A Love Forever & An Endless Hallelujah!

 

^“ We love because He first loved us.”- 1 John 4:19

Hi friends,

Today on Feb 14^th when the whole world is celebrating Love, It is true that we love the people in our lives, our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings, our nieces , our nephews, our friends, our relatives and those close to our heart too Maybe our teachers, acquaintances or even people who we don’t know well but just love them for who they are….All this is good. However, among all these, the truest and best of all loves is the love God has for us and the Love we have for Him. Nothing could be purer, more complete or more intense than the love of the Creator for His Creation. He loved us enough to give His life for us on the Cross of Calvary and we love Him because He first loved us.

The best thing about His love is that He knows us fully- strengths and weaknesses, flaws and all and yet loves us so fully that there is not an iota of love more for Him to love us with.  When we truly know and understand the depth of His love, we will be the most secure creatures on this planet because His word says in Rom 8:38,39 “ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How blessed are we to experience such a love in this life of ours! What can we give in return for a love so spotless and pure? All He wants is our heartfelt surrender and worship.  Today, I want to share a beautiful worship song by Matt Redman. The central theme of the Song “Endless Hallelujah”  released in 2011 as part of Matt’s album “10,000 Reasons,” revolves around the idea of eternal worship, where believers will one day join in a continuous chorus of praise and adoration to God. It speaks of a future beyond this earthly life, where sorrow, pain, and tears will be replaced with joy, peace, and an endless hallelujah.

It is a song I go back to time and time again and every time it invokes in me the hope and anticipation we have of eternal life with God and one day joining the choir of angels in Heaven where we will all sing an Endless Hallelujah to the King. Let us sing this love song back to Him with a heart full of praise and adoration for His love for us.

https://youtu.be/gtzAciGlgKE?si=idG0PvwL0o51d8vu

 

Have a blessed week!

Sparky Laurie

 

You are the God of all My Days!

 

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Psalms 139:16

Dear friends,

Hope you are well. This post I wrote inspired by a song by Casting Crowns called ‘GOD OF ALL MY DAYS!’ Do anyone of us know how many days we have? The answer is No …really but we have a God who knows our first and last breath and He is the God of all our Days.

The last week I came to know of the sudden demise of a teacher from the school where my children attend. It was a shock to many and though I didn’t really know this teacher, yet when I heard of her sudden cardiac arrest, the unpredictability of life just dawned on me once again. A few times I have written about the shortness of life in the posts about the sudden departure of my brother- in law and of my dearest friend ‘S’ (both in their early 40’s). Life suddenly turns upside down for the families left behind and that vacuum that they create in our hearts can never really be filled except for a hope that we will meet them once again on the other shore!

However, one thing that we can always bank on is that none of this ever comes as a surprise to our Lord. He is indeed The Alpha & The Omega – The Beginning & The End (Rev 1:8) and there is nothing that is beyond His knowledge and His perfect will. So, we can rest assured that Our Lord who loves us to the point of death, is fully aware of everything that concerns us. How reassuring that we are not just left hanging there in the air in uncertainty but that amid all that has happened, is happening and will be happening, He is on the Throne and in complete control.

Next let us see what kind of a God we have;

When we are broken, He is our Healer ( Jer 30:17)

He is the One who makes all things new (Rev 21:15)

He is the Wisdom to all our questions (1 Corin 1:30-31)

He is our Savior in frightful situations (Isa 41:13)

He is the God who never changes.( Malachi 3:6)

He is the God who pursues us with love (Jer 31:3)

The God whose Grace covers us in our repeated failures.(Exodus 34:6)

He is the God who is our strength when we fall.(2 Corin 12:9)

He is the lifter of our head (Psalms 3:3)

The reason that we sing.(Psalms 59:16, Psalms 63:7)

In our worries, He is our stillness. (Psalms 46:10)

In our searching, He is our answer. ( Jer 29:13)

In our blindness, our Vision (Isa 9:2)

In our bondage, our Freedom! ( Gal 5:1)

What more do we need? He’s the God who is with us unchanging in all the seasons of our life and He loves us more than we could ever imagine!

Let us sing this song with the quiet reassurance that no matter what happens to us in our lives, He is the God who stays and the God of All Our Days!

 https://youtu.be/ZYkZE8AogDE?si=l5P5cNHb64V7O0Z_

Let me end with this quote by Hugh Prather : 

Have a blessed week!

Sparky laurie

Destined For Greatness!

“Now all glory to God, who is able ,through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”- Ephesians 3:20

Hi friends,

Hope you are doing fine. It’s been a while now since I’ve penned something. Today I want to share 2 keys to overcoming any trial in your life successfully. This post is based on something I learnt recently from a great man of God who has been through one of the biggest trials of his life and has come out stronger!

We all go through different types of trials in our lives. For some it may be some financial issue, for another it may be death of a loved one or a sickness in the body or mind or some kind of family/ personal relationship issue. Sometimes however, we may go through trials that may seem so unfair that we may be tempted to ask Lord why has this happened or worse…may even cause us to wallow in self-pity asking the question, “ why Me Lord?”…Those are instances in life when we suffer despite doing the right thing. We suffer for standing up for the right cause. In such cases, we must remember the Biblical examples of Stephen the Martyr, John the Baptist and of course our Lord Jesus Christ- all of whom suffered pain, misunderstanding, rejection, loneliness and ultimately death despite living righteous lives and causing no harm to anyone. Yes, there are such times in our lives when we need to remember that we are followers of Christ and that means we need to embrace the Cross and follow Him daily. Jesus says in Mathew 16:24 that “If anyone wants to be my Disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.”

We are all born in the image of God and therefore each one of us has a great purpose in this life that only we can accomplish.  It may be visible to others, or it may not be visible to others, but we must continue faithfully whatever task the Lord has given us and shine as bright as we can in our respective places that the Lord has placed us. Amidst this, there may be instances for us to get disappointed or discouraged due to the trials in our life. As mentioned in John 16:33 we are only human and so it is only natural that by default; as being part of this fallen world, that we go through different kinds of problems, trials, and testing but the real question is how can we rise above them successfully? Here are 2 main keys for this :  1) Do Not Allow Offense to Sabotage your Greatness.  

2)      Do Not Allow Intimidation to Sabotage your Greatness.

 Let us see each point in detail. The first point is do not let Offense sabotage your greatness- Offense means we perceive an insult or disregard to ourselves. It means we are hurt over the slightest of issues. This must not be so if we are true followers of Christ. We must be humble and forgiving and full of love even to those who hurt us whether it be intentional or not. This can be very difficult but the Lord who watches over us will reward us when we choose to be free of offense. Our life too would be hassle-free from issues and misunderstandings that stem from assumptions. We instead choose to be intentional and deliberate in our love walk. Proverbs 19:11 says :”A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

The 2nd point is Do not allow Intimidation or Fear to Sabotage your Greatness- Often in life, we know the right thing to do, but somehow we bow down to fear. Often its fear of what other people will say or think or will I be misunderstood or may be even will I be understood??? And that keeps us from doing the good we know we should and being the best that we can be so let’s just roll up our sleeves and look fear in the face and say not today fear “ For God has not given me a Spirit of Fear but of Power, Love & a Sound Mind!” – 2 Timothy 1:7 & add to that Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Let me end with this quote from Nike: “Greatness…… it’s just something we made up. Somehow, we’ve come to believe that ‘greatness’ is a gift reserved for a Chosen few- for Prodigies, for Superstars & the rest of us can only stand by …. watching! You can forget that ‘greatness’ is not some rare DNA Strand, it’s not some precious thing, ‘greatness’ is no more unique to us than breathing! We’re all capable of it, all of us! Find your Greatness!”

https://youtu.be/nQWMLWoGEOw?si=YZicpQOmSk3UBcju

https://youtu.be/KBD18rsVJHk?si=kdBGO_1eUdzpVnUr

 

Have a blessed week!

Sparkylaurie