foolishness I know;
but, when the world has seen the light,
they will dance with joy,
like we're dancing now.

Please checkout the Delirious? website: http://www.delirious.co.uk/html/

Harvest

Today at our services at Bellshill Salvation Army we celebrated harvest time. What images does that conjure up for you?

Here's the dictionary definition of "harvest":
1. the gathering of a ripened crop
2. the crop itself
3. the season for gathering crops
4. the product of an effort or action

Traditionally we always think of farmers, crops and food when we think about harvest.

This harvest I'd ask you to pray for those who are starving...not just in foreign lands but here in this country. We all can be very guilty at time of taking our food, possessions and our family and friends for granted, so I'd also ask you to thank God for all you have, all He has given you.

But harvest need not just be all about the crops and the food being harvested, it's also a time for us to think about bringing others into a knowledge and understanding of God's love...to "harvest" others lives into God's will.

We must all be examples for Christ, after all something we say or do may be the thing which brings someone into a relationship with God. We may not always see any results of what we do/say, but if we a simply word or action may be the seed that lands in someone's heart and develops into a heart full of love for God.

2 Corinthians 9:10
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

In conclusion, pray today that God might use you to plant a seed in someone's heart so that they might come to know God as their friend and saviour.

Britain's Got Talent

The title of today's blog is "Britain's Got Talent" a tv show here in the UK where they search for a previously undiscovered person/persons to perform their talent at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen.


So have you been watching Britain's Got Talent? Will you be watching it tonight?


Tonight is the final of this show, where a acts the final acts will perform for the last time before the winner is chosen by public vote.

So has Britain Got Talent?

Having watched a number of the initial auditions and most of the semi finals this last week, I have to say that at times it has looked as though Britain really hasn't got talent! Having said that there have of course been a few outstanding acts, some of which didn't get through to the semi finals or indeed tonight's fina, which personally I liked, but hey, if we all liked the same things we'd all be bored!

Regardless of the outcome of tonight's show, and whether we personally agree with the successful act, do you think Britain Has Talent? Do you think you have talent?


In God's eyes, we all have talents. You may still say you have no talents, but that it really isn't true, you do have talent, you may not have discovered them yet, or accepted that they are talents. God gives each of us spiritual gifts to use to help others or tell others about God's message.



1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (The Message)

God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!

The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

For those of you who know what your talents or spiritual gifts are, ask God to help you continue to use them for His honour and glory.

For those of you who have not identified their talents or spiritual gifts, ask God to help identify them and then help you use them in His work.

There are a number of website which talk about Spiritaul Gifts. One you may find helpful is http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/spiritualgifts/index.htm


Identify your talents, find your spiritual gifts and use them all to share your love and knowledge of God.