Building for Eternity
Archive for May, 2009
THE TRUE FACE OF LOVE
3 years ago
in News
About 10 years ago a French film star, Jeanne Moreau, was interviewed on “60 Minutes”.
In the introduction she was described as being as passionate about life off the screen as on it. However very early in the interview Jeanne said incredulously, “Passion is unseemly”. She went on; “Love is not passion”.
She explained that love and passion don’t go together. “Passion is demanding, passion is jealous, passion goes up and down but love is constant”. The apostle Paul would agree if 1 Corinthians 13 is anything to go by. In this great description of biblical love he basically teaches that love is not “feeling”, it is “being” for others. It is not an emotion it is service. It is not passive but active. It seeks good for others and forgets self.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Love must have a face. Often we see this sort of love in action when we witness a mother’s love for her child. The ultimate manifestation of love is seen in God. His love has a face. It is not some abstraction, it is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. He set His face towards Jerusalem to bear our sin and win forgiveness for us. His love was the greatest love and conquered all the enemies of love.
Stephen Semenchuk
Senior Minister
God does not insulate himself from our world troubles
3 years ago
in News
I read during the week that Mexico had cancelled all their weekend soccer games. They are trying to stop the spread of ‘swine flu’. All week there has been speculation concerning whether cases have been identified in Australia and New Zealand. Following close on the heels of a world financial crisis it is easy to long for the good old days when Australia felt a bit more insulated from the problems of the rest of the world.
It is a very good thing that God did not insulate himself from the troubles of this world. Jesus came down to personally deal with our fundamental problem. Our world is infected with disease and struggle because each person is infected by sin. He bore the outcome of our ”disease” so that we can enter heaven as “vaccinated” disciples.
As we enter into the world of the Biblical Judges over this next term, we will be challenged to stop following the attitudes of our world and to seek God and His ways. We can’t cut off our contact with the world but we can avoid being infected by its values.
Stephen Semenchuk
Senior Minister