A Selection Of Bible Verses For A Healthy Relationship Being in a romantic relationship isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, romantic dates and goodnight texts. Relationships can feel difficult sometimes, and not everything always goes to plan, especially when navigating your first – or one of your first – romantic endeavors. However, a healthy relationship should […]
Finding Solid Ground When the Storms of Grief Rush In Bereavement and grief are inescapable parts of the human experience. They pay no attention to timeliness or seasons, often rushing into our lives from several directions all at once. When these waves hit, the immediate danger is feeling completely overwhelmed. How do we anchor ourselves […]
It is all too easy to get tied up in knots as you puzzle over this. We will often have questions like, ‘How can I justify being loved by God?’ and ‘There must be some way to earn this’. It can be a tough one to accept, but grace is given freely to the person […]
Some people still tie a knot in a handkerchief and most of us still write a list of some kind to help our memories. It might be an old photograph, the whiff of a familiar smell, the lines of a poem or the sound of an old tune and our memories can be triggered. They might just conjure up a face from the past, an event that happened, a past friendship or they could unlock a dam so that you are flooded with powerful emotions. Why do we remember and what value is there in remembering? How could a glass of wine and a bread roll have such profound significance for remembering? The simple Forget-me-not flowers provide the clue!
Have you had a vision of God? Do you want one? The old saying is, ‘you don’t get because you don’t ask!’. Actually it was Jesus himself who said this: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you’ (Matthew 7:7). Have there been special moments when you’ve sensed God right next to you, in what you’ve seen, thought or heard? Everyone who is called has heard a call, distant or close. Some hear it in the early part of life as a child, some hear it in the crises of mid-life and others hear it in the very last parts of life. It doesn’t matter when so long as you recognise and respond to the one calling. So here are some visions others who’ve gone before have had and some thoughts to mull over!
‘And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days’ – Joel 2:28.29
Love is a ‘many splendored thing’! So it was described in the book, film and song of 1955 but what did they mean? People have been trying to work out what love means from the very beginning! Boy meets girl and ‘lust’ pretends to be ‘love’. Whereas lust surfs on the crest of the wave until it crashes spent on to the beach, love moves steadily in the depths with the strength of a whale. The world promotes shallow definitions and poor imitations of love:
A true friend is always there for you and doesn’t abandon you in tough times – they are a stronghold in times of trouble. This is why they are rare precious gifts to nurture. We have many colleagues, acquaintances and people we like, but a real friend is in a different league. What is a real friend? How do we find them? How do we keep them? Do we have what it takes to be one? Do you have one?
