Can we be an Island?

I had my playlist on this morning whilst I was making my breakfast and a song came on called No Man is an Island, and it made me think, can we be an Island? Do we have a capacity to be alone?

Sometimes we can end up going through stuff in life that makes us feel alone in what we stand for. Standing firm in the truth of the gospel can feel really lonely. But I don't think we can be an island.

As the chorus of the song says:

No man is an island, we can be found 
No man is an island, let your guard down! 
You don't have to fight me, I am for you 
We're not meant to live this life alone

We're not meant to live this life alone, Paul spends most of his new testament letters instructing the church in how to live together, to love and support each other, to share in each others sufferings and joys.

So can we be an Island? By no means,

If you're finding yourself standing alone as an Island, pray with your church family, on your own and find a way to get stuck in and share life with your church family. We're really not made to live alone, God says in Genesis 2v18, it is not good for man to be alone, so I will make him a helper.

Don't be alone, call on your brothers and sisters for support and love. And be that sister your family may need.

Giving God the Glory

In my home group we're looking at 1 Corinthians 12-14 all about Spiritual gifts and our first session we looked at 12 v 1-11. 

The thing that struck me the most about this passage was how the Holy Spirit determines exactly what gifts each church needs and how they should use them. The most striking thing about that to me was how people thought that some gifts are better than others. 

This is a total misunderstanding of verse 11, the Holy Spirit is the one who determines the gifts we are given, he shows us how to use them and gives us the discernment, and most of all every gift no matter how large or small is a gift from God and is a blessing on His children!

Let's use our gifts to build each other up and grow His kingdom for His glory!