You are ( John 3 v 16 )

We read that God  is love  ( 1 John  4 v 8 ) and we read  ,that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten  Son,  that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3 v 16 ) God loves the world , here it means people,you and I,everyone without exception.But lets contrast Gods love with with human love,   Derek Tidball writes the following ',Human love is usually 'Eros' ,it loves those who are worthy, lovable and able  to love us in return. It is characterised by desire, often a desire to possess'. He goes to contrast this with Gods love,using the word  'Agape' agape love is one that loves the unworthy,and does so freely....Gods love differs from ours,not just in quantity but in kind'.Gods love is not a blind love, no it is an all knowing love,he knows our innermost thoughts,our secret sins,our open sins, He knows everything about everybody. In spite of the fact that we are unloving, unthankful ,We will continue this next time.

Comfort Zone ( Matthew 9 v 9 )

I  remember speaking at  a reasonably large church, and I said that  I felt a bit out of my comfort zone,as I  usually speak at small churches. We do hear this phrase ,'comfort zone, ' mentioned at times ,it usually implies a place or task  your comfort with. So it is when we feel we are being pushed out of our comfort zone, whatever it may be,we become anxious,resentful ,we could even feel anger. When Israel was in the wilderness , and things were difficult, they began speaking of Egypt as their comfort zone ( Numbers 11 v 18) ,even though the Egyptians had treated them as slaves,and on Pharaoh's orders ,they had to destroy their little children.( Exodus 1 v 22 ) It is so sad,so tragic that peoples comfort zone,is a place of darkness,slavery,a place of no hope,for we are told people love darkness rather than life (John 3 v 19.),love for such a comfort zone,has dire consequences.God offers all, life and life abundant,do not be fooled  by your so called comfort zone, come to Christ and know him who is the true comforter.oh yes it will be challenging,but there is nothing wrong with a challenge,and in the end it  will be for the best.

I will venture { Psalm 23 v 4 )

John Bunyan author of ,'Pilgrims Progress',spent many years in prison for preaching the Gospel' While in prison,fear took hold of him,''my imprisonment'' ,he thought, ''might end on the gallows''. Later on he was ashamed of being afraid,''Methought I was ashamed to die with a pale face.',so  finally he came to the conclusion as he thought of himself climbing up the ladder to the gallows. Wherefore he thought , I am for going on and venturing my eternal state with Christ whither I have comfort  here or no, if God doth not come in, I will leap of the ladder even blindfold into eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell. He finished by praying,''Lord Jesus, if thou wilt catch me,do; if not, I will venture for thy name''.

Not half done. (Hebrews 7 v 25 )

Some people are not very good at 'Do it yourself',' so some jobs in the home, don't get finished,so the wife nags them,asking them the inevitable question ,when are you going to finish that job?. It reminds me how many people think that Jesus never finished the work of salvation,the result is they think  that they need to finish it,to as it were, give it that final touch. They are either told by  some supposed authority, that they must do their bit,good works,law keeping,etc.Here is what Jesus said just before He died on the cross,''It is finished'' ( John 19 v 30 ),that means what it says,'it is finished', I repeat this again 'it is finished.'In Hebrews 7 v 25, we read, 'Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them'.

Needing to be. ( 1 John 4 v 7 - 8 )

Princess Diana  said ''the greatest disease in the world is the disease of being unloved'',multitudes of people are seeking for one thing love.Broken relationships abound in so many place,leaving multitudes feeling unloved. I am sure most of us would agree with that,most parents would say that they love their children yet they can treat them in a very unloving way,and that effects those children for the rest of their lives. I heard of a Christian girl whose married,says she does not want to have children, in case she treats her children like her father treated her, and her father was a minister. Some religious people can be very severe with their children,spare the rod and spoil the child is there motto.Of course children need discipline,but there is extreme discipline that can damage a child. Looking back I know I made many mistakes, I was far from being the perfect father,so I am speaking now from hind sight. Thankfully my children are all better fathers than I was,but here is the point I did love my children.The wonderful thing about being a Christian,we can learn from our mistakes,and by Gods grace we can become more loving,with our children,our spouses,our neighbours,with everyone,for they all need to be loved.

Wrestling ( Ephesians 6 v 10 )

One last thought on wrestling,and its not so much to do an individual, but  for every Christian,and we read about it in Ephesians 6 v 12,it is in the  AV,' For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,against powers,against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against  spiritual  wickedness in high places'. Now without going into all the forces arrayed against us,  I would caution to not get  paranoid as regards what it said , the fact is we as Christians have a real struggle on our hands, there are forces arrayed against us. The hymn writer wrote,'I've wrestled on towards heaven,gainst storm, and wind and tide'.Let us first of all realise we are not going to reach our heavenly destination on flowery beds of ease.We are faced with a struggle,we have to use all the resources that God has provided for us, Ephesians 6 v 11, v 18 reminds us the importance of praying in the Spirit,who will surely grant all we need in our onward struggle.

Wrestling ( Luke 22 v 44 )

Consider the description of Epaphras praying ,it is likened unto one who wrestles ,the effort of Epaphras' prayers was like the intense effort of a Greek athlete contending for a prize....this intense effort was ceaseless,always wrestling (J. A. Beet )Now prayer takes many forms ,the hymn writer describes prayer as ,'the souls desire uttered or unexpressed,a sigh,a tear,the upward glancing of an eye, the simplest form of speech ( James Montgomery) Now all those things are legitimate ,if they are sincere and from the heart.they are acceptable to God. I remember many years ago my Pastor telling us about a well known evangelist,who was staying in a hotel,and when the person came to make the bed,the sheets were all ripped,that evangelist had been wrestling in prayer Consider our Saviour in the garden praying ,we read,'and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground ( Luke 22 v 44 ) Now that's wrestling in prayer, may God grant unto us that our prayers may not just be words.