Nothing Can Separate Us

The Golden City

(Adrian Plass, Dave Clifton, Ian Blythe, Phil Baggaley)

Soon your trials will be over,

Offered up by mercy's hand;

Let Him heal you where you're standing,

A doorway to another land

The sweetest welcome from the Father,

Gathered up and carried home,

We have come to this time of waiting,

Come let us bow before Your throne

We will meet in the golden city, in the new Jerusalem

All our pain and all our tears will be no more.

We will stand with the hosts of heaven and cry,

"Holy is the Lamb",

We will worship and adore You evermore

Never can the powers of darkness,

Neither death nor even life

Let nothing ever separate us,

From the holy love of God

When we find something or someone we love, we never want to be separated from it/them. Our relationship with God should be no different, we must love God so much that we never want to be separated from Him.

Fortunately God promises us that if we love Him, we will never be separated from Him, ever!

Romans 8:38-39 (The Message)
I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Putting People and Christ First

People matter more than schedules
People matter more than programs.
Making people a priority means putting people first...That is the way Jesus lived his life, so that is why God wants us to live that way too.

Micah 6:8 (NLT)
The Lord has already told you what is good, and this is what he requires you to do: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

All these requirements will affect everyone around us. Doing what is right means living rightly in everything we do, wherever we are and whoever we are with. In responding rightly to wrong behaviour and judging rightly when conflicts arise.

Of course Christ did all these things perfectly, he will give us his nature so we have the power to do what we would be powerless to do in our own strength.

Philippians 2:3-4 (NLT)
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

In other words, putting people first will make you more like Jesus who always made sure his relationships, first with God and then with people, were his top priorities.

First Love

Do you remember the first time you fell in love? There is nothing quite like it is there.

• First love laughs at an impossibility and declares it can be done.
• First love happily makes a fool of itself for the loved one, without caring who sees.
• First love loves wildly and extravagantly, exulting in the high privilege of giving itself away.
• First love often obsesses and possesses until it sees, thinks about, or cares for no other things than the loved one, at whatever cost.

Is this an accurate description of your love for God?

Have you settled into a settled relationship with God?

Has your heart become hard to everything around you and for God?

Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.

Maybe nothing has changed in your daily routine, but you've simply lost the reality of the loving relationship you have with God.

Maybe you continue to do "churchy" things as you've always done, but are finding they are less effective then they used to be - all because you've lost your first love relationship with God!

Are you still in love with God, or are your days full of routines or duties?

So how do we rekindle that first love relationship with God?

Well we can can remember the joy of our meetings with God when we had that first love relationship, and we can then make our meetings with Him joyful once again. We can revisit the place we explored with God and can reread God's letters to us in the scriptures. We can talk to God about rekindling our first love. We can ask God to forgive us for losing our first love relationship with Him, and ask Him to to lift us to the height of that fulfilling love once again.

Let God lift your love for Him to new heights today.

Deep In Love

Have you ever been in love? It's a wonderful feeling isn't it.
If you have never been in love, you have missed out as it really is something wonderful.

What do you want/expect from someone in return when you both love each another? Love, affection, care, support, understanding - these are just a few qualities you might expect from a loving relationship.

John 16:27 (NIV)
No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God

There is only one person who can offer all these qualities and so much more and who will never ever let you down. Who is that person? Your husband, wife, Mother, Father, brother, sister, friend? No, they may all do there best for you but they will never be all you ever need. God is that person!

Are you deep in love with God? It's never too late to fall in love with God for the first time, so I'd urge you start your relationship with God today as He will love you unconditionally, forever!

Deep In Love with You
(lyrics by Michael W. Smith, Debbie Smith, Christa Black)
Sitting at Your feet is where I want to be
I'm home when I am here with You
Ruined by Your grace, enamored by Your gaze
I can't resist the tenderness in You

I'm deep in love with You, Abba Father
I'm deep in love with You, Lord
My heart, it beats for You, precious Jesus
I'm deep in love with You Lord

Humbled and amazed that You would call my name
I never have to search again
There's a deep desire that's burning like a fire
To know You as my closest friend

Lord, my redeemer, Your blood runs through my veins
My love for You is deeper than it was yesterday
I enter through the curtain, parted by Your grace
Oh, Your the lover of my soul

Checkout Michael W Smith's website: http://www.michaelwsmith.com/

With All I Am

Today's blog follows on from my post yesterday - Never Let Go. Yesterday I spoke of how Jesus has promised never to leave our side no matter what is going on in our life.

So today I want to speak about how we repay God for being our "best friend". Well when you have experienced God's unfailing and unquestioning love in yourlife, you will find it difficult not to say to God, "I trust you completely, so I am yours forever".

Maybe you're not at that stage yet in your relationship with God, but I can assure you that you have nothing to fear, God is always there for you. Not only that, but He will make you feel so very safe in the knowledge that He loves you and is looking out for you, forever!

With All I Am
into your hand
i commit again
with all I am
for you Lord

you hold my world
in the palm of your hand
and I'm yours forever

Jesus I believe in you
Jesus I belong to you
you're the reason that I live
the reason that I sing
with all I am

I'll walk with you
wherever you go
through tears and joy
I'll trust in you

and I will live
in all of your ways and
your promises forever

Jesus I believe in you
Jesus I belong to you
you're the reason that I live
the reason that I sing
with all I am

I will worship I will worship you forever

Jesus I believe in you
Jesus I belong to you
you're the reason that I live
the reason that I sing
with all I am

Relationship With God

When we pray we strengthen our relationship with God.

When we listen to God, we strengthen our relationship with Him.

We must pray about our loved ones and our relationships.

God brings wonderful people into our lives - some to encourage us, some to help us fulfill God's plan for our lives, some for us to help and others whose company we just enjoy.

Conversely the Devil also introduces us to people that will hurt us, disappoint us, betray us, drain us or use us to further themselves. We must therefore, listen to God's guidance and trust Him, as He will help us recognise those the Devil has sent, those who will be wrong for us.

Pray to God. Listen to God. Work for God. He alone is with you at all times.

Words

In the office today I was asked to review a document that had been written by someone else. I did so and then gave feedback on my findings. Only to discover that the meaning I had taken from some of the statements was completely different from the intended meaning!

It's so easy to say things either verbally or in writing, thinking you have stated your points well and without ambiguity, but then find out the listener/reader has taken a completely different meaning from your words!

Sadly this is how so many relationships/friendship are broken. :(

We as Christians must be particularly careful about what we say, as we must at all times speak and act as God wants to. i.e. we must try not to say or do things that upset others unintentionally or intentionally.

Psalms 19:14

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Do you always speak/act as God desires you to?

I know I am guilty at times of not speaking/acting as I know God wants me to. We must ask God to forgive us when to do or say something to displease Him and ask Him to be at the centre of everything we do and say, this way we can be sure we will always act/speak in a way that reflects God's love for each one of us.

Quality Time

What a beautiful day it's been, the sun has been shining, there's hardly been a cloud in the sky and it's been really really warm. Let's hope it lasts for a while!

So for those of you who have been at work this week, you'll be delighted that it's now officailly the end of the working week - yes I know it may not be where you are, but here in the UK it's after 5pm on Friday, so for the majority of folk it's now considered to be the weekend! Let's hope the wonderful weather today continues over the weekend at the very least!

Well this week, we've been on holiday from work. Unfortunately though we've still not been able to get away anywhere, but even so, it's still been a fantastic week.

These days we all find ourselves rushing about from place to place trying to fit in loads of different tasks into every minute of our day. So this week it's been great to get away from all that as well as all the stress that work and everyday life puts on us. It's been good to be able to just relax and chill out and actually just spend some quality time together for the first time in a while.

How often to you get a chance to spent quality time with your family and friends?

Given the fast pace at which we all have to live our lifes at these days, you may well find your answer is "not very often". If that is the case, take the time now to arrange with family and friends, a time for you to spend quality time together - I promise you your relationships with your family and friends will benefit greatly from it.

It is important to look after all our relationships: that means our relationships with our family and friends, as well as our relationship with God.

Look after them all.

Real Love

To many, friendsand familyare the most important things in their lives. Sadly, not everyone is that fortunate. There are many people in this world who feel they are very alone having been rejected by/rejecting their family and friends.

As Christians we are challenged to love everyone, no matter how they treat us.

1 John 3:11-11 (The Message):
11 For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.

12-13 We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don't be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.

14-15 The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don't go together.

16-17 This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

I'm sure we all know of those (maybe even ourselves) where relationship between family or friends have broken down, do not give up because God can help repair those relationships, no matter how damaged that relationship may be.

Pray for those experiencing difficulties in their relationships with family or friends, and also for those who feel they have no-one and feel alone. Each of them very special people in God's eyes (as are you).

You may be interested in the Salvation Army's Family Tracing Service which can help reunite families that have been separated for many years and/or many miles.


God can answer prayer. He can help everyone no-matter their circumstances, so don't give up praying!

1 John 3:11-11 (The Message):
When We Practice Real Love
18-20 My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.

21-24 And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

Keep practicing real love!