Picture by Shanissinha

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God;
and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

By this the love of god was manifested in us, that God has sent
His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

Beloved, if God loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another,
God abides in us, and His love is perfected.

1 John 4:7-12

We’ve heard the song before…“What the world needs now is love sweet love…it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” How true that is!  The Bible is full of scriptures about love.  It’s what the Bible revolves around.   If you don’t have love, what do you have?

1 John 4:7-12 is  not talking about the emotional love that everyone has for their family.  Anyone can love someone who loves them.  Those verses are talking about the kind of love you have for everyone, for people who you may not even like.

The kind of love 1 John 4:7-12 is talking about is action love.  Put your love talk in action.  Help someone pay their rent when they don’t have the money to pay it.  Help someone who needs a bed when you have four in your house that you are not using.  Help someone who needs groceries by buying their groceries for them.  There are so many ways that you can actually put your love talk in action.

Take action!  Show your love for people and perfect God’s love in you!

Till next time,

JT Locke
His Grace and Blessings

• Money can buy a house but not a home.
• Money can buy a bed but not sleep.
• Money can buy a clock but not time.
• Money can buy position but not respect.
• Money can buy a book but not knowledge.
• Money can buy blood but not life.
• Money can buy medicine but not health.
• Money can buy sex but not love.
• Money can buy insurance but not safety.

‘Wherefore do ye … labour for that which satisfieth not?’ – Isaiah 55:2

—Author Unknown

Picture by AlaskaTeacher

Do you hold on to your past mistakes?  Do you give it to God but for some reason keep taking it back?  Everyone makes mistakes.   Carrying the guilt of those mistakes is not healthy or productive.  It hinders everything.

Paul teaches about the need to let go of past mistakes.  In Philippians 3:12-14, we read:

¹²Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

¹³Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Ask God for forgiveness of your past mistakes.  Let them go.  It’s the only way to gain strength and press forward.

⁸ Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.

⁹ For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.

Psalm 37:7-9

Last week was no different.  I don’t hold “grudges” but I carry around the remembrances of how a person treated me at one time or the things that they said to me.  I’ll admit it…there are a couple of people that while I don’t “hate” them, I don’t particularly care too much for them.  In one of Joyce’s messages she hit the nail on the head.  To paraphrase…the people that I am carrying “baggage” around about probably don’t even remember what happened between the two of us.  They don’t lose any sleep over it.  They don’t even care that I have a problem with them.  The only one that the “baggage” is hurting is me.  Let it go!

So that is what I’m going to do!  Let it go!!!  It is a stumbling block that is potentially blocking a blessing.

The Triumphal Entry

1     When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciple

2     saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them  and    bring them to Me.

3     “If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

4    This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5   “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’”

6    The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them,

7     and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats.

8     Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road.

9     The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Hosanna in the highest!”

10   When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?”

11    And the crowds were saying, “This is (I)the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Psalm 84:11 (NASV)

Picture by Loci Lenar

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart exults,
And with my song I shall thank Him.

Psalm 28:7  (NASV)

Picture by taivasalla

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man;

and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted

beyond what you are able,

but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also,

so that you will be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NASV)