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

Gift Suggestions

Still trying to decide what to get someone for Christmas? Well here are a few suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To all, charity.
(by Oren Arnold)

OK so I know they are not Christmas presents in the standard sense, however they are very applicable ones which we should each strive to give this Christmas.

Make a promise to yourself and to God to try to give these gifts this year.

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 Father

How much do you think God loves you?
Do you even know that God loves you?

Think about the person or people in your life you love you most...
God loves you more than that!
Think about the person or people in your life you love you most and multiply a million times...
God loves you more than that!

God loves me more than I could every comprehend.
God loves you more than I'm sure you could ever comprehend.

Do not ever underestimate how much God loves you and how much God can do for you. God loves you as a father loves his child. We each are God's children, so believe in God, believe in His love.

Checkout Matt Redman's website: http://www.mattredman.com/

Never Let Go

We have times in our life when we face difficult situations or have to make difficult choices. It's at times like these we find out who our real friends are. You may have many people in your life that you consider to be good friends, however when you're struggling with what life has thrown your way, you may find some of these "friends" are no where to be found!

So when you are struggling who do you turn to?

I hope it is Jesus you turn to, after all he is the only one you can always rely on. Jesus has promised never to leave us, but always stay by our side to help and support us through thick and thin.

Trust Jesus no matter what you face, He will never let you down.

You Never Let Go by Matt Redman
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me



Visit Matt Redman's website: http://www.mattredman.com/

Music of the Heart

Psalm 101:1
I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.

Have you ever been sitting in church or at a music concert and someone sitting beside or behind you is singing along very loudly to the music? Not only that but have been singing along very untunefully or very out of time?

I think we've all encountered a situation like that at some time or another, so what did you think? Did you laugh? Did you wih they'd stop singing?

Again I guess those are reactions we've all had in this type of circumstance.

But what do you think God is thinking about your own singing?
Are you a great singer, not the best but can hold a tune or realy can't hold a tune at all?

Well whatever kind of singer you are, good or bad, God will be listening to you! Is that scary?! But God is not bottered whether you can sing or not, what He is interested in is whether you have a song in your heart. In other words, God doesn't want us just to go through the motions of life. He doesn't want us to be hypocrites, He'd rather we couldn't sing but sang the words from our heart with true feeling and belief! God wants us to sing with conviction, to sing from experience and belief in His Name.

So sing from your heart, and sing as loud as you want!

Final Destination Heaven?

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 7:21 (NIV)

How deep is your love for Christ go? Is it just an acknowledgement that God exists and that Christ is Lord, or do you have a genuine relationship with God where you do all you can to do God's will?

For those who do not live their lives fully for Christ these words from Matthew's gospel must be frightening. God knows whether our lives are centered around Him and doing His will, and because of that knows whether we are worthy of entering into Heaven.


These words of Jesus should be calling out to us and touching our heart. He calls us to reality, away from all the superficiality of religion. True salvation and spiritual life are not just about saying those words or our religious performance. It it all about whether we do the will of God!

What is God's will? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." "He that believeth the Son has everlasting life." Such faith in Jesus our Saviour produces a genuine relationship with God, and new life.

I pray today that your relationship with God is based on doing God's will, not just acknowledging His existence.

Thank You God

Where would we be today if God hadn't sent His son to earth to live among us. To live among us and then give the ultimate price, His life...just so we could be forgiven of all our sins.

Without God in our lives we are nothing. I find it impossible to think what my life would have been like if I had not been brought up in a Christian family and taken along to the Salvation Army for a very early age. That's why I for one find myself thanking God over and over again, for being part of my life.

Don't take God for granted. He knows you by name and know everything about you. Thank Him today for being there for you and helping and guiding you through each day.

Here's a song by Matt Redman entitled "Once Again" - it expresses our thanks to God sending Jesus to earth to die at Calvary, and acknowledges how inadequate without God in our lives.




You can checkout Matt Redman's website at: http://www.mattredman.com/