Laminin is a protein within the body that essentially exists to keep everything in your body in place.  Laminin looks like this:

WOW.  How amazing is that?

As we count down the final days to Easter we remember your final days on earth.  Your time on earth taught us many things and opened up the eyes of many people to The Father.  You came to earth for a purpose:  to help repair the gap that was created between God and us through our sinful nature.  You died on the cross for us.  I thank you for that.

The Easter weekend sees us remember your execution and amazing resurrection.  You rose again and you conquered the grave and are reigning in Heaven in holiness and righteousness.  The personal sacrifice that you made for us is nothing other than worthy of our praise and worship.  I thank you for your sacrifice, it means that I can have this most amazing relationship with God that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to have due to my sinful nature.

Lord Jesus, I ask that you continue to provide guidance, kindness and forgiveness from your righteous throne in the Kingdom of God.  I will never forget the personal sacrifice that you made for me.  You are my Lord and Saviour.

In your name, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

One of my favourite bible passages is 2 Peter 1:5-8.  The reason for this is that makes the idea that love is central to Christianity so clear.  The passage reads:

“For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.“

How does this particular passage make it as clear as day that love is central to Christianity?  Well it is quite simple actually.  Out of all the qualities listed in the passage that prevent us from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, love is the one that we are told to supplement all the others with.  It is right at the top, we are even told to supplement godliness with love.  It is truly an amazing passage and it is one that I keep close to me in order to remind me to love, not only the Lord but everyone in my life.

The New Testament makes a lot of reference to agapao or agape.  These are two Greek words that translate to Love, but they have a slightly narrower definition than the English word Love.  Agapao or agape love is a deliberate love.  It means affection, benevolence, good-will, high esteem and concern for the welfare of the one loved..  Another Greek word used for love is phileo.  It is a more impulsive and emotional love.

In 1 John 4:16 we are told, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.“  This is a reference to God’s love for humanity and the word love comes from the Greek agapao or agape.  What this means is that God’s love is a deliberate one, He is affectionate towards us, He has benevolence and good will for us and that He has concern for our welfare.  The love of God is similar to that of the love a parent has for their child(ren).  A parent is affectionate towards their child(ren) and they are concerned for the welfare of their child(ren).

Our love for God and our neighbour as commanded by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39 is also agapo or agape love.  We deliberately love God for all He has done for us.  We hold Him in a high esteem, we have benevolence towards Him and we have affection for Him.  The same applies when we love our neighbour.  There is most likely no reason to emotionally love them, but we choose to love them and have concern for their welfare and to be affectionate towards them (obviously when I talk about neighbour I’m not just talking about the people who live on your street, I’m talking about the  population of the world in general as every person on the planet, in biblical terms, is your neighbour).

In 1 Corinthians Paul tells us that faith is worthless without love.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”

Most importantly he says in 1 Corinthians 13:13:

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.“

Love is the greatest out of faith, hope and love.  This coupled with the Matthew 22:37-39, 1 John 4:16 and 2 Peter 1:5-8 starts to give a very clear picture that love is at the centre of Christianity.  Jesus took our place on the cross and took the wrath for our sin out of love for us.  God sent his only son to earth to die a painful and humiliating death surrounded by thieves and being taunted by onlookers out of His love for you and I.

God speaks volumes to me about Love when I read my Bible.  He keeps bringing me back to love as a way of reminding me that love is a key part of following Him, not only my love for Him but my Love for everyone I meet in my daily life.  Hate and revenge don’t feature in Christian life, we forgive people out of our love for our neighbour.

Truly amazing.

God Bless.

Let me introduce myself to you all.  I’m Alistair and I’m a 20 year old student living in Scotland.  I’m a Christian and I want to spread the word of God.  When I asked Him for direction as to how I should do this it was made clear to me that my starting point was a blog on the internet and here it is.

I’ve not been a Christian for terribly long.  My life before was empty, it was as if something or someone was missing from deep within my heart.  For almost two years God had his hand on my life and was slowly directing me towards Him.  It was a shock to me when I started to think that God might actually exist because I was very much an atheist all of my life.  I held some quite controversial views over religion and believed that illnesses such as Christ Psychosis were real.

Since finding God in the latter part of 2008 I have worked to build a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.  My journey was the most amazing thing ever.  I started to seriously question my beliefs on religion in the early part of 2007.  Over time I did much research and soul searching.

Twelve months later God had me participating in a debate at university against the Christian Union Society on the motion “THB that God is dead”.  I was already questioning my beliefs and they had mellowed by this point, but for the sake of the debate I went in full pelt with references to Schizophrenia and Christ Psychosis amongst other things.  At the end of the debate I got talking to some Christians (who are now very good friends) and I revealed to them that I had never actually been inside a church for any type of service.  The only wedding I’d been to was a non religious ceremony in a registry office and the only funeral I’d ever been to was a non-religious cremation.

One of the people I was chatting to invited me to Church and I said I would go, but it was to be some 6 months later before I actually did.  When I started attending church my journey began to pick up pace big style.  God was well and truly working in my life at that point and boy did I notice it.

The first sermon I ever attended was utterly amazing.  It was all about opening your heart up to God and it was as if the preacher was speaking directly to me.  The subsequent sermons made me realise that many of the criticisms or questions I had remaining were not really that important at all.

With the help of my new friends and the pastor at the Church I began to form a relationship with God.  I started reading the Bible in a different way and above all I started praying.  It was really strange at first!  Very quickly I told God in prayer that I believed and that I committed my life to Jesus Christ.  I can still remember the prayer I said today and it went like this:

Father,  Over the past couple of years you have been working in my life, helping me to find the way.  Initially I was blind to it, but now my eyes and ears are wide open and I see and hear it.  It’s truly amazing how my life and beliefs have changed over the past couple of years and I have you to thank for that.  What Jesus did on the cross was truly amazing, an act of sheer kindness and love.  He died, having lived a sinless life, surrounded by common criminals and being taunted by onlookers.  His resurrection three days later proved to all that He was who he claimed He was.  His sacrifice on the cross over two thousand years ago has allowed me to build this personal relationship with you, one that I hope will continue to grow.  I am in complete awe of you Father.  I pray to you in the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ever since that day my faith has grown and I am still in awe of God.  He truly is amazing.  Words cannot describe how amazing, kind and loving He is.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

God Bless.