Tag Archives: Jesus loves you

A Virtual Prayer Walk in the Heart of Toronto for Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

RE: A Virtual Prayer Walk in the Heart of Toronto for Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Dear Fellow Prayer Warriors,

Greetings and God’s Blessings from BLCF Church and BLCF Café!

As Christians, we discover ourselves in the same boat as non-Christians, facing the hard times that come from the invisible threat of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

At such challenging times, we must persevere by keeping our faith and hope while trusting GOD for guidance. We need to listen to recommendations of the public health officials, scientists and the government to wash our hands, maintain social distancing, staying at home for the health and safety of ourselves and others.

Many of our church members, as well as guests at the BLCF Cafe, are on the mature side, some with health issues, making them vulnerable to the deadly COVID-19 virus.  We pray for safety and protection for the BLCF Community from the Lord. We pray the Lord’s protection and blessings from the Holy Spirit for the people and businesses of the Bloor Lansdowne Community.

As a church, we keep open the lines of communication by calling our members, friends, and families, either by phone or by computer, so that we may share support and pray together.  Though isolated at home, this contact allows us to keep our unity in spirit and in faith.

Let us find solace by continuing to read the Bible, by praying, and by seeking God’s guidance while supporting one another. We may not be able to walk physically with each other, we still can walk together with the Lord, united by His Spirit.

At times like this, may we take comfort while meditating on the following Scripture passage:

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)

10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, stay healthy, keep safe, and travel with God’s speed. And for those who believe that the COVID-19 Coronavirus indicates these are signs of the end times, I reply is Christ Jesus here? He will come on that last day, for only the Father in Heaven knows the time that the Lord will return. Matthew 24:36:

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

In these challenging times, dear friends, we encourage you to keep the faith, maintain 6 feet of social separation, and wash your hands!

Yours in Christ,

Steve and Sophie Mickelson

Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship – BLCF Church and BLCF Cafe

The Way of Love – A BLCF Café Message shared on Wednesday March 13, 2019, by Steve Mickelson

BLCF Café Message shared on Wednesday, March 13, 2019: The Way of Love

© by Steve Mickelson

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gives a good description of how our existence would be like devoid of love, as well as giving us some characteristics of love.

1 Corinthians 13 (ESV): The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.                                                                                                                                

Footnotes: a. 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts deliver up my body [to death] that I may boast b. 1 Corinthians 13:5 Greek irritable and does not count up wrongdoing

Paul begins by describing what would God’s gifts be like without love. Since John told us that God is love, and if we accept the converse that love is an expression of God, and then the same passage gives us an understanding as we read ‘love’, we substitute ‘God’.  The result would be a description of life without God:

We see that without God, the speaking in tongues would be just noise. And what good would be having the gift of prophecy without God? What good would it be to possess the faith to move mountains without God? If we gave all that we had to the poor, were martyred for preaching the Gospel and did not have God to others, it would be of no value whatsoever.

If God is Love, how is it that we, as believers in the Resurrected Christ, are transformed? It is by the power of the Holy Spirit which is given to us as a reward for our faith, Romans 5:2-5 (ESV):

2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[a] into this grace in which we stand, and we[b] rejoice[c] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.                                                  

Footnotes: a. Romans 5:2 Some manuscripts omit by faith b. Romans 5:2 Or let us; also verse 3 c. Romans 5:2 Or boast; also verses 3, 11

As believers in the resurrect Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit of God, gifted by God in reward for our faith, 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV):

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

 By receiving God’s gifts of power, love, and self-control, we are transformed, through faith and by the power of HIS Holy Spirit into HIS instruments; expressions of God by the love we share with others. It is God’s desire that we shine as instruments of His love and His wisdom.