Adam White

Don’t you find that Christians make being a Christian more complicated than it is meant to be?

You don’t become a Christian by coming to church every Sunday without fail.

You don’t become a Christian by praying a “special prayer”.

The gospel can be summed up in one sentence. And it is in the most famous sentence in the entire bible…

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. – John 3:16

But what does this verse mean to us? It can be broken down into four easy to remember words:

“For God so LOVED the world” – Firstly God loved us. Before we did anything and even though we don’t deserve it He loved us unconditionally. No matter how far we wander from him and no matter how much we ignore him he loves us more than can be understood.

“That he GAVE his one and only Son” – In fact, he loved us so much that he gave us the thing that was most precious to him: His son. To restore the gulf that was between us and God he gave up his only son, he sent him into human history to live, suffer and die for nothing that he did wrong but for everything we ever did wrong.

“That whoever BELIEVES in him” – And all we have to do is believe. No special prayer. No clever ritual. Just believe. Put aside the issues we have created against God. Lay down our pride and our self-importance. Just believe that Jesus was who he said he was and that he died for us.

“Shall not perish but HAVE eternal life” – Then for that tiny step of faith we get to live forever in a place of absolute joy where all the negatives of this world are but a distant memory: Heaven.

Simple!

Then why do so many of us resist? Why do so many of us choose to ignore this simple invitation?

Each of us have our reasons (I did). I just hope and pray that your reasons are worth the risk you are taking. What if you ignore God’s invitation your entire life and then you miss the opportunity?

Have a chat to God tonight. Find a bible in your loft and dust it off. Look into this amazing invitation before it is too late.

It’s a decision I made even though it went against my better judgement but I don’t regret that decision for a second.

This was based on a message from Nothpoint Ministries‘ Go Fish! sermon series.

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“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” – 1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)

What does it mean that love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things?

This is most likely referring to our relationships with each other and how we should be. It means we should not give up on those we love; we should trust them; we should hope for the best and perservere through all things for the one we love.

Let’s perform a little role-play to better illustrate this point: Let’s imagine a situation where someone you love appears to have let you down. For example, you have asked them to come and pick you up from work in the evening. 30 minutes after they were due they still haven’t arrived.

What do you think? There is a gap here which your brain must fill.

You have two options: You can either think the best (there is heavy traffic and they can’t get to you or something really important has come up which they have no choice but to deal with) or you can think the worst (they have forgotten you or are putting less important things ahead of coming to get you).

Which one of these two extremes you choose to believe will heavily affect your relationship. One of them fills you with negativity and disrespect. The other fills you with peace and love.

Which of these two will you choose to fill the next gap you face? Will you choose to think the worst or will you choose to bear with them even though they are late, believe that there is a very good reason they are not there, hope that they will come and get you when they can and endure while you wait?

I know what I am going to try and do!

This was based on a the last talk from Nothpoint Ministries‘ Staying In Love sermon series.

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There are different levels of love. You can have romantic love, love for friends and family love. But what does a love of God feel like?

I struggle with loving God. To me love is a warm fuzzy feeling you get deep inside. I might get this occasionally for God when things are going particularly well but it is intermittent and based on feelings.

I was listening to a talk by Andy Stanley today and he said something that really struck me: “Love is a verb, not a noun”. Basically, when we talk about love we talk about being in it or that we’ve found it. We talk about it as it is a something we get for someone.

What if we were to think about love as a verb; something we do?

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” – 1 John 4:7

What if, in order to understand what love really is, we need to do it first? Rather than waiting for the fuzzy feeling of love for someone before selflessly helping them why don’t we love them by selflessly helping.

I believe that this is what loving God is really all about.

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