What's In Comes Out!

My blip today may not be immediately recognisable as a glass full of water which has overflowed into a dish - a strange way to call us to worship at church this morning!

It was to remind us that we can be filled with God's love and power through the Holy Spirit and when we are, then we need to take that love wherever we go - at home, school, work, when we stand at the bus stop, when we are shopping, on holiday, in fact anywhere we are.

It was amazing how this image brought back to my mind something I read many years ago in a book entitled simply "If". It's just a small book, written by Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India in the early 1900s, who served there for 55 years without furlough. This book is relevant at any time of the year, but especially relevant after Easter and asks the question, "What do I know of Calvary love?"

I knew exactly where to find the book and ran upstairs to my quiet room and found it immediately. Inside the inscription reads "Girl Covenanters - First Prize, Senior Scripture Recitation, Cotswold Area Rally 1964." A long time ago!

A quote from the book, which has stayed in my mind over the years is this:
"If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water however suddenly jolted."

If I am filled to overflowing with the love of God, then no matter how much and how suddenly I am jolted, all that comes out of me should be that love. Jolts only bring out of the cup what's already in it and they certainly don't turn sweet water into bitter water. So if bitterness comes out when I'm jolted, it's not what the other person did or said, but the result of what I am and what's in me.

I like this translation of Luke 6 : 43-45
You don't get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It's who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.
The Message

Have a great week fellow blippers.