13 February 2011 - ENCS

Pastor Charles talked about "Love" today
On the eve of St Valentine's Day
His core text was John 13, verses 34 and 35
Loving each other shows discipleship while we are alive
He told us about St Valentine in 450 AD
Persecuted, but did not renounce Christianity
Today love is really big business
But let me not digress
For God is the true author of love
That was Jesus' impetus from above
Napoleon Bonaparte had a way with words
"Christ's kingdom was built by love, not swords"
Recently, the case of Egypt did patently show
That earthly kingdoms can come and go
But God's kingdom of love will always last
Even when ten thousand years have passed

Pastor shared three thoughts on love in his talk
That were designed to help us in our walk

The first was to look at love's definition
For there is clearly more than one rendition
"Phileo", or friendship love, is a word in Greek
Implying that kindness and affection we should seek
"Agape" is another very relevant Greek word
Meaning selfless love, as we saw from our Lord
For a point John 3:16 is making
Is that "loving is giving, not taking"
Pastor did try to debunk a common notion
Remember that love is not just an emotion

To understand what love is was the second
For Pastor, 1 John chapter 4 beckoned
"God is love" says the famous verse eight
A personification, to set the record straight
And then if we read ahead to verse nineteen
We love because of God's love we have seen
Pastor then used lyrics from a hymn
They were not written on a whim
Though by a mental patient they were penned
The words are very easy to comprehend
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky"

How we should respond to love was the third
Pastor shared stories and a serious word
From Solomon's Song of Songs he did read
Chapter five tells of a woman's misdeed
Her lover knocked but she delayed
His departure was the price she paid
Akin to the story of Thomas Carlyle and his wife
He regretted his absences when she lost her life

The morale of these stories should be clear as day
We need to respond to God's love without delay
For per Revelations three verse twenty
At our door, Jesus will knock aplenty
And if only we would let him in
Our fellowship with him could begin