notes to self | in all your ways acknowledge Him

Hi all,

It's been a long time since I posted. Life has been busy, and whilst I've still had things to share, they've more been personal revelations for me, that I've scribbled down somewhere and never quite gotten round to sharing. I'd like to share them as I think they can bless for you too, so that's what I'm posting today, notes to self



If I've decided to trust God with my life, then I should be able to trust Him with every aspect of it; the really big things, but also and maybe especially the small things.

'In all your ways acknowledge (include) Him'

- Proverbs 3.6


So when I choose to do my own thing, knowing God has said to do otherwise, what I'm essentially saying is that I don't trust God with every aspect, and that I know better.

And a lot of the time maybe this is subconscious. We just do things the way we always do them...but there is gold to be found in asking God for His opinion, His knowledge and understanding are far greater than ours.

"I AM with you"

"Om inte min fars Gud hade varit med mig-Abrahams Gud som också Isak fruktar - så hade du säkert låtit mig fara med tomma händer. Men Gud såg mitt lidande och min möda, och han fällde domen i natt." - Första Moseboken 31.42

I love what Jacob says to Laban:

"If God had not been with me....but God saw...and He judged." - Genesis 31.42

He begins with "If God had not been with me..." saying that His success was FULLY dependent on God's presence alone.

God being with us makes ALL the difference because God ALWAYS has the last word. The bible calls Jesus the 'author and finisher' of our faith (Hebrews 12.2). He started it and He decides how it finishes at the end and He assures us that we have already won with Him. He makes the difference. He fights our battles.

There's a song I love called 'Defender' by Chris McClarney, the lyrics to the chorus are;

"You're my defender,

I put my trust in you,

You are the open arms

My broken heart can run to.

And I remember,

That there is nothing you can't do,

'Cause you are God

And you are good

So I surrender,

You're my defender".

There is no need to fight a battle He has already won for us.

Psalm 37: Feeding on His Faithfulness

Psalms 37:3, 5, 7, 23 NKJV

"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness." (vs 3)

"Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." (vs 5)

"Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." (vs 7)

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way." (vs 23)

I am so grateful to God for Psalms! Such an amazing book. I particularly love vs 3 of this chapter:

"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."

I love this. We are supposed to dwell in the trust of the Lord. Simply put, David is saying we should live in the confidence that God has everything covered.

Even better, not just live in the confidence that God has our back, but to feed on His faithfulness.

Making this as basic as possible, think about how often you eat. Typically a minimum of three times a day. Imagine, reminding yourself of God's faithfulness to you a minimum of three times a day. Constantly living out of the reminder of God's faithfulness leaves no room to doubt Him.

Granted, sometimes we doubt God has our back not because of His own unfaithfulness, but because of our own, but we don't need to. God's behaviour toward us has NOTHING to do with our behaviour towards Him. Psalms 73:1 says "Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart" If we have accepted Jesus as our saviour, as our righteousness, then we are counted as those who are pure in heart, and God is good to them. Even when we fail, God doesn't; 2 Timothy 2.13 says "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself."

David continues in vs 5 and 7 "Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord , And He delights in his way."

He says we should commit our way to the Lord, to put all our plans into God's hand, and then trust Him to work it all out. He says we should rest in God, relax in Him, enjoy Him. We should be in a perpetual state of relaxation in God, patiently waiting to see what He's doing. Not worrying because we see things working out for others, but relaxing and resting and dwelling and feeding on the knowledge that God is directing and leading us and enjoys doing so.

It has been almost a year since I moved here, and I moved here without a job and without a place to live. It felt crazy, but I knew God wanted me here and had to take a leap of faith and believe that He would take care of me.

If there is one thing this year has taught me, it's that resting in God and feeding on His faithfulness really pays off. Even when we feel like we are wasting time, or going nowhere God is still doing His thing; fixing all the tiny details so we are ready for the next step and it is ready for us.

Too much has happened this year for me to summarise properly, but I want you to have a vague idea of what has gone on, so here's a rough timeline:

September 6th: Move to Sweden
End of October: Find an apartment but have no money to pay rent for the month
A week later: Get given money for rent and living expenses for the month
End of November: Start job as an au pair which gives me job and accomodation (Yes, I was unemployed for three months)
April: Start thinking about what to do when done au pairing
May: Get invited to live with two friends at the end of my job
June: Apply for school also phone a bar about a job, find out the owner is English, arrange interview
End of June: Go for an interview at school, get rejected. Realise it is not possible to move in with friends till a month after I finish my job
Following day: Get a call inviting me for an interview for another course at the same school
Following week: Go for interview at school again and go for bar job interview, successful job interview, invited for two trial shifts
Following day: Get accepted into school
A few weeks later: Get call from friends saying a friend of theirs has an apartment I can potentially stay in before I move in with them

This year has been all over the place, up and down and nothing I expected, but God has had and continues to have my back. I have not been without a place to sleep, I have not been dead broke. Truly, God has been faithful and ordered each and every one of my steps. I do not know what the future holds for me, but I know that as I continue to commit my way to God, He will continue to order my steps and sort everything out.

Right and Wrong vs Sin and Righteousness (The Need for Jesus)

I think a lot of people (non-christian) get offended and dislike Christians because they believe that all we do is go around telling people what is right or wrong, judging, and I think a lot of us do.

What we Christians need to remind ourselves about is the fact that the bible talks about sin, not right and wrong, and sin has nothing to do with what is right or wrong. Right and wrong can vary. They depend a lot on circumstance. For example, the vast majority of people would say that killing a person is wrong, but if you say to them 'What if someone came into your house and was about to kill you, would you kill them if you had the chance?' and they would say of course!

For right and wrong there is a scale. You can be partially wrong or right. It could be wrong to steal today and perfectly fine to steal tomorrow; in other words right and wrong are relative.

Sin is a completely different issue. It isn't about right or wrong, it has no scale. Sin either is or isn't. You can either sin or not sin. And this is because isn't about us or our circumstance or anything else, sin is about God Himself.

With sin, we only have two choices; God's standard or sin, and God's standard cannot change, it is a fixed point, which can be likened to the bar on the High Jump in athletics. You either clear the bar or you don't.

Understand then, that anything even a little less than God's standard is NOT God's standard, and therefore it is sin.

And this is exactly why we need Jesus. No amount of doing the right thing can bring you to God's standard, because it is not the doing of the right thing that takes you up to God's standard, it is BEING God's standard, being inherently righteous, being right.

Think this way about it, if someone has even one percent out of one hundred wrong, they can NEVER attain to God's standard, because 99% percent pure is not 100% pure, and you can add as much pure as you want, but that impurity remains.

So because only God Himself is inherently pure, without even a hint of impurity, He sacrificed Himself, sending us His 100% purity in exchange for our impurities, so that in this way we could attain the otherwise unattainable purity that is required to be with Him.

That is why Jesus was born of a virgin. He had to be. The bible says that from day one we are born with the desire to sin (be dishonest, take what isn't ours, put ourselves first etc.), in other words we are born impure. It's in our genes. In the same way that a drug addicted mother can give birth to a child with an addiction, or a mother with AIDS can give birth to a child with AIDS, sin is a generational defect that no amount of chemistry can do away with. So God sent Jesus into Mary, to be born in human form without the sin defect, so that He could be God's perfect standard in human form, the perfect sacrifice, the perfect exchange.

So Jesus came here perfect. He gave us His inherent righteousness, and took all our impurities away, separating us from them for eternity (should we want Him to) so that we can finally be accepted, having His inherent righteousness, and thus attain to God's standard.

This means that whether we have always done the 'right' thing or 'wrong' thing, God, in Jesus, has given us the key to become inherently right, through and through righteous, which means we are above judgement (I don't mean in a Worldly sense; if you break the law you go to jail end of)  meaning that we are now above the scale of right and wrong and we are a part of Him, with Him, in Him, RIGHTEOUS.

Revelation 3.20-21 | Uppenbarelseboken 3.20-21

"Jag står vid dorren och knäckar. Om du hör och oppnar kommer jag in och vill umgås över en god middag. De som seger ska få sitta bredvid mig vid hedersbordet, precis som jag segrade och fick sitta på hedersplatsen vid min Fars sida."

- Uppenbarelseboken 3.20-21 (MSG)

The prize that awaits us is worth fighting for. When we overcome like He has overcome, we get the same reward; eternity with God, and the daily delight that comes from being in His presence.

Mark 10.24-27: Jesus Makes It Possible

We tend to have a scale...as if goodness can be measured, but God has no scale. God says that He is goodness. The only way we can ever be the standard of goodness He can accept is if we are in Him. Anything less than God isn't good enough.

Thankfully, this is not something we need to be disheartened about, rather we should be encouraged. God gave us His goodness in Jesus Christ, so that by taking Him on board, by giving ourselves to Him, we would be good enough to be in relationship with Him, which has been His desire since before the world began.

Sin separates us from God because it is unacceptable to Him, but Jesus reconciles us to God, because He was and still is and will forever be perfect and acceptable.

Put simply, Jesus makes it possible for us to be with God.

Welcome Jesus into your life and watch His goodness permeate through all your sin, so that you blossom, and reach and become all that God wants you to be.

"Liksom en kropp utan livsande är död, så är tron utan gärningar död. (James 2.26)

"Like a body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without works dead."
- James 2.26

We had a spine-tingling, goose-pimple inducing word at church yesterday about REVIVAL. I've been reading James in the New Testament and wanted to do a quick recap on what I read last week. Reading it this morning I was struck by how much it corresponds with what we heard about revival yesterday.

The man speaking spoke about barriers to revival and qualities needed in order to make room for revival. Here are the two lists:

Barriers to revival:
Pride
Rationalism
Unbelief
Fear of rejection
Apathy

Qualities needed to make room for revival:
Purity in all parts of our faith
Prayer
Praise

Rereading James 1.22 I was particularly reminded on what he said about Apathy. James says here that we need to be 'doers' of the word not just 'hearers'. Often times I myself have been a person who turns up to church, sits, hears and observes but does nothing.

In order for revival to take place we actually need to DO SOMETHING.

It's all well and good having faith but faith should produce action. James 2.22 talks about Abraham's faith... and says it 'samverkade' (the Swedish word is SO much richer in meaning, it literally means 'same worked', in the NKJV it says 'worked together' which sounds a lot less exciting) with his 'works' (actions).

Faith and works go hand in hand. Without faith, works are empty, they are like trying to score righteousness points with God through doing 'good stuff' which God says clearly is not enough. Faith without works isn't real faith at all, real faith forces you to make decisions and choices; in short, ACTIONS.

James 2.26 talks about how a body without the spirit is dead and faith without works is the exact same thing; dead.

The reason this struck me even more poignantly today is because, if we are think about what the bible says about us the church... we are Christ's body (1 Corinthians 12.27, Romans 12.5, Ephesians 4.12). We are His hands and feet, here to show the world Him and His love through our lives.

Now if as His body, we try to operate without Him at the centre, i.e., without the spirit of life, we are lifeless, the impact we have on the world is minimal at best.

BUT. But if we the church, as His body, both together AND as individuals, have a real, faith and belief in Jesus, it will spur us into action. Pride and fear of rejection will fall away as we realise it is all about Him and not us. The restricting chains of rationalism will disappear as we allow God whose ways are higher than our own to do things in His perfect way, even if we don't get it, and apathy will vanish as we become helplessly devoted to sharing the love of Christ with the world. Purity, prayer and praise will become the default mechanisms of those who not only hear the word but do it too, and thus...revival, starting in the church and overflowing out, will come.

Faith

I'm reading through Hebrews at the moment and just hit Hebrews 11 which has to be probably my favourite chapter in the whole bible (I say probably because there are so many awesome chapters that that is likely inaccurate!).

Hebrews 11 begins with an amazing explanation of what faith is...

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11.1)

It is a beautiful verse even before you grasp all that it means...but I'll do my best to explain.

Faith comes from trust, and trust comes from knowing someone really well.

Think about it like this...you wouldn't tell your secrets to just anyone. You would wait to get to know someone, see them actively demonstrate an ability to keep schtum when it comes to important information, and then when you'd seen it enough times, you would entrust them with your secret, having faith that they will keep their word to you and not tell anyone.

It's the same in faith with God. God is personal; as in He knows us inside and out and wants us to know Him and have a relationship with Him and be ourselves with Him. As with any relationship, it takes time to build up that kind of familiarity and trust and such a deep friendship only comes from spending time with Him; reading His word (the bible) and talking to Him (prayer) and hearing what others who know Him personally have to say about Him and what He's done in their lives (the testimonies of other Christians). The more you hear and see of Him the more you trust Him!

That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. It's about what happens when you take the leap of faith and get to know God and trust Him with your heart and hopes and future. Hebrews 11 is all about the amazing miracles that happened when people took the step of faith to trust God.

The thing about a relationship with God is that the faith it produces is extraordinary. It starts small. Maybe you trust God with something you feel you have no real control over anyway, like friends at a new school...and then when God blesses you with good friends you trust Him with something bigger, and so on until you're trusting God with everything, you put all your eggs in His hand and wait to see what He does with them.

What makes trusting God even better than just empty hope is the fact that in a world where nothing is certain - people are corrupt, sickness and death are everywhere, wars and famines abound everywhere - God is certain.

He is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13.8). He never leaves us (Deuteronomy 31.6). He always holds our hands (Psalm 37.24). He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29.11). He is not a man that He could lie (Numbers 23.19). He promises that even though we see trouble in this life He has overcome and we are with Him (John 16.33).

So our hope for the future isn't an empty one. It's not this empty wish we have that maybe if we are good people, or maybe if we work hard,or maybe if we are lucky, maybe everything will work out.

The hope we have anchors us because it is certain. It is rooted in something, in someone; Jesus Christ; the author and finisher of our faith, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, God's final word, Emmanuel - God with us!

Faith in God and His word saved the human race when the earth flooded, faith in God and His word led Abraham into the promise land, faith in God and His word gave the Israelites Jericho and that isn't even all of it, there is so much more!

Faith requires nothing more than trusting God. You don't have to be sure of yourself, you just have to be sure of Him.

If I'd moved to this country just because it's nice, the moment it got tough (a week in) I would have packed up and gone back home. BUT because I knew without a shadow of doubt that Stockholm was where God wanted me right now, even after three months of unemployment, I knew I'd made the right decision and I was in the right place.

Our feelings and emotions are about as certain and sure as on-time buses or hospital waiting times...they aren't at all!!! But God is certain. You know that if He says He'll do something He will for sure do it, and not only will He do it, He'll do it better than you could have ever imagined, over and above your expectation (Isaiah 55.9, Ephesians 3.20).

Such is the God of the bible. If you put your life in His hands, He will do far better things with it than you EVER could have.

"Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37.5

Why there is power in the name of Jesus

If you are a Christian, you have probably heard the phrase 'there is power in the name of Jesus' many times. As a non-christian, this probably makes no sense. I think I finally understood it a bit more today, and I wanted to try to explain to you why Christians say there is power in the name of Jesus.

In the old testament of the bible (the first half of the bible if you will, before Jesus coming to earth as a man), we read in Genesis (or 1 Moseböken, if you're Swedish) that God created the heavens and the earth. If you read the first chapter, you'll see that God created through His word. He spoke things into being and they happened. The power of His word brought things into being.

In the Old Testament you see many times that God spoke to people, sometimes directly, other times through prophets, or happenings, such as the burning bush.

In the New Testament, the phrase 'God said' appears only once, in a parable Jesus uses to simplify a lesson He is teaching. Aside from that, the phrase never appears, quite strange compared to the forty-five times it appears in the Old Testament.

You have to wonder why after speaking so much to people in the time before Jesus came to earth, God suddenly seems to stop communicating with them. Or does He stop?

In John 1 (New Testament) verses 1-14 we have an another, slightly brief note on creation. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of all men.'

The Word being spoken about is the powerful word that God used to create the world in the beginning. The word God used brought the earth into existence and created life simply by saying so.

The writer continues in verse 14, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...' This verse says that the powerful word God used that created life itself in the beginning, became human just as we are, and lived humanly like the rest of us.

The Word is Jesus. And when Jesus came to earth, He said all that God had been saying in the Old Testament simply by living and dying and rising again as He did.

Jesus is all God has ever said and will ever say. He is the the final word. The curtain closer if you will. So that, where in the Old Testament God spoke, as it says in Hebrews chapter 1 (New Testament) 'by the prophets' (verse 1), He has 'spoken to us by His son...through whom also He made all the worlds.' (Verse 2).

Now try to understand all of this. The power that God used to create the world was harnessed if you will, in Jesus, who was sent to the earth, being life itself, and that life being a light which was so powerful that darkness could not overcome it (John 1.5), which is why when life (=Light=Jesus) was crucified on the cross and put to death (=darkness), death couldn't overcome it.

You see the life and light that Jesus is, is so powerful that no death, no darkness, no sin, no curse, no emotion or situation of any kind, is any match for it.

When we say Jesus name, we aren't just saying a name, we're declaring power over all things. There is power in the name of Jesus because Jesus is power itself. He is the very Word by which all things came into being.

A beautiful an amazing force to be reckoned with.

Saying, 'I'm sorry'

I'm a bit of a romantic, and in order to kick back the other day I decided to watch Letters to Juliet. I won't go into the entire film, but I do want to draw something out to you from a scene within it.

The male lead is rude, and in the wrong, and his grandmother forces him to apologise to the female lead, looking her in the eyes and saying I'm sorry.

How often do we do that?

I remember doing so as a kid, if I was rude or mean or hurtful, being told to apologise sincerely, but I think somewhere along the line in adulthood we lose that practice.

Forgiveness and apology are vital parts of relationship. Why? Because in a relationship with someone you are close to, inevitably, at one point in time or another, one of you will upset the other. When this happens, there are two ways to move forward, either the one who was in the wrong apologises and the one who was wronged forgives, or the one in the wrong refuses to acknowledge their wrongdoing and the one who was wronged refuses to forgive and let go.

In my limited experience, the first way of action yields much better fruits than the latter, which leaves both parties bitter and resentful.

I think this especially important in Marriage. I can't help but wonder how many people might still be together today if they had sucked up their pride and done their part to resolve the situation. The problem is very often within each of us and not the other person.


"Where do wars and fights  come  from among you? Do they  not  come  from your  desires for  pleasure that war in your members?"

- James 4.1

"But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather  let yourselves  be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and  you do  these things  to your  brethren!"

 - 1 Corinthians 6.6-8

Gracious Speech

The bible tells us in Proverbs 18.21 that life and death are in the power of the tongue. For this reason it's so important we take care with our speech. The right word spoken at the right time is such a blessing to the one who hears it (Proverbs 15.23) and making sure that what we say as Christians especially, brings life and hope, father than condemnation or judgement is so important.

Paul sums it up perfectly when he says in Colossians 4.6:

"Let your speech always be with your grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer each one"

When we speak, God's loving and gracious nature has to come across. This is less something that we can force to happen, and more something that happens as a result of total immersion in God's word. The bible tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6.45, Matthew 12.34). What this means is that what we say, is a by product of how we actually feel, of what is really in our hearts.

God's word acts as a mirror for us, so that the more time we spend with God, the more we receive the revelation of His love, grace and mercy, and the easier it is for us to impart that same grace to others.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

- 2 Corinthians 3.18

Matthew 28.19

Hi all,

Hope you're well. Sorry it's been about two weeks since my last post, I have been here I promise! Just been a little busy.

In just under a month I'm moving to Stockholm (Sweden). I'm going because I have this overwhelming feeling that God wants me there to tell the inhabitants of Stockholm a little about Him.

As it stands I don't have a job, and I don't have a lot of money either but I really feel that now is time to take the leap of faith.

I've really struggled over the past few months, being blessed with my Internship in London and making some great friends, as well as struggling with the knowledge that moving would mean walking away from what could potentially be a real job into the unknown and uncertain future.

But God.

God has always been so so good to me, especially over the last few months. I've felt lost, I've felt lonely, I've felt up and down, clarity and confusion, but God has been my rock and my answer in everything.

So I'm off to Stockholm, I will appreciate all your prayers (I will still be blogging!), and am looking forward to the next part of this adventure in my walk with God.

He who has prepared a way for me in the wilderness is also the lifter of my head, He will not let me be ashamed.

God bless, have a lovely weekend, and enjoy the last of the Olympics!

x

Psalm 46.10

This life is so crammed full of things to do, things to see, things to hear, chores, homework, friends to see, family to help, etc...that sometimes we get so busy we don't have time to know God.

Sometimes the best way to hear from God is to pause in the middle of our oh-so-busy lives and take the time to listen to Him.

Stop rushing for a second, pause and re-evaluate.

It's a simple thing that can be as easy as just taking a couple of minutes in your day. You can be anywhere; on the toilet, on the train, in the shower. I find it easiest to just 'be' for a couple of minutes, to stop thinking about everything around me or getting distracted by things/people/noise, and just take a second to thank God for where I am in the exact moment, to bless my day, to take time to zone out from the world and zone in to Him.

Find your way of doing it. I'm big into music, so I find the quickest and easiest way for me to get God centred is to put on a worship album and meditate (as in deeply think about - not necessarily chanting, but whatever you feel comfortable doing) on the words of the song.

It's just remembering God in my day-to-day, not allowing myself to get caught up in the trifling little issues I face each day, but to remember God, who He is and what He's done, and the real calling on my life.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

- Psalm 46.10

The Old Testament in 5 Minutes

2 Corinthians 5.21

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

- 2 Corinthians 5.21 NKJV

1 Peter 3.15

"But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully."

AMPLIFIED BIBLE - click here for the link!

Luke 24.26-27 and The Gospel of Jesus Christ

'He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem..."'

The gospel of Jesus Christ is repentance and forgiveness:

Not condemnation, but hope.

Not death, but life.

Not lawfulness, but relationship.

One of the things the scribes took issue with was Jesus forgiving sins (Matthew 9.1-6), because they believed only God had power to forgive sins, but if Jesus was who He claimed to be, the son of God (Luke 22.70) and the Christ (Matthew 16.16-17), then He had full right to forgive sins.

And that's what He came to earth to do. He came to bridge the gap between the sinful and the sinless. So He came to Earth, still God, in the form of a man, so that He could walk among us and make God real to us, make God personal. He came to Earth to save us.

Do you know where something similar happened? Joseph.

Joseph was fully human (you can tell by his behaviour), and when he dreamt of his future and all that was to come, instead of keeping it hush-hush as Jesus did (Matthew 16.20, Mark 8.30, Luke 9.21), he went around boasting about it.

He wasn't lying though. His brothers were going to bow down to him (Genesis 37.7-11). So after he told them all that he had dreamt they 'disposed of him', rather like what happened to Jesus with his crucifixion. And they thought that was the end of it.

"But what they didn't know was that what they had meant for evil, God had meant to be their own salvation (Genesis 50.20)."

You see without Joseph being thrown in a well, he wouldn't have been sold to Ishmaelites, which would have meant he wouldn't have been a slave in Potiphar's house in Egypt, which in turn would mean that he wouldn't have been accused of rape, which would mean he wouldn't have ended up in jail, which would have meant that he wouldn't have been there to decipher the meanings of the dreams of the baker and cupbearer, which would have meant that he wouldn't have been able to decipher the King's dream, which would mean that he wouldn't have been able to save Egypt and the surrounding lands (including the land of Canaan where all his brother's lived), which would have meant that his whole family would have died.

In much the same way, if God was not merciful, then He would not have sent His son Jesus (who was both God and man) to be crucified, which would mean He (Jesus) wouldn't have taken the cost of all our sins, and if He hadn't taken the penalty for all our sins which is death (Romans 6.23a), we would all be facing eternity without God, Hell, rather than having what we now have (should we want it), the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6.23b).

Hey guys, use this website http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm to look up all the verses that I have mentioned. Just type each of them into the search bar at the top and choose a version you think you will find easiest to understand. The version I have used for my quotes here is the NIV.

James 4.8

"Come near to God and He will come near to you..."

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LOVE

One of the big things I think you'll find most human beings, irrelevant of race, culture or religion; will agree on, is the existence of love. People explain it in different ways, and not all of them have experienced it first-hand, (which is an extremely sad thing if you think about it), but most will agree that it exists. Love of money, love of popularity, love of objects, love of people...the list could go on, but what is real love? How do we spot the real thing from the counterfeit?

Films have been made about it. Stories written about it. Chemical equations have been formulated to discuss the scientific explanation of it. Even in the bible itself we see countless examples of relationships with 'love'. Samson and Delilah, Rebekah and Isaac, David and Bathsheba, Jacob and Rachel...

But the only relationship in the bible with a love described as 'real' is that relationship between God and us:

1 John 3.16 - We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 John 4.10 - This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

The love that God has for us, as described in the bible, is multi-faceted. In Hosea; we see the jealous love God has for us, like the love between a man and wife; in Jesus, we see the compassionate love God has for us, and the most popular presentation of God's love is much like the love a parent has for a child:

Jeremiah 3.19 - "I thought to myself, 'I would love to treat you as my own children!' I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land— the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me 'Father,' and I wanted you never to turn from me.

Jeremiah 31.20 - "Is not Israel still my son, my darling child?" says the LORD. "I often have to punish him, but I still love him. That's why I long for him and surely will have mercy on him.

According to the bible, our ability to love, originates from the love that God has for us:

1 John 4.19 - We love each other because he loved us first.

1 John 4.7 - Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

But probably the most notable thing about the way in which the bible defines real love, i.e. God's love, is that it is unconditional:

Romans 5.8 - But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

God's love is not a reaction to good behaviour, it is given freely to all who wish to accept it, regardless of sin. God's love is so patient, that even to those who reject Him in this life, He offers a second chance at knowing Him. God's love is so kind, that He chose to extend the capacity of it to include those who were not even relations of those whom He first made the promise of love to. God's love is so humble that it came in the form of a baby boy born to a carpenter in an animal feeding trough. God's love is so unselfish, that it gave itself up for those who did not deserve it, rewarding them with a gift they could never have earned. God's love is so hopeful that it comes with mercies new every morning. His love is so faithful that even when others renounce and deny it, it holds on. And God's love is so persistent that nothing; not life or death, not angels or demons, not fears and worries, and not even the powers of hell itself could separate us from it. [1 Corinthians 13.4-6, Romans 8.35-39]