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Good morning. Steadfast love. That’s what matters to God. That’s what makes the difference in our lives. The word steadfast means unchanging and consistent. When we learn the importance of honest, consistent, unchanging love for God, we begin to experience more than just religion, but relationship. When we spend time with God and talk to Him, we develope a relationship with Him. Relationship with God brings knowledge of the path of life. The more time we spend with Him the less confused and worried we will be. The more confident we will be in our decision making. Equally important, relationship with God brings joy. So many of us pray for joy but don't go to the source: the presence of God. Find a quiet place to talk with God and pour out your heart to Him. It is in these moments where joy is made, and your heart will be renewed day by day. When we do this, we will find the truth in what David, the psalmist, wrote: "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." (Psalm 16:11) Have a good day filled with the joy of the Lord. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. Often when we think of joy, we think of an emotion. We have been conditioned to think that joy is a response to something good that has happened. We assume that when things go right in our lives, joy will come automatically. Because we believe that joy is an emotion, we make the mistake of thinking it cannot be controlled. We tend to believe that if we are in the midst of pain or hardship, that it is impossible to be joyful during that season. Joy is something good for us and it is something that can be produced in us. Holy Spirit can produce joy in our hearts that can nourish our soul ⎯ even in the darkest of circumstances. God created the nature of joy (as well as love, patience, goodness, and all the other fruits of the spirit) to be a product of our relationship with Him. As we walk with the Father we learn to cultivate joy, and consequently enjoy its sweetness during every season of our lives. Joy, like any other fruit, requires intentional choice. In order to reap it we have to make a conscious decision to do so. The challenge we all face is to intentionally take steps to develop a relationship with God that will grow the fruit of joy in our lives. Have a super Sunday in His presence, for "the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. Do you remember the song that says, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love”? Secular songs are usually way off base, but this one was nearly right. What the world needs now is God's love. Actually the world is starving for the love of God. They search for it in countless ways, but there is only one way they’ll ever be fulfilled. As followers of Christ we are an open door into the love of God for the people with whom we come in contact. We have the privilege to love them with the God kind of love. This is not always easy. It takes practice! It takes a cultivating of the fruit of the Spirit inside us. When we are patient, kind, not rude, not envious, not boastful, and we forgive quickly and don’t gossip, we stand out! That how we demonstrate the love of God to those around you. We can love so deeply and so well, people will know just by watching us that we’re are followers of Christ. They will literally find His love in us. And that’s what they’ve been looking for all along. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34‭-‬35) Enjoy a day giving His love away to all those you come in contact with. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. This past year will go down in history. Will it be about how much it affected us for the worst? Or will we be talking about the hope that endured even through the days when all seemed lost? Will it be remembered for when churches stepped up to fill the gaps with food parcels through the generous giving of alms by followers of Christ, a year when we figured it out and found a way. This was only possible because we had hope; hope that even when people were grieving and lonely, we could still reach them with the love of God. God’s light could still break through. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5) When we read the passage "love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7), we get a fresh grasp on how Jesus may have interacted with the season we have been in this past year. We are trusting that each one of us will grasp that even though we are still unsure of what is to come, with Jesus we have hope in all things. Have a good day. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. What do we do when it feels like we are running out of love? Often life will demand more than what we have to offer. This is particularly true when it comes to love. Sometimes it just seems too hard! There are those who we find it easier to love, especially those who love us back . But this love shortage even applies to them; they do things that hurt, perplex, and annoy us, and our "love account" gets close to zero. So what is the solution? “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." (John 15:9) Jesus got his love for the disciples from His source, the Father. Jesus carries on and says, “Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love." (John 15:9‭-‬10) God never asks something of us that He will not equip us for. Jesus has commanded the naturally impossible because He has told us how to supernaturally fulfil it. Get close to the Father and by accessing His love loving the people around us becomes possible. More than that, it will bring us deep and real joy. As we walk in the love of the Father and we give it away to those around us, we will find our "love account" will be replenished. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. Love! What a complex emotion! Or is it an action? Or is it just a word that is used to describe our affections for anything from family to chocolate, to a sports team, to a favorite pair of shoes? In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul outlines the perfect demonstration of love–it is patient, kind, doesn’t envy, doesn’t boast, isn’t self-seeking! It is this "love" that we are commanded to show. He ends with saying that “love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (13:6). This is more than a list of what you should do. It is a reminder of how God loves us and commands us to love others–not in our own strength but in God’s, through His Spirit living in us. This love seeks the best in a righteous and self-sacrificing way. That is the kind of love followers of God need to aspire to. The problem is it is hard to do. Sometimes we are not in the mood to put ourselves out, or people are too difficult and challenging. Love can be costly at times—even sacrificial. But without it, where would we be? God spared no expense when demonstrating His great love for us through Jesus Christ, so let’s commit to loving others, in good times and in hard times, no matter what. "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1) Give His love away today. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning As Christians, we are all striving to become a reflection of Jesus, the perfect embodiment of love. Jesus said that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love others (Matthew 22:37-40) John’s Gospel says, it is our love for one another that sets us apart. That is how we show people Jesus—through audacious, exceptional love. Love comes first; everything else comes second. As Paul goes on to say in Corinthians, if we miss out on love, we are a clanging bell, and our efforts count as nothing. When we put love first, everyone will know that we are His disciples. Love is not a nice feeling that makes you warm and fuzzy inside. It’s about being willing to lay down yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Jesus. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34‭-‬35) As you go about your daily life walk in His love give it away to all those with whom you come in contact. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7) If you’ve been to a wedding, the chances are you’ve heard this verse. Because of the familiarity, we can often miss the power of what Paul is writing. So let’s take a moment and look at these four things that love does. • Love bears all things. Loving relationships often have to carry a lot of weight and involves bearing with each other, carrying the weight of life and being a safe place for another person to unload their burdens. • Love believes all things. This doesn’t mean conspiracy theories. It means believing the best in another person. Being slow to take offense is a sign of love. • Love hopes all things. Often love involves waiting, and the key to waiting well is hope. Hope helps us wait because it gives us belief that the wait will be worthwhile. • Love endures all things. Life is tricky. Sometimes things don’t go the way we want them to, and one of God’s greatest gifts to us, when we go through suffering, is to provide loving relationships around us; people who will endure things alongside us. In our relationships, romantic or otherwise, we have the opportunity to demonstrate our love through these four actions. Let's go for it. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. Stepping into the new year we are reminded by Mike's friend, Paul, "since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22‭-‬23) Have you ever tried to change something about your life? We set out to do it, but somewhere along the way to change we slip back into the old habit, the old attitude, or the old behavior. Why is that? Well, it’s because we don’t make lasting change with our heads. We do so with our hearts. We live from our hearts, from our desires and deepest wants, and it’s those things which have to change, in order for our behavior to change In Psalm 119, David is reflecting on the Word of God. "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119:97) Jesus affirms this approach to living. His great commandment is that we should "love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength" (Matthew 22:36-40). It is when we love rightly that our behavior changes. Faith and obedience flow from love—God loving us and us loving God. At the outset of 2022 let's allow love, one of the segments of the fruit of the Spirit to saturate us in such a way that our behaviour will reflect God's love to those we come in contact with. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. "Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (Phil 3.13,14 NLT) With this in mind, Daphne and I pray that 2022 may be exceptional; that the King will be exalted and His Kingdom will continue to advance. May you have a blessed, happy new year. Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. 2021 is rapidly drawing to a close. It has been a year filled with ups and downs. Through the thick and thin of it, a heart of thanksgiving to God has been key to us coming through it victoriously. As we go into 2022 let us keep our focus firmly in Jesus. He is: "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel." (Colossians 1:15‭-‬23) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost" Blessings. Mike and Daphne

Good morning. One of the things that struck us when we were allowed to gather as a church, after the first hard lockdown, was the number of older folk who came to the meetings. For them (us) it was was an opportunity to gather with friends and the church family to worship God together. In Ephesians 5 from verse 21 Paul writes about how we as followers of Christ should behave. Having explained this, he says, "This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church." (Ephesians 5:32) Over the past few days we have been encouraged to count our blessings and give thanks for them. Will you join us today as we give thanks for the church, both universal and local. We are so thankful for our church - that is you who make up our local church. We have the privilege of worshipping the risen Saviour there with friends who have become family to us. God bless each one of you. Blessings. Mike and Daphne