It shouldn't be a surprise that faithfulness is an essential part of who we are as Christians. Even still it can be easy to forget or ignore how important loyal love is. We need to experience it, as we need those people that will stand by us and support us no matter what comes. We also need to show it so that we might create greater and richer relationships and communities.

We know that loyalty in love is not always easy, but it is good. It helps us to love someone not for what they can give us or do for us, but ultimately for them. God loves us for us. We should respond to that loyal love by loving him just for him. This Sunday we explore how loyalty is an essential aspect of love.

Mary Anne and I have always been people that love a lot. We find so much joy and life in almost everything. It is hard to imagine what life would be like without this. It is like a plant without water, or a kite without wind, or a candle without fire. Love gives substance, it leads, it fills, it is life.

This Sunday join us for our Children and Youth-led service where we will explore how love gives meaning to everything.

I'm sure most of you know and have experienced that there is a great benefit to love, but do we truly understand how beneficial it is to practice love at all times? I would guess that we don't. Too often in this world, we shy away from living out love, because of the possible hurt. We simplify or ignore aspects of love - like accountability or sharing Jesus - because they would be difficult.

Love is always of benefit. There is always gain in showing and living out godly love. Love is meant to be sacrificial, but it isn’t selfless. Simply living out a Godly love means that we are living in love and God lives in us. Our two passages this Sunday remind us that in living out a Godly love we truly find ourselves and we build for ourselves a lasting life and home.

Here is a prayer for Spiritual Renewal:

O thou who camest from above, The pure celestial fire to impart, Kindle a flame of sacred love On the mean altar of my heart. There let it for thy glory burn With inextinguishable blaze, And trembling to its source return In humble prayer and fervent praise. [Charles Wesley, c. 1707-1788]

It is a lot easier to love someone when they love you, but if that was the only love we showed that would automatically cut out the majority of the human race. What about strangers, colleagues, people who find it hard to love, those who don't consider us a friend, and even those who hate us? If we want the world we long for then we need a love that injects itself into all situations.

This is what God does. We hear again this Sunday that God loved us first. God loved us even while we were strangers, hostile, and his enemies. God's love enters into the brokenness of our human minds, hearts, and relationships and seeks to transform them, by always loving first. This love can transform us and make us capable of that same kind of love. We know and can trust that God loves us first, so we too can reply with love even to those who don't love us. So we too can act out and live in God's transformational love.

Prayer for Spiritual Revival

Give me grace, O my Father, to be utterly ashamed of my own reluctance. Rouse me from sloth and coldness, and make me desire you with my whole heart. Teach me to love meditation, sacred reading, and prayer. Teach me to love that which must engage my mind for all eternity. [John Henry Newman, 1801-1890]

1 John 4:7-21

Psalm 86:1-8, 11-15

John 13:1-17, 31-38

All you need is love. An important sentiment that many people would agree with and yet what is love? We speak of love and some idea of it, but I haven't often heard great definitions.

The problem is that love isn't just a feeling, it isn't a way of thinking or even a way of living. Love is a person. God is love. This is immensely important because it means that love was at the centre of creation, our lives and our purpose. We all need to meet this love so that it will live in us.

What is love? This is the theme of our next sermon series. Love is important to all of us. For those who have experienced love in any grand way, we know that it is like a life blood - it feeds, nourishes, and keeps us going. So, it begs the question, what is love?

This Pentecost Sunday, as we acknowledge the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church, we see an outpouring, an overflowing of God's love. The Holy Spirit is the Father's love for the Son, which then runs over in its abundance on all of us. This immense gift teaches us so much about what love looks like, how we receive it and how it lives in us. Join me this Sunday, while we explore love personified in the powerful and life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit.