What really gets to me is when people don't apologise!

"Keep yourself in the love of God..."
Father, Son and Holy Spirit make up the Tri-une God
We are in Him, He is in us therefore we become part of the Tri-une God?
We are His body, He is the Head
Jesus is seated at the right hand of God
We are seated in heavenly places

"Keep yourself in the love of God..."

Intimacy with God is maintained and deepened not made
It already exists
We are in Him
He is in us

"keep yourself in the love of God..."

Therefore I can not "keep myself in the love of God" if I'm encouraged to keep myself there, there must be the possibility of failing to do this
How?

By turning away to idols
By commiting adultery and finding identity, value and significance in other things

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way"

"If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord Lev 6:2

Deu 32:20

"I will hide my face from them," he said, "and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.

1Ch 5:25 But they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. .

1Ch 10:13 Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, .

Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the Lord God." 2 Chron 26:118

2Ch 28:19

The Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel,for he had promoted wickedness in Judah and had been most unfaithful to the Lord.

2Ch 30:7 Do not be like your fathers and brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see.

Neh 1:8

"Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,

Pro 21:18

The wicked become a ransom for the righteous, and the unfaithful for the upright.

Jer 3:8

I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.

Jer 3:10

In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the Lord.

Jer 3:11

The Lord said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.

Jer 3:20 But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel," declares the Lord.

Hsa 4:12

They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.

Hsa 6:7

Like Adam, they have broken the covenant-- they were unfaithful to me there.

Eph 4:32

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Unfaithfulness will keep us from the love of God
We take ourselves out of intimacy with God
Not out of His covenant

Forgiveness restores relationship with God

Bitterness
rage
anger
brawling
slander
malice
will grieve the Holy Spirit

He is in me and I am in Him

His Spirit will lead me
Those who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14)

The Holy Spirit will convict me of sin
I can live free
I can 'keep myself in the love of God'
In intimacy with Him
In Jesus

Let me live in the reality of the truth and the presence of God

We live in a world where so much grabs our attention that it can become difficult to find time to be quiet.
Maybe its not even about finding the time, but when we have the time we can't be quiet.
My soul longs for a quiet place.
To be still
and
know that He is God.
There is a river that flows from the City of God.
All those who are thirsty can come and drink.
I want to drink
But I want to do more than to drink
I want to lift my gaze from the water
to the throne from where the river flows
I want to see the One who sits on the throne
I want to see the One from whom the river flows and gives life giving water
I need the water
I need the One more from whom the water comes
I need Him.

I get to wonder why so many people are focussing on a study of grace and law, and become determined to live under grace and not law.

How much of this is a reaction to a particular leadership style they may have been subjected to?

If so, then we have 2 separate issues.

Authoritarian and controlling leadership is a different issue to living in grace and not under the law.
The law and grace are issues of justification.
Bad leadership styles are bad leadership styles, and have nothing to do with our means of justification before a holy God.
David lived under Saul's dictatorial, jealous, murderous kingship but understood the grace of God - there was no confusion of issues.

The law reflects the character of God. It is good. Jesus didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. In the OT it was a means of justification - if you could fulfil it, that is.
Christ freed us from trying to live under a law in order to be justified, and in doing so, we live in grace, accepting His sacrifice to be sufficient to present me holy before God.
Grace sees me justified before God.

In this freedom we're called to 'through love serve one another'.

Let's do it, and so glorify the Living God, who has given us everything we need for life and godliness, and enabled us to 'fulfil the law in one word, in the statement, "you shall love your neighbour as yourself' for if we 'bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another'. Gal 5:13-15.

We're living in a world where truth is being redefined.
Who ever thought that truth wouldn't necessarily be universally true?
Wouldn't be absolute.
Wouldn't be universal.
That it would be defined by the reader/listener and not by the author.
What is true for some may not be true for others?
I guess this is what happens when God is rejected as the author of truth.
Not only rejected as the author of truth but as the embodiment of Truth.
If He is the embodiment of Truth then only He can disseminate truth to other - that outside of Him there is no truth?

I understand that there have been differing interpretations of theology, but are we living by interpretations or revelation?
Can interpretations be accurate?
Can we live only by revelation?
How do we know if one man's interpretation is simply that and another man's interpretation is by revelation?
Is it possible to discern the difference?
What are we living by?
Whose teaching is personal interpretation and whose is revelation?

Mat 4:4

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Truth is found in God.
Jesus is called the Truth.
Can we then say that to find truth on any given subject we need to get revelation from God, personally, on it?

I'm intrigued as to why people blog - so am doing the same to try and discover why I might be doing it and what I might write about...

Must say there are some blogs I love reading - it's a great way to see what motivates and interests people.

Trying to change my address was a lesson in perseverance and technologically challenging...

I was one of millions of voices who made a decision for a particular political party.
Now its up to the government to take the votes and do something with them...
Our future lies in their hands - or does it? Nope - the future lies with our God who is the future, and holds our times in his hands. He is the One who holds my future, and directs my path, whose word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path.

way to go

Being new at blogging, this is a trial run...

Feels like a journal but it's public, but I guess one gets used to that.

Tomorrow is election day when millions of people get to cast their vote, in a hopefully, free and fair election. Millions would have been praying for this day, and so we trust God to do what only He can do about the things that matter most to him.