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 ¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

 ¹⁴ To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. ¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. ¹⁸ He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. ²⁰ Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. Deuteronomy 10:12-20

 I’d like to start with understanding the word "fear" in this context. If we came face to face with God I reckon we would be on our knees, probably trembling too, but I think mainly in response to God’s glory and awesomeness. Fear often has a bad connotation, we think of being scared of being hurt or beaten or abused, but God will not do any of these things to us. If you can’t quite get your head around "good" fear, think about the word "respect;" respecting God because of who He is, how awesome and great and mighty and loving. There’s nothing to despise about God as he is always good and faithful, yet he’s still God and we are not! We need to remember he’s not there to serve us and answer our prayers and make life easier for us, like some sort of servant. We are there to serve him out of reverence and respect. Because it’s "clicked" that God is God and He is bigger and more powerful than we could ever imagine, and being God, He is free to will and to do whatever he chooses.

 Great, Mighty, Awesome… we cannot claim to be any of these things, yet sometimes we make ourselves and our desires to be more important than serving & loving God (who is all these things!). Fearing God is knowing that it’s His will not ours that should be done in our lives.

This is an Old Testament passage, talking to the nation of Israel (the Jews) who were God’s chosen people. Since Jesus, we too are God’s chosen people as Jesus has reconciled us to God even though we are Gentiles (non-Jews). We come together to form God’s people from every tribe, tongue and nation! So when we read this we need to remember that this was written before Jesus, but also that as God’s people what God desires from us is the same as what God asked from them: Fear the Lord, Walk in his ways, Love Him, Serve Him with all our hearts & souls. Observe his commands.

Why does God desire us to do these things? Verse 13… "For our own good".

 God reminds us of  Who He is – the heavens belong to him, "even the highest heavens". "The earth belongs to him and everything in it". Yet he tells us that even though he is God (please don’t forget it), and he can do whatever he wants with His heavens & His earth and everything on it (which is also all his by the way, created by Him for Himself) (Colossians 1:16), his choice is to love his people and be faithful to them no matter what. Not to Lord it over everyone and everything he made like some power-crazy king, no, God in all His goodness choses not to over-power us and force us into action, instead he choses to love us into obedience. His desire is that in loving us and pouring out his grace and mercy, we would love him in return and choose to turn to him and away from our sin and selfishness.

 What is our response to God’s love? It should be to get our hearts right. Verse 16.. "circumcise your hearts"

 God reminds us that he is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, he’s fair ("shows not partiality") and he’s just ("accepts no bribes") He cares about orphans ("fatherless"), "widows" and foreigners ("aliens"), basically all those who are vulnerable / without family / needing to be taken care of.

Because these people are in God’s heart, we too should love them and look after them out of the overflow of the love God has already given us. He reminds Israel that they were aliens, wandering in the desert with no home. We too were aliens, we were not a people, but now we are the people of God! (1 Peter 2:10) We were strangers to God, and yet through Jesus, God has chosen us and accepted us and adopted us into his family (Ephesians 1:5)!

How great is our God!

Why would we not respect God and want to love him, follow him and live each day for his glory and his praise, when he has been so good to us?

I thought I would try something a bit different this week! I want you to go and look this verse up and fill in the gaps! (you may need to print it off) It’s in the NIV version, so it would help if you use the same one, but do look up in other versions too if you want to gain a better understanding.  If you don’t have a bible to hand, you can look it up here www.biblegateway.com

Each time you fill in a word, just spend a moment and think about that word and the significance of it. If there’s a word you come across that you don’t fully understand, write it down and move on, then once you have finished, go and look up the definition of those words, or ask someone you know!

Use this exercise as an opportunity to dwell in Gods word, to spend time looking at the passage and really getting to grips with it and what reveals about God and what blessings you have because of Jesus !

Before you start, ask God to speak to you through it, to reveal things to you that may have never “clicked” before and to help you by the Holy Spirit, to understand and get to grips with what you are reading.

Ephesians 1:3-14 (NIV) : Spiritual Blessings in Christ

 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has _______ us in the heavenly realms with _____ _________ ________ in ______. 4For he ____ __ in him ______ the creation of the world to be ____ and _________ in his sight. In ____ 5he predestined us to be adopted as ___ ____ through _____ ______, in accordance with his _______ and will— 6to the praise of his glorious _____, which he has ______ _____ us in the One he loves. 7In him we have _________ through his blood, the __________ of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that he ________ on us with ___ ______ and _____________. 9And he made known to __ the _______ of ___ ____ according to his good _______, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment—to bring ___ ______ in _______ and on _____ together under one head, even ( who is) ______.

 11In ___ (who?) we (the Jews) were also ______,having been predestined according to the ____ of him (God!) who _____ out ________ in conformity with the purpose of ___ ___, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might __ (exist) for the ______ of his _____. 13And you (non-Jews – i.e. us!) also were ________ in ______ when you heard the ____ of _____, the gospel of your ________. Having ________, you were marked in ___ (Christ) with a ____, the promised ____ ______, 14who is a deposit ____________ our __________ until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

Here is a summary of my reflection for today, if you don’t have time to read anything else just read these 3 lines:

God’s love is perfect.

Perfect love drives out fear.

Therefore we can live our lives, in Christ, without fear.

That’s it, you can stop reading now if you like J

Ah, you’re still with me J OK let me expand a little then..

We should have no fear of death, no fear of life, no fear of the future, no fear of sickness, no fear of other people or their opinions, no fear of the evil one …or even of God’s wrath, if we believe we are saved in Christ Jesus as a result of God’s love. On the cross Jesus paid the price for our rebellion against him, because of his love for us, so we no longer need to be afraid if we are in Christ Jesus:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

John 3:16-17

Jesus was sent by God as our salvation, he wasn’t out to condemn (or punish) us, but to love us, so that we may walk in freedom and forgiveness… and without fear !

Romans 8:38-39 says “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, if nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s perfect love, why then should we fear anything in all creation? God’s love drives out all our fears as we choose to trust in Him and learn to know him as our mighty God and our faithful and loving father.

I know often people have bad examples of father figures growing up, so saying that God is our father doesn’t necessarily bring to mind the feeling of safety, acceptance, security and unconditional love that every little child should feel when in the strong arms of their Dad. Yet we must realise that God’s love is perfect, a true heavenly father’s love. God won’t ever let us down. We can always feel safe, accepted, secure and truly loved by Him. When we are secure in His love, whatever situation/circumstance comes our way, we should have no fear because we know God is with us.

Isaiah 41:10 puts it so well:

“So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

And however “grown up” we get, his arms are always big enough to carry us through the hard times, and he’s always there to walk beside us through the good times.

Praise God for his Perfect Love in Christ Jesus !

“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.”- Deuteronomy 7:9

“God is God” – He rules & reigns over everything!!

God is “the faithful God” – we can trust him to never let us down

God “[keeps] his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his command” – he’s not ever going to turn his back on us or break any of his promises. He loves us and offers us salvation when we turn to him for forgiveness and choose to follow his ways.

Praise God that he is a Faithful, loving God who doesn’t change according to feelings and circumstances like we do. Praise God that he has promised us good things and that he will never let us down! Praise God that he has authority and power over all things and nothing is impossible for him!!

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.“ Mark 10:27

So if you are facing something which feels like an impossible circumstance or situation, !remember! – God IS God, God IS faithful, God loves you and will help you. With God all things are possible – even those that seem impossible for us.

Hold onto this truth and don’t give up asking God to help you, guide you and give you strength!

A few weeks ago I spoke a bit about being God’s children , now I want to expand on this further and talk about being sons of God. Whether you are male, or female, if you are "in Christ" you are God’s son, which also makes you an heir. Not sure if you are "in Christ" ?? Check out Knowing God .

Our inheritance starts with our salvation, eternal life with God, through the death (and ressurection) of Jesus, who took our sin and replaced it with His righteousness. We have been promised an amazing inheritance, and at such a cost to Jesus.  Isn’t it amazing that God would choose to adopt us as His sons even though he is God and he is perfect, and we are created and not at all perfect!

I couldn’t choose which verse I wanted to use this week! There were so many good, encouraging verses to choose from! In the end I decided that rather than doing all the talking, I would let the scriptures say most of it. If you are alone, why not try reading these out load to build you up!

Galatians 3:26-29
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 4:6-7
Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Titus 3:4-7
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Romans 8:16-19
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

Ephesians 1:4-6
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

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Each one of us were chosen in love to be God’s sons,  so that he could lavish his grace on us. We are sons of the King! We are royalty ! As it says in 1 Peter 2:9: ..you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood , a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

So we must hold onto the fact that even though we are of course called to be humble servants on earth, just as Jesus was, we are also royalty because our Father God in Heaven has adopted us his Sons because of our active faith in Christ Jesus (who is the "King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!"). As you go through the ups and downs of life, make sure you remember that you are a child of the King!!

Revelation 17:14-15
They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.

Matthew 25:34-35
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Praise God for his promises, for his love and for our salvation through Jesus! Praise God that we have his royalty and an inheritance through our active faith in Jesus. Praise God that he promises to “adopt” anyone into his family who chooses to accept his own son, Jesus, as their Lord & saviour.

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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

I thought I would write a short post on how to know God for yourself – this is for anyone who doesn’t yet have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

1st – Do you know that you have made mistakes in your life and have lived your life without God? –> God calls this “sin” and this is what seperates us from Him. The bible says it like this: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” –Romans 3:23 (NIV). God is perfect and has never sinned, and we learn in the bible that ultimately the punishment for sin is death – which is being cut off from God for eternity. “For the wages of sin is death.” –Romans 6:23 (NIV)

2nd - There is good news! John 3:16 says “for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” Jesus (God’s son) chose to die on a cross to take the punishment for all our sins. Then he rose again to conquer death once and for all, and to show that he really was the son of God.

3rd - YOU need to make a choice. To decide if you believe Jesus really is the son of God and really did die for your sins. If you’re not sure – perhaps go on an Alpha course or read the gospel of Mark or John in the bible (try a NIV or NLT version) to find out what God’s word says about Jesus. Then, if you want this gift of eternal life, you need to chose to ask for forgiveness from God for the sins you have committed, and chose to turn from them and try to walk God’s way (with God’s help of course). Welcome Jesus as Lord in your life and he’ll help you to do all this.

Here’s a prayer you can pray:

Father God, I am sorry for the things I have done wrong and for chosing to live my life apart from you. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins and thank you that he rose again. I now choose to turn away from my sins and to live my life for you. I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit to help me and guide me as I learn to live my life your way. Amen.

4th - Tell someone! It’s really important that you find another Christian to tell that you’ve made a choice to welcome Jesus into your heart. They can support you and help you find a friendly, welcoming church who pray, worship & teach the Word of God.  We can’t be Christians on our own – it’s not God’s plan

What next?

If you live near Swindon, come along to Gateway church & make sure you visit the welcome area at the end of the service! If not, do try to find a Jesus loving, bible teaching, spirit filled church who will help you in the next steps of your journey.

Pray. You’ve started with a prayer to ask God into your life, it’s not a one off prayer! God wants to have an ongoing relationship with you, so try to speak to him each day about anything and everything. Ask Him for help, thank him for all the good things in your life and generally start to build a realationship with your Father in heaven. If it’s hard – ask God to help you to pray!

Get hold of a modern translation of the bible too and start reading! Start with the New Testament – An NIV version is good, or try NLT which is a nice easy version to read. The Message is also very easy to read (although it’s not a proper word-for-word translation.) Check out my bible studies, to learn more about God, Jesus and all sorts of living God’s way type of topics!

Check out our friend Adam’s blog on Baptism too!

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

Last week I talked about how we, as Christians, are friends of Christ, this week I want to look at being children of our heavenly Father!

It says in John 1:12-13 “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

That’s an open invitation to anyone who chooses to receive God and believe in Jesus’ name. Each person is then given the right to be God’s child, spiritually born into God’s family with brothers and sisters in Christ. In order that we might love one another (1 John 4:7/John 13:34), encourage one another (1 Thess 5:11 / Heb 3:13) and spur one another on (Heb 10:24).

I just think it’s so amazing, when you stop and think about it, that God the creator chose to make us, the created, his children. To love us and to look after us just as a father would (only better as we know that Father’s can let us down, but God never will!)

Our Heavenly Father provides for our needs, Jesus tells us to ask for what we need and our Father will answer our requests (Matt 7:7). In Matthew 7:11 Jesus says “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Knowing that we are all sinners and God is perfect – of course he’s going to give us better gift than our earthly fathers can provide.

Our Heavenly Father helps us when we are in trouble (Ps 118:7 / Heb 13:6) and protects us from harm (2 Sam 22:31) He has also promised us an inheritance (Matt 25:34 / 1 Peter 1:4) and a place for us when we return home to him (John 14:2)

Our Heavenly Father, like all fathers, also disciplines us (Deut 8:5 / Prov 3:12). He does this because he loves us, and because he knows this is best for us in the long-run. No-one enjoys being disciplined, but what sort of father would never correct his children when they do wrong?

Our heavenly father tells us not to worry and not to be afraid, because he’s looking out for us and because he’s got good plans for us & for our future! (Matt 6:25-26/ Luke 12:32 / Jer 29:11).

Our heavenly father loves us! It says in the verse above “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us” –> Lavished! What an wonderful word, it show’s Gods generousity, his love poured out without measure or limitations! It’s nothing to do with us earning it or being good enough for it – He gives his love lavishly because of who He is and what a wonderful father he chooses to be to those who turn to him.

Praise God that he calls us his children, and that he loves us & takes care of us even better than a father!!

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. 1 John 3:14

(more…)

Do everything in love
(1 Corinthians 16:14)

This very short verse which, if put into practice, could have an amazing impact on our lives, our relationships, our work and our relationship with God. “Do everything in love.” It’s so simple.

We can have so many views on what love is and what the world tells us love is, so lets see how the bible defines love.

In 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 it says “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Love is a tough thing to do!!

The bible says that “God is love” (1John4:8), he ticks every single one of the boxes every single time. So much so that Jesus chose to come and live life as a man on earth, giving up all his appearance of glory and roughing it with us humans. His life on earth was perfect and everything he did was in love. He even died in love, knowing that this was what would save us from our sins.

What a great role model we have in Jesus – he showed us what it looks like to “do everything in love.” It’s not about being a push-over, Jesus certainly wasn’t, it’s not about agreeing with everyone and not standing up for what is right. It’s about doing what’s best for others and responding to everyone in love, no matter what they’ve done to you/someone else. Love is a choice, it’s a commitment, it’s letting other’s needs and feelings come before your own. Yet it’s also correcting (2Tim4:2) rather than letting people go down the wrong path, it’s warning (1 Thes5:14) when you know that someone’s actions could cause them/others harm. Yet it’s doing all these things with the right motivation – not to boast or be proud or to put yourself first. Not because people annoy you or you think you are better than them, but because you love them and want the best for them.

As it says in the verse above, love is patient and kind. Love isn’t easily angered. We can be so impatient with people who don’t see things our way, we can be quick to get angry when someone does something which upsets us and we can be unkind to those people who really need a little kindness. We should seek to protect, not expose, to trust even if we feel we could get hurt, we should cling to hope even in difficult situations and persevere when it would be easier just to give up on someone.

I pray that each one of us will be able to remember this short verse and to use it in our everyday lives to test our actions and our words. To stop just for a few seconds and consider…

“Am I saying this in love or for my own gain?”
“Am I doing this in love or do I have ulterior motives?”
“Am I reacting out of hurt, or am I responding in love?”
“How should I handle this situation differently, if I really want to do everything in love?”

1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts always set aside Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to communicate Jesus with the people around me and how to use my whole life as a witness. We’ve been focusing on this in our Bible study group and have had some very real challenges about this at church.

Ultimately, we want people that we come into contact with to experience the love of Christ through us. This should happen in the way we talk to them, serve them and interact with them.

To interact with “gentleness and respect” we need to remember simple things like remembering people’s names and details about them (this applies as we’re getting to know neighbours, colleagues, shop workers, etc) and listening to them rather than having talking at them (This is a big challenge!) Good conversations will be where we explore each area thoroughly and LET THEM DICTATE where the conversation goes (This really shows them that we care for them!!). Looking for some common ground is helpful to establish a genuine connection with them.

Getting to know people, loving them and caring for them should be our first goal. Sharing the gospel with them shouldn’t be our first goal but as we develop meaningful relationships with the people we hang out with this relationship becomes the platform for opportunities to share Jesus. This will be words at times, but may mostly be through our actions. St Francis of Assisis says “Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words”.

When we’re interacting with others, we should always ask God to show us the needs of the person. When we see the needs, ask God how we can show our care for them in their hurt, trouble, etc. Some amazing opportunities to share Jesus often present themselves when there’s a genuine need!

I’ve been challenged lately to use my areas of influence (the places I hang out regularly) to get to know people, build relationships and live out my faith! Otherwise, we risk the danger of just going about our comfy little Christian lives and not being effectively used by God.

Challenge for this week: Get to know someone new in a place you hang out regularly (neighbour, colleague, sports team, pub, etc). Remember their name and some things about them. Start praying for them and for opportunities to chat to them again.