The apostle Paul is preaching up a storm. He's talking about how to please God, about how we should live in a way that makes everything we do an act of worship. He tells us: 'Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them' (Romans 12:9 NLT). This verse is saying: 'let love be without hypocrisy.' God is deeply unimpressed by hypocrites. He can spot them a galaxy away. The Bible is full of places where he's disapproving of people's outward actions because their hearts are completely the opposite.

In the book of Joel, God says, 'Don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead' (Joel 2:13 NLT). He's cross at people who are doing all the right things but not really feeling it. They're covering up how they feel by putting up an impressive-looking front. But it's not real.

Being nice and considerate can make us look good but it's really not what God's after. To quote 1 Corinthians 13:3 NLT, 'If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.' Our love should be for the benefit of others, not for our own personal PR campaign; otherwise it's worthless.

So what now? Has there been a time lately where you've done something nice but you had an ulterior motive? Ask God to give you his genuine - that is, never false or hypocritical - love for people.

'I'll never forget that day. I much prefer to remember the week when Jesus came to my town. Everyone was talking about him. He performed miracles and said things that really challenged our thinking. As he came through our city gates, everyone cheered, "Hail Jesus, King of the Jews!"

But days later, he'd been arrested. I couldn't find out why. They were asking us to choose between Jesus and a thug named Barabbas. You'd think everyone would shout to release Jesus, right? But one person shouted, "Free Barabbas!", then another, and soon the whole crowd was shouting it. Even I shouted, "Barabbas, free Barabbas"! I don't why I did it; I'm not the sort to go along with the crowd. Why didn't I stop and think for myself? The next time I saw Jesus, I hardly recognised him. His face was swollen and bruised - they'd beaten him up really badly. He had blood running down his head from where they'd forced in a crown of thorns. They laughed like it was a joke, but it didn't look funny to me. A soldier asked some guy to help carry Jesus' cross - I suppose that's one good thing that happened that day, but the only good thing.

When they nailed Jesus to the cross, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." While he was there, dying, he was thinking of us, asking God to forgive us...to forgive me.'

So what now? Thank Jesus that he died and forgave you, so you can be set free forever.

Everyone faces problems. It's part of living in this world. We can't control the unexpected side-slams that find us; but we can control how we react to them.

We are people God has met, reached out to, saved from sin and then restored. So, we're in the best possible position this side of Heaven to deal with problems. Romans 8:37-39 NIV says: 'In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

The things that might intimidate us can't separate us from his love. But more than that, the side-slams we've had so far are not meant to remain as 'weak points' in our armour against life. When the Roman Empire conquered a city, they not only captured it and controlled it, they put it to work for them. God's even more efficient than that terrifying military machine: when God restores us, he takes control of our weakened defences, and these weak points become his strong, shining towers. Our shaky moments of former weakness will become the workforce of his glory in our lives. In him, we'll not just conquer those weaknesses, we'll have 'overwhelming victory' (Romans 8:37 NLT).

So what now? Imagine your weaknesses 'put to work' for God's glory. Now talk to him about it.

It's just so easy to transfer our negative or insecure feelings about someone into our conversations with others. It's like our subconscious goes: 'If I fill their heads with bad ideas about that person, no one will notice my failings.' Not good! We have the ability to decimate other people's idea of the person we're talking about. And, what about those moments we've said something negative about someone...and they've overheard us say it. Those moments feel so awful because we're aware of how much damage our words can inflict.

And what about the spiritual impact of our little rant moments? Matthew 7:12 CEV says, 'Treat others as you want them to treat you.' We shouldn't do or say something we wouldn't want tossed back at us. So, unnecessarily harsh words? Not so keen on them boomeranging back? Best not to throw them out in the first place.

Today's verse, 'If you can control your tongue, you are mature' (James 3:2 CEV) is basically saying that it's near impossible to control our tongues? Well, as always, asking God to help us is the answer. We can't always wrestle our tongue away from the stupid, but he can. If he can get a storm to quieten with his words, he has the power to stop us creating black clouds with ours.

So what now? Who was the last person you said something bad to/about? Send them a note, apologising and telling them something positive they've brought to your life.

How much easier would life be if we could pause, rewind and take back all the stupid, thoughtless stuff we've said. Are we imagining that beautiful world? It's pretty great, right? Sadly, that's not the world we live in, and once those words are out they are... out!

We sing, 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.' More like: 'Sticks and stones may break my bones (which will heal fairly quickly) but words can do near irreparable damage that can take many hours/years of pain and processing to heal.' It's not difficult to see how our words can be hurtful; it's harder however to stop saying hurtful things back and to forgive people when they've said stupid stuff to us.

Everyone messes up their words. What are we most likely to do: gossip, criticise, boast, quote the Bible a bit too much in a bit too holier-than-thou way? It's worth figuring out which one we're most prone to and work out how to do it less. We cannot shrug off destructive words as 'no big deal': 'If you can control your tongue, you are mature' (James 3:2 CEV). Let's think about what we say and how we say it, because our words matter.

So what now? Think back to the last time you said something carelessly and hurt someone (I'm sure you won't have to think too hard). If you haven't already, ask God for forgiveness, march yourself back to that person and apologise.

The apostle Paul put up with a lot of nonsense from the early Church. In Galatians 5 he's having a stern word with the Galatian church (funny that!) for insisting that believers be circumcised. (Not convinced he's angry? Just look up Galatians 5:12.) He's unhappy because people are misrepresenting the gospel. The Galatians had bought into a lie that said we need more than faith in Jesus to be saved. They thought they could be saved by obeying some rules. Paul sets them straight: 'For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love' (Galatians 5:6 NLT).

People often feel they have to earn their forgiveness from God. It doesn't work like that. We can't earn a free gift. We can however show our gratitude by saying something like: 'God, you've made me worthy, thank you so much! I'm going to love others as an expression of how grateful I am!' Which is sometimes hard to do.

We're really self-centred, us humans. Serving others doesn't come naturally and it takes time and effort to develop an 'others first' heart, but the more we appreciate what God has done for us the easier it will be.

So what now? Get some serving practice in this week. Every opportunity you see to serve another human take it. Make tea, carry heavy things and spread around heaps of encouragement on your loved (and not so loved) ones. You are saved to love and serve.