“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are” 1 John 3:1 NIV.
God didn’t make us because He was bored, lonely, or had run out of things to do. He created us to be the objects of His love! Sometimes our actions make us unlovely, but we are never unloved. And because God loves us – we have value. And nobody can take that value away. (www.thewordfortoday.com.au)
I am very grateful for God’s love! I am loved by him. In our world today it does seem as though love is losing out. Pure unadulterated unearned love is hard to find. How many of us have grown up with the kind of statement that says, “Mummy (or Daddy) won’t love you if you’re naughty”? For most of us we’ve found that love is conditional on our being “good”, producing within us an often unidentified anxiety that somehow we’ve been “bad” and so aren’t lovable. :”Love” and “being good” are not contingent on one another. We need to experience more of the kind of love God has for us… pure, unconditional, unchanging, dependable, and whatever other words you can add to describe how it is for you.
“Share each other’s burdens, and … obey the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 NLT
Let’s remind ourselves today that others are going through things we don’t know about. Indeed, we may be the only one who crosses their path today who can help lift their burden – and when we do that, God will lift ours!
“He won’t go to sleep…The Lord is…at your right side…[He] will…keep you safe…wherever you go.”
Psalm 121:3-8 CEV
The last time you checked, wasn’t God still bigger than any terrorist attack, financial disaster, illness, accusation, or mess you found yourself in? Well, He hasn’t changed! plus His angels are watching over you 24/7. www.thewordfortoday.com.au
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Some are still wrestling with this promise, one day wondering what kind of fool offer this is, the next wondering what kind of fool would turn it down. Who else can get us home? Who else has turned His grave into a changing closet and offered to do the same with ours? Let’s take Jesus’ offer … we don’t want to miss this chance to see our Father … we need to give God our answer: say yes to Him. Our prayer needs no eloquence, just honesty.
Excerpted from 3:16 the Numbers of Hope by Max Lucado.
There’s a lot of rubbish timber on my property and it needs to be dealt with! It’s a bit like the rubbish in our lives… it just accumulates as trees die, limbs fall, and weeds grow… everything becomes has become such a mess. Until the junk around the grove of trees is cleared away, it can never be a nice place to sit and reflect on the ways of God in our lives. That’s the same sort of things with our lives… how much rotten wood is laying around choking out the beauty of who we are and and keeping us from enjoying ourselves and God.
Have a great day!
Our hope is in Jesus Christ.
“The Lord directs the steps of the Godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” Psalm 37:23-24 NLT
God has a way of bringing us through rough situations and reminding us of where we came from. Then when we experience success, we realise like Joseph that it was God who opened the door and God who gave us favour and success. Now it’s our turn to bless others!
The QE2 paid its last visit to Sydney this past weekend. It’s a very beautiful ship. My pastor and his wife were on board having completed a cruise from New York. They had a wonderful time and met up with some lovely people. They were most encouraged to meet up with other Christians on board. The chaplain and his wife were even able to come to our church yesterday.
I was camped at my property in Majors Creek last week and had a fun time watching the gang-gang cockatoos eating the hawthorn berries. The trees were full of them, all cracking open the berries and eating the centre. They did this all day! I was ignored as I walked around taking photos of them. I’ve been told that as the berries ferment the gang-gangs get tipsy. I suspect they were beginning to experience that as I watched them. The morning I left they were screeching and it reminded me of someone with a hangover….
The one in the photo here is female. The male has a red head with a red tuft. They are really quite delightful!
