All you need is love???

Autumn is probably my favourite season, but also the time of year when I most struggle with singleness. I absolutely love the colourful crunchy leaves and long for the day when I can go walking hand in hand with the love of my life. It was when I was walking back from town the other day when I noticed the first signs of autumn, the first of the rich coloured leaves were falling from the trees and conkers lay on the ground. I immediately wanted to put my wellies on and in search of somewhere to walk through the leaves. But I also began thinking who could I take with me, it didn’t seem like the sort of thin I could do on my own yet it also seemed like a strange thing to ask someone else, and at the same time it didn’t seem like much fun on my own. My love of crunchy leaves clearly isn’t shared by the majority never mind being understood by them. Anyway, it was then that on my ipod I heard the words ‘Jesus you are all I need’. As I scuffed my feet through the leaves on the floor I began thinking about the words. I realised that the famous Beatles song ‘all you need is love’ is actually a load of rubbish! Love from another human is NOT all you need and life isn’t about finding the perfect man. Jesus is all I need and in this season of singleness I’m going to enjoy having this time just me and him. He will provide all I truly need and it will come to me in his perfect timing rather than when I think I want something. Jesus’ love for us is so much more than we can get from a boyfriend/girlfriend, after all, God is love and so the best love comes from him.
I’m now looking forward to more leaves falling as the season progresses so I can go on my walk, just me, my ipod, my notepad and my bible!

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail (Isaiah 58v11)

Love and Forgiveness

We often assume it’s easy for god to love us. ‘It doesn’t matter what I do because god will forgive me, after all god is love’. Quite rightly god is love and his love endures forever but it’s dangerous to take this for granted and mistreat his gift of love. In Hosea 3v1 Hosea is instructed to go back to his adulterous wife and love her just as god loves those that turn away from him. Now I haven’t been in Hosea’s position but I can appreciate how difficult it is to forgive and truly love someone who has been adulterous. Trust is weakened and fear increased, it’s hardly the stuff of a solid relationship. But in our relationship with god we are on the other side of the fence. We are the ones who turn away from him time after time and do the things we know are wrong. The amazing part is that god doesn’t respond in the way we would do with fear or distrust. He accepts our mistakes and welcomes us into his outstretched arms.

How often do we appreciate what this means? I pray today that wherever you are and whatever is on your heart you will take time to reflect upon loving and forgiving. Thank god that he loves you so much that he sent his son to die in order to be in a relationship with you leading to eternal life. God firstly loves, then he gives us his full forgiveness, so must we.

Sand on the Sea Shore

Hosea 1v10 says that the Israelites will be like sand on the sea shore, which cannot be measured or counted. As I am currently on a beach holiday this verse really jumped out at me. Having spent the week at different areas of the coast and on various beaches I am greatly aware of just how much sand there is and how many grains it takes to make up a beach. The more I though about this the more connections I saw between sand and people. One their own grains of sand can be fairly ineffective and even arraying when they get in unwanted places. But together as part of one body they create a space where millions of people want to spend their time. Sand is also very versatile and looks different in different weather. Perhaps I’m overdoing the analogies now, but each grain of sand has travelled a different course and each has a story to tell. Yet to say we are like grains of sand doesn’t mean we are unimportant and insignificant. Together we can make a castle or be moulded into beautiful glass products. We can do anything we set our minds to if we work together.

Perhaps even more amazing when thinking about the sand analogy is that it gives us perspective on how small we are. Yet in Mathew 10v30 we learn that god has counted every hair on our head and he knows us intimately. It is humbling when we realise how small we are and yet we have a god that cares for us. So much so he sacrificed his only son just for ‘little old me’. Next time you begin to feel insignificant and small I pray that you will remember that however small you feel you are precious to god, so much so that he went to the cross just for you as if you were the last grain of sand in the world. We might feel small but god is big and this is enough for me!

Look and Listen

The other day I heard a talk about Philip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8v26). The talk was about looking and listening which really got me thinking. Those that don’t know Jesus, even if they want to, might not know where to look. So often I can’t be bothered to search for lost things, its much easier to ask someone else if they know where it might be, but its not always easy to ask about Jesus. I also realised how quickly I give up on looking for things if I don’t get the answers straight away. I’m not really sure who reads these blogs but I really feel that I should share something of Jesus just to help anyone who might be looking. I don’t claim to be any good in my explanation but here we go.

As a Christian I believe that we were made to be in relationship with God, that’s how he designed us. But because we are only human we messed up and damaged the relationship. God loved the world and the people in it so needed a plan to reconcile the relationship. To do this he sent his son, Jesus, to earth and although he lived a perfect life he sacrificed himself on the cross. This was because the real consequence of all our wrongdoings should be death, so Jesus died so we don’t have to. All we have to do is accept Jesus in our lives and our debt is paid. We can once again enter into a relationship with god.

Does it seam fair? Well maybe it does maybe it doesn’t but I know I make a lot of mistakes and I wouldn’t want to face the consequences for them. Jesus paid for all my mistakes so I can live in freedom.

Now if your reading this as a Christian you may have been picking out my mistakes or criticising how I presented the story. Alternatively you may have scanned over it thinking that you know it all already. I’m no saying these responses are incorrect but I want to challenge why you responded in that way. I pray that you will consider your attitude to hearing the gospel and maybe think more about what it means in your life today. We should never tire of hearing the amazing news of what our father did for us. We should never deny anyone the opportunity to hear and we should never take what we have for granted.

Thank you Lord for sending Jesus into the world
Thank you Lord that the price has been paid
I’m sorry Lord for all the wrong that I have done and will continue to do
Thank you for your gift of forgivenessThank you Lord Jesus, Thank you