Hope, Faith & Love

Gal 2:19 For through Law I died to Law, that I might live to God. Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I live; yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God, the One loving me and giving Himself over on my behalf. 1.1 What is Love? How do you describe love? What is the characteristic that convinces you that love? It is the giving of yourself without the expectation or motive of receiving anything back. When we give with the expectation of receiving something in return, that is selfish by nature as we putting a demand on someone which they may or may not want. And the expectation that we place on the person, we don’t even know if they are able to provide. That isn’t love, it is doing something to get something back and I am almost guaranteed to the 98% degree that somewhere, we will be disappointed. The reason is that generally our expectations are ridiculously high, fuelled by the Hollywood and other sour

13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. There are two phrases I wanted to concentrate on: “I am Wonderfully made” and “I am Fearfully made”. Why? The answer is easy; I am made in the image of the Living God. 1.1 I am Wonderfully Made… The last time I checked the world’s population it was hitting about 7 billion or more accurately 6,706,993,152. Imagine 7 billion people who are totally unique and different. It’s amazing isn’t it? Friends tell me that I evolved from monkeys but I don’t want to go to the zoo to visit my uncle? In verse 13, I am told that God knitted and knew even before I was in my mother’s womb. I was made in some wonderful way that my life counts for something. In [Psa 8:4], the psalmist asked, what is man that God is so mindful of him? In our big and wonderful world of ours,

"I'm so hot!" series, why? I believe what we achieve in life is influence by how we see ourselves. Often we identify ourselves with what we do; in church or at work. But that what we do and not who we are. What we do is only a subset of who we are. Who are we really? These days, everyone seems to be fighting for the right to be an individual, to be different from others. They adorned themselves with body piercing that hangs from every part of the bodies, the hair colour with more range than the rainbow. Why? To be different, to be an individual that non-conforms to society but in so doing, actually fits into society. But being an individual is to stand out, knowing one's identity allows us to feel comfortable with ourselves and who we are, so we are able to stand when things gets tough. Sometimes it seems our identity is lost in what society thinks we should be. If so, as Christians, how do we response to that? We are supposed to be different. We are supposed to shin