God Is Love

I have become aware that my life follows certain patterns. Writing these words on Saturday afternoon has been going on for a fair number of months. While written words are not quite the same as spoken words, they still have an ability to communicate support and encouragement. That said, I hope you and yours are doing well.

Our recording session went very nicely this morning. I very much appreciate the contribution of our Band. Each of the members brings a special talent and together they sound excellent. Their musical selections are inspiring and the lyrics offer core convictions of our faith. For my part, I very much enjoy being part of our ministry team.

Here is what we came up with on Saturday morning:

Rooted in my reading of these texts:

Psalm 3:1-7a / 1 Corinthians 13:4-13 / Mark 8:34-38

Here are my first impressions after reading the texts:

The Psalm presents a person in the face of many challenges. People are rising against this person and saying that God is of no use at all. Then the person confesses trust in the protection of God. Calling out to God brings an answer from a holy place. This allows the person to rest in peace and rise again secure in God’s care. Even so there are many enemies who seek to do this person harm. The Psalm ends with a prayer for release from adversity.

1 Corinthians presents love as a practice. Kindness is a key element and envy and pride are rejected. Love does not insist on getting its own way. Love does not accept doing wrong but is glad when truth is front and centre. Love allows us to be open to the goodness of God no matter what the circumstance. We learn that love enables us to grow from immaturity to maturity. Love is not clearly visible at the outset, but with continued practice it achieves its full potential. Three aspects of our being are noticed. These are faith, hope and love. The most important of these is love.

Mark tells us about Jesus speaking to his disciples and crowds of persons. Jesus makes clear that to follow in the way of God is to turn away from self service and towards care of others. We are told that to achieve great material gain may lead to losing our spiritual identity. Those who are embarrassed by the way of God in a time of great darkness will discover that they are left out of all goodness in the day when the true human being is revealed by God.