Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

A vain hope deceives us because the hope that we have will always be dashed and leave us wanting; but the hope that God gives us is certainly not vain!

He gives us a hope that allows us to love openly because of the love that He poured into us through the Holy Spirit. That love then can overflow from our hearts and to those around us giving us a firm knowledge that it is Christ who put it there.

We should never be ashamed of that love that He gave us to share with others!

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Speaking to a friend tonight I was reminded of this verse which I really should be able to remember better than I do!

For many years God has been the one watching over me all the time, protecting me, guiding me and teaching me. He is the one who has given me a spirit within me that gives me the power to go forward, to love people openly and to be able to talk to them about the many ways that He works in my life.

I am not a great public speaker, nor a philosopher; but God allows me to teach others the gospel!

Mark 11:15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

What would you do if you had set aside a place for little children to play in and a crowd of adults came to drink and party there instead? Would you allow them to carry on whilst children were trying to look for a safe place to play or would you stop and get them to leave?

The temple was set aside as a place where people should have been able to come to worship God at without the world bullying its way in. Jesus was quite rightly upset with the local people for what they had done.