God's love endures forever!

Last Sunday we were blessed to have The Chapaliers join us at Amberlea for a fun, unique outdoor worship service.  It was wonderful and the weather was perfect.

The message, predominantly through song, pointed us to God’s enduring love.

As the children (and adults) were blowing bubbles through the service a beautiful perfect bubble floated my way. As I raised my hand to catch it, it popped. The perfect iridescent sphere gone in an instant.

But we are reminded…

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.  (Psalm 110:5)

I love the Psalms…because the Psalms like no other book in the bible allow us to turn our emotions into prayers.  The Psalms give words to feelings we sometimes don’t know how to express. But the Psalms also speak to our heart. It is so important to remind our heart who God is and what God has done. And that is what this verse does… it reminds us that the Lord is good.

So often in our world, people can’t agree on what is good and what is bad. It’s so important to remember that we don’t impose our view of goodness on God but we receive goodness from God because the Lord is Good.

That means that even when things are confusing, even when things are upsetting, even when we can’t understand why things are happening the way they are, we can trust God because God is good and goodness is part of God’s character.

But also, and this is what I was reminded of during our Sunday morning outside, that God’s love endures forever.  God’s love looks different than it does in the world. It is not a passing emotion,

• it doesn’t give up on people

• it’s not here one day and gone the next

• it doesn’t ebb and flow like the tide

God’s love endures forever and that means that even if we’ve messed up — maybe we’ve have let others down, or let God down or let ourselves down — we can know that God isn’t going to give up on us.

There may be many crisis’ in the world today but God is never going to give up. God’s love endures forever and not just this generation but for future generations.  The Psalmist writes: his faithfulness continues through all generations.

As I write this, I have my little grand baby cradled in my lap. She is sleeping comfortably, so unaware of the craziness of this world. As I reflect on this scripture and look at this little life - I am filled with hope. Great hope. The world that this little one has been born into is still firmly in God’s control - God has not and will not give up on this world or on us - because the Lord is good and his love endures forever!

Empowering the young!

I love when I have the privilege of meeting up with the young people in our community. It gives me such joy to hear where they are at, and where they are going. I love to hear their thoughts on the world they live in, and what makes their hearts ache and what makes their hearts soar.

Some recent conversations were so very enlightening to me. As I’ve reflected on them I was reminded of the verse in 1 Timothy 4:12

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

There is so much wisdom in this verse.  Our young people have much to teach us but I also believe there has never been such a time as now, where there has been as great a tension between the old and new generation.

The new generation is fighting to be the future and the previous generation is fighting not to be the past.

And as a result many of our young people feel thwarted.

Back in the day when I was a youth pastor, I understood that teenagers responded to love. We all know how to love, don’t we?  Most parents love their children. But teens need more than love, they need respect.

Love picks youth up by their weaknesses. …BUT respect releases them in their strengths.

Modern loves craves respect. And respecting them means we are willing to call out the good qualities we see in them and then release them in their strengths.  Our young people need to be empowered. They need to be given space to grow and thrive and lead.

So empower the young people around you. Don’t look down on them or belittle their abilities.  Let us not despise their youth (1 Tim 4:12)

When change comes from the top it is renewal. When change comes from the bottom it is revolution….we want a renewal. So older people must allow and encourage change.  Respecting the young also means listening to their views and letting ourselves be changed by them.  The young people around us can inspire us with Godly examples…so let’s not just invite them to the party, let’s give them a seat at the table…let’s give them a voice.

That is what we are doing at Amberlea.

I am so grateful to God for bringing us five amazing young people who have decided to spend the bulk of their summer influencing, guiding, and teaching - all through fun and wholesome activities - the littles of our community.  They are being empowered to lead!

But the truth is we are never too young or too old to be used by God.

No matter your age, God has empowered you to love Him and to love others and to live a life that points people to God.
How?  By being an example — in the way we talk, in the way we act, in the way we love, in the way we live out our faith, and in our purity.

We all can be an example!

overflowing

Philippians 1:9-10 says ,

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

In this verse the the apostle Paul was speaking to the church in Philippi. Paul had a special affection for the Philippians, and wanted to encourage them to continue to grow in spiritual maturity

When I reflect on this verse I see two things. The first is about the idea of,

• Our love abounding or overflowing

The concept of love is so important to God that He emphasizes what it means to love God first, then others.

So how can our love for God abound or overflow?

It happens by building a personal relationship with God as we grow closer to God the more we want to know God.  It’s like when you first fall in love. It is all consuming and if you are like me  they are the last thing you think about when you go to sleep and the first thing I think about when you awake. It is hard to picture a life without them.

Similarly the more we know God the more reasons we find to love God.  And that love drives us closer to God.

The second part of this verse is about,

• Discernment.

To discern means to recognize as separate and distinct.  In our world today we are bombarded by information coming from everywhere about everything and too much information can feel overwhelming.  This Scripture reminds us to be discerning. To know who our Father is so intimately that we can recognize the distinct voice of God.  The voice of truth.

I encourage you to allow the love of God to overflow in your life so you know who God is, and what really matters.