WE CANNOT JUST write off people; instead, we must love them.
Love is patient, long suffering, kind, it does not envy, is not boastful, and it is not puffed up.
In essence, Pastor St Thelmo Marshall of Word Ministry Church, Green Hill, St Michael, told worshippers that children of God should express and show love at all times.
“We have all done wrong, but God’s grace is sufficient for us,” he said.
Among those in his congregation two Sundays ago were members of the All Stars Calypso Tent, who chose to officially launch their Crop Over activities with a service of thanksgiving.
Marshall told them and the members of his congregation that “we have made a mess of love and are still doing so”, but he noted there is restoration through Jesus Church.
According to Marshall, “When we put [love] through our process, we end up with a feeling. A feeling is only a trivial, shallow thing. We want to take a word like love and try to understand it without looking into it. Love is not shallow. It is deep.”
He also said that just as there was a spirit behind love, patience too “has a spirit behind it”.
“Patience has a character like love. It is a disposition; a calmness. We are sometimes too shallow.
“Love [and patience] exist and life really is deeper than we realize.”
Marshall focused on 1 Corinthians:13, often referred to as the “love chapter” of the Bible, where he pointed out the various characteristics of love.
He stressed, “You can do a lot of kindly things, a lot of loving things and still not have love.”
He also noted that by our words we can either display love by building a person up or speak one word just to tear them down.
He said the fullness of God and His love can be found in individuals who give their lives to God. And he told those present it was not too late to do so.
“No matter how old you are, if you have not seen God’s fullness in your life as yet, it is not too late. What you have not accomplished in 40 years you can accomplishin six months.”
Marshall spoke of a God who is a gracious, wonderful, everlasting Father and who, when we fall short, supplies us with His grace.
In acknowledging the faithfulness of God’s love, he noted, “We mess up every day, but God is not your enemy. He is not beating up on you. He is trying to help you make it.
“No man is strong enough to take you down unless you are weak enough to make them do it.”
Marshall said the trials and challenges we often go through “are not God’s way of breaking us” but rather, His way of making us.
“God calls your struggles a light affliction. We must stand up and trust Him. Without Him, we are like a sinking ship without a sail and without a foundation.”
He called on his listeners to stand up for what they believe, noting that “no one has ever achieved anything without a fight”.
Above all, he urged everyone to love deeply.
In her brief address, All Stars Calypso Tent’s manager Eleanor Rice said she was happy to kick off the Crop Over season by first giving thanks to God.
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