“No one has ever seen God if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”
(1 John 4: 12)
Our family learnt a wonderful lesson in expressing love and understanding in a family celebration on Mother’s Day and we all witnessed this through the actions of a small boy, our five-year, old grandson. While my daughter, his mother, was busy preparing to celebrate Mother’s Day, and getting cards and gifts and a cake ready, suddenly my little grandson said. “But what about Aunty, what are we giving her?” This daughter was unable to have children of her own and as soon as he said these words, my younger daughter realised that these words from a little boy had a great depth of meaning so, out they went for him to buy something special for someone who needed an expression of love and understanding.
When we all gathered for lunch, my little grandson hugged me gave me his card, then hugging his Aunt with a beautiful smile gave her a huge chocolate flower, decorated with sugary flowers and wrapped in plastic with bright bow. She cried, we all cried, a little boy had grasped who needed love.
The letters of John have a beautiful theme running through them all about how important love is to all.
“…God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4: 16)
Once we belong to Jesus Christ, the Lord can use us as his messengers to distribute his love to others. The writer of Hebrew concludes his letter with a powerful prayer for his readers in which he asks the Lord to bless them and equip them with everything good they need to do God’s will.
“…our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13: 20 – 21)
Often it is hard if we haven’t experienced what another has been through to understand their pain. Sometimes it is hard to relate, especially to those suffering any mental illness. If we have a large group of friends, it is hard to understand extreme shyness that can turn into isolation for some.
The book of Proverbs has many verses encouraging God’s children to seek understanding and to seek it through the One who has the supreme understanding of all mankind. Psalm 119 is a wonderful prayer, acknowledging the writer’s constant need to understand God’s precepts and he asks God to help him understand so he can do God’s will. We too can do the same, so we can express his love and understanding to others.
“Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.” (Psalm 119: 34 – 35)
Mother’s Day is celebrated in many different countries and usually the second Sunday in May is set aside to honour mothers. For some women this can be a difficult day and especially single mothers with young children, who have nobody in their family able to fuss after them. I was delighted to hear from one of my daughters, that the church she attends, sets aside the Saturday before Mother’s Day, as one totally devoted to helping single mothers in a practical way, but also to make them feel loved and pampered. For example, men in the congregation offer to:
which he attributed to people who spoke about caring for people, but only spoke about it without doing anything about it. James addresses this in his letter to the churches, urging them and of course us, not to offer meaningless words to those in need, but to do something about it!
The secret to be able to achieve practical Christian action is to remain firmly attached to the vine. Jesus assured his disciples and all those who would follow him need to stay firmly rooted in him, then we will be able to be fruitful and bear much fruit for him no matter how old we are.
Both my husband and I grew up in homes that had open fireplaces. My grandmother still had a stove that was heated through a wood fire and I can remember her sitting in front of the opening patiently toasting bread for us with a very long pronged fork, carefully turning the piece of bread from one side to the other until it was just the right shade of brown. Delicious to eat!! Building the fire was a very important part of having a successful source of heat and then keeping that small spark going, fanning it, was essential.
Some of us mistakenly believe God must have overlooked us when he was giving out the gifts, but that is not true, just as each person is unique, so are our gifts and discovering those gifts becomes easier and easier the longer we walk closely with the Holy Spirit. Some of what would be described as small gifts can bring about amazing results when they are used to display God’s love to others.
Probably the best way to discover our gifts is to ask the Lord to show us how he would like to use us. When we realise the gifts come from him and we don’t take the credit, our gifts truly will burst into flame and we will remember where the gifts come from;
Recently I was with my family in the Food Court of a busy Mall when I had quite a nasty fall and as I did, a chair that was behind me crashed on to my head. I was stunned for a second and when I opened my eyes a man was kneeling beside me and in a very gentle voice was asking me questions, slowly and clearly, assuring me he was an off-duty fireman, trained as a first responder. His calm voice and confident manner calmed my anxious daughters and his wife handed my daughter a pack of Kleenex to stem the blood flowing from a cut on my head. This man’s confident handling of the whole situation was exactly what our whole family needed. That man was in the right place at the right time to use his skills to help another.
our benefit to help us make big decisions in life. My fall that day gave me a whole different perspective as to what the verse meant. Those who love the Lord need to ask the Lord to direct where they should be, so we can be his hands at a moment’s notice, to be used by the Holy Spirit to comfort, encourage perhaps even rescue someone in need.
Ecclesiastes has a beautiful passage reminding us of the importance of being available for each other and when the director of operations is the Lord we will be truly blessed for being in the right place at the right time.
This horrific headline blazed forth from our morning newspaper, informing us of a terrible tragedy that had taken place between a bus load of young hockey players and a truck. The truck had slammed into the bus carrying the players to a hockey game on a country road in Saskatchewan in Canada. The radio confirmed the story with the frightful details that 15 were dead and the others taken to hospital, some with life threatening injuries. The enormity of grasping the grief, sorrow, pain of loved ones hearing this news, was overwhelming.
One of the powerful messages also heard in that gathering of the town drowning in grief, was to everybody listening. Nobody can struggle through this pain by themselves. Everybody involved needs to be surrounded by loving caring friends who can offer practical help, support, a shoulder to cry on. When we read what Paul was saying to the Corinthians, we can see that those who have received comfort from God are the best helpers to pass on that comfort to others, sharing his love and compassion with those who are hurting. Then they will be able to hear the Lord say;
Some friends and I were discussing how some of our husbands seem to be oblivious to the cost of buying everyday necessities and my husband probably topped the list. Since retiring he frequently accompanies me while doing the weekly grocery shopping and when we reach the check out, I am surprised to see in my buggy, several items not on my list, and when I question him as to how expensive they were, he looks at me in bewilderment, as of course actually checking the labels to see the price had not even occurred to him. At the same time, he is the most generous man I have ever come across, so I pay for his crazy shopping and hold my tongue. (Sometimes!)
Now not all those who were watching were impressed with her generosity and Judas Iscariot immediately began complaining about the waste of money, but as John tells us he had been helping himself from the common money bag.
Jesus tells this story he asks his listeners as to which traveller was a neighbour to the one beset upon by the robbers and of course they must reply.
A few weeks ago, I had a refreshing of my spirit from a message from a faithful servant of the Lord. Lots of much more talented writers than me have written about the discouragement, often referred to as, “writer’s block” that writers experience. Mine was even worse than just not being able to write on a subject, I began to doubt if I should be writing at all! I felt I was failing the Lord somehow by not glorifying him through my weekly blog. I thought I should stop.
All of us mothers have heard many of them
covenants with some specific humans and then with all the children of Israel, but unfortunately, they blithely promised to keep their side, but failed miserably to follow through.
As we approach, Easter, we can echo the words of John Newton’s beautiful hymn as we realise what amazing grace set us free
Our church is currently exploring the deeper meaning of the Communion service and what it means in our spiritual walk and how what Jesus is teaching us, can spill into our daily lives.
And of course, with his disciples with whom he eats the last supper and gives us a beautiful example of how we can remember him.
very applicable for me to hear during a difficult week I was struggling through, in which I needed a friend to spend time with me, and when a friend appeared with listening ears, it made me think again how much we need each other and how important it is to be aware when someone we know is hurting or frightened, can be comforted just by us being with them
Proverbs has several verses about the importance of true friends and emphasises the joy of close friendship. When we follow Jesus and give our lives over to him, we become part of the family of God and our friendship for others becomes a deep and close relationship;
Not only does Jesus call us his friends he reminds us to stay close to him and remain in his love so that his joy will fill us and make us complete so when any frightened or troubled person needs comfort we can become that somebody with skin on, filled with his joy and love