Connect2Grace

Simple Grace

2012-01-19T06:32:00.000-08:00

Justification is an interesting word. It has weighty and theological connotations but it also represents it is a very simple concept. That is the mystery of God’s truth. The central focus of its complexity is its simplicity.

Justification means that if we believe in Christ we are freed from the oppression of sin. Christ then begins the process of transformation in our hearts. We know new life in the Spirit and we begin to feed on the word of God. We begin a lifetime journey of growing in grace.

Through our faith in God we begin to change the world around us. We work towards making the world a better place and our minds are transformed to the way of Christ. In humility we can only give glory to God through our good works. It is about seeking Jesus relentlessly through all things and Scripture promises us that if we seek Him we will find Him.

This must be at the centre of all that we do and preach. It is at the centre of all that we are as Christians. The grace of God is beyond anything we can truly imagine; it is simply the source of all hope, all life, all faith…

Preparing for Here and Now

2011-12-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

Advent is a wonderful time of year, a time for prayer and preparation. We prepare to celebrate the coming of the Christ-child. It is through Christ that we can know God’s wonderful gift of salvation. The wonderful thing about the gift of salvation is that there is nothing we can do to earn it and it is something that is here and now. We can obtain it in the very moment. We don’t have to do anything or wait for anything. There are no limits to it either.

Salvation is of course about faith. It is open to all who believe in Christ. Through Him we can be free of all that is in the past, all the things that hold us back from knowing true peace. We can ask for and know His forgiveness for our sin. Humanity’s brokenness and hopelessness was dealt with at the cross. As St Paul says in Romans - we can be completely free of condemnation. We can know the power of God’s grace.

We can come before God as ourselves without any pretence because we are His children. We can also be free of the need to find our own perfection because we know Christ’s perfection and in that we are motivated by love. We also know that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. We are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. We know freedom by the grace of God…A very great gift indeed….

The Greastest of These

2011-11-22T07:54:00.001-08:00

Christianity is about lifestyle. Religion can be about keeping a set of rules but it is so much more than that. It is about being liberated by the grace of God and then making lifestyle choices that result from that and being able to live a life of joy in response to God’s love. He is the source of all grace.

The thing about Christian lifestyle is that it is also about faith. Faith that goes beyond outward expression of keeping a set of rules but it’s something that motivates all that we do. It is an inner transformation that flows outwards from our relationship with God to change the world around us. We work to make the world a better place not just because it is a good thing to do but because we are inspired by our love for God and our fellow human beings.

We are able to acknowledge in all things that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Christ is the centre of our faith. Faith is not only rational, an agreement to a concept, it goes so much further than that. Faith also must come from the heart. So in as much as Christianity is lifestyle, it is also a matter of the heart. Our hearts must be right before God, completely dedicated to him as in the words of St Paul,’…..faith. hope and love and the greatest of these is love..’

A Vision of Grace

2011-11-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

In Genesis we are told of the Spirit of God hovering above the waters. It is a very beautiful and inspiring image. It speaks of God the caring and dynamic creator. It speaks of the Spirit of God bringing life. Without the Spirit of God there is no vision. The prophet Joel speaks of the Spirit being poured out on all people and there being prophecy and visions and Jesus said that He had come to give life abundant.

When we encounter the joy and inspiration of creation, we encounter the wonderful reality of God’s grace. We can do nothing to earn our salvation. We can only come face to face with His grace because He is the author of creation. God is the source of all that is goodness and all life is gift from Him. In Jesus we encounter God as human, and He is full of grace. He challenges people with both His directness and humility to face the truth of who they are and where they are at.

Perhaps it is that when we encounter the life-giving power of the grace of God that we come face to face with ourselves as well. At that point we can only be silent before God for He sees us for who we really are. But it is also in that moment that we know His unconditional acceptance and love. It is in that moment that we become completely who we are in the power of the Spirit of God

Seeking and Finding

2011-10-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what gives a place its sense of being. On walking into an ancient building such as a cathedral or church there is this sense of it having being a place of prayer for thousands of years. There is this sense of the Spirit of God being present. The Bible tells us that at the beginning of time the earth had no form but that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. In Psalm 51, the psalmist requests God not to take the Holy Spirit from him and Luke’s Gospel speaks of an ‘Advocate’ who will come and testify about Jesus.

The Holy Spirit can sometimes be forgotten in the focus on the person of Jesus but the truth is that we cannot focus on Jesus without Him. He is a full member of the Trinity, in tandem with the Father and the Son. In the current age, we have become very good at doing but perhaps we have not been so good at being. It is essential that in seeking to be, in the process of silence and meditation and prayer, that we seek the support and empowerment that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is a vital part of our life in Christ.

It is so easy to become caught up in all the doing. Indeed it is comforting to fill the hours of the day with activity and then feel that we have fulfilled our mandate as Christians. But what is it that we really have achieved, because if we have achieved our goals without prayer at the centre, what then? It is not that we must not enagage in good works, but those good works must be set in the context of the Holy Spirit’s agenda and must be the work of furthering God’s kingdom. If we follow in His way, then our work will bear fruit.

The Bible asks us to seek first the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is so much part of that process. We only need to seek Him diligently and He will be found…

Nothing To Deserve It

2011-09-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Grace. How do we define it? John Wesley called it ‘free underserved favour.’ In the current climate do we perhaps need to be reminded of grace as a concept? I guess in this day and age it is easy to feel that somehow our salvation must be earned. That somehow our faith journey is to be based on all our own strength and that somehow we have to persuade God that we are worthy.

But grace is so important to our everyday lives at this very moment in time because perhaps we need to encounter the grace of God more than ever. We need to seek God’s face in prayer, to come before him in supplication and repentance. And we as the church need to be seeking to communicate the grace of God to the world in new ways that are relevant to this age. By the same token, grace is also a timeless concept. We need to take care that when we seek to communicate the Gospel, we do so in a way that is sensitive and motivated out of a sense of care for others and passion for God and not because we feel we are on a lone mission to reverse the perceived decline in church numbers. So in essence we need to allow grace to communicate grace without our interference.

Our role is to be instruments in the great symphony of God’s love. To not allow our individual sound become so loud that we drown out the music around us and that way we play our part in something magnificent…God’s amazing plan of grace.

To Find Hope…..Pray.

2011-08-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Prayer. How do we define it? Communication with God; Supplication; Petition; Something we do every day? Or only in emergencies?

It is important that we remember prayer is about our relationship with God and He is full of grace and love. Prayer is an encounter with Him and in that encounter we come face to face with that grace and love.

The key thing that gives meaning to life is hope. The world would sometimes have us believe that there is no hope. But as human beings we all have an intrinsic longing for hope and for prayer and the two are interrelated because it is through prayer that we find hope. The incredible thing is that when we have reached the end of our resources and feel completely helpless we can pray. When we have reached the highest point of joy and celebration – we can pray. There is no place in this world where we cannot pray and in that it is the most profoundly wonderful gift.

The Psalmist speaks of that when he says: ‘Where can I go from your Spirit…?’

Passages for Study:

Psalm 139

Luke 11:1-13

1 Kings 8:54-61

Acts 4:23-31

1 Kings 9:1-9

Psalm 66

Colossians 4:1-6

Amazing Teamwork

2011-07-21T13:44:00.001-07:00

Summer is a great time for being outdoors, barbeques, playing sport – well most of the time anyway. This week’s weather has prevented outdoor pursuits somewhat… But whether we play a lot of sport or not, teamwork is important in many aspects of life. It is amazing to consider all the teamwork throughout human endeavour that makes the world a better place. We cannot always work alone. There are times when we need to work with others in teams to make things possible.

But it is important to remember that in a good team based on the principles of Christian community, each person is valued for their distinct contribution and for who they are. There is no space for politics and power games, only a desire to live for and serve Jesus Christ. And that has to be a continual everyday choice, both individually and communally and if we are serving Him, we will most likely find Him outside church walls as much as within them. It is interesting that Jesus spent a whole lot of time bringing healing and wholeness to people outside the synagogue and temple as well as spending time in those places.

It takes great humility and discernment to hear when Jesus comes to us. He always comes to us quietly and gently and sometimes He intends us to seek Him diligently so that He can be found. Sometimes the search is very much part of the vision. The road to sanctuary is a road of humility. There is no space for personal visions and glory moments. There is only space for total focus on Him

Jesus in the Gospels makes it very clear that He is about acceptance but also sets standards for living. The important thing to remember though is that these standards are set through example. And when those standards are kept they have an interesting way of influencing and transforming all those who come into contact with them. But the crux of it is that the standards of the Gospel must not just be kept for their own sake, or for some kind of competition to see who the best at keeping the rules but they must be kept based on and out of love – love for God and one’s neighbour. That is the essence of obedience – an obedience of love.

The amazing thing about love, as described in 1 Corinthians 13, is that it holds contradictory forces together. So in the case of acceptance, love doesn’t prescribe rules but points to inalienable truths and standards. It reveals a new way of life in Christ. The concept of God’s love is so much more beyond what we see it to be through our human limitations. The whole of the Gospel is about His love. The whole of John Wesley’s theology is God’s love revealed in the Gospel......

“Amazing Love, how can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me....” Charles Wesley

Passages for Study

Matthew 13:44-45

1 Timothy 4:1-15

1 Corinthians 14:26-40

Romans 15

Psalm 68

Luke 9

1 Peter 4:8-11

Strong Humility

2011-07-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest sections to fill out on a job application form can be to have to list one’s strengths. Its part of the world that we live in, that it sometimes feels like that in order to survive; we have to become experts at relentless self promotion. Yet when we come across the word – humility –, what images immediately come to mind? When we speak of humility it challenges us because the word conjures up images of weakness and unquestioning compliance but it is not a blind submission, but an intelligent active choice.

Humility is a sort of controlled exuberance, to be passionate about the things of God and in that to exercise complete self-control. To know humility is to come to some point of fulfilment as we are able to balance conflicting forces within ourselves and hold the passion for the things of God in tandem with being people of grace.

It is the beginning of the road to healing because as we follow this journey of humility and obedience, we learn more of ourselves and even more importantly, about our relationship with God. Far from being a point of weakness, it takes great strength to embrace humility. It’s not about being pushed around but making obedience a choice. It’s about making a choice not to embrace the worldly message of self-glorification but making a choice to find one’s true identity in Christ. It’s about letting the rain of God’s grace nourish our souls. He must become our total source of all that we need. We must become totally reliant on Him. Humility is about allowing Jesus to become the total centre of our lives. He is our strength and focus in all things and His life will flow through us to the world around.

As we live in community, we allow God to work through others around us and also to work through us. It is a journey of learning more of God, of His amazing gift of salvation and how He brings us to wholeness. The love of God is all embracing and healing and it is also challenging and actualising helping us to become all that we are to be in Christ.

Passages for Study

Proverbs 11:2

2 Corinthians 10

Proverbs 15:33

Philippians 2:1-11

Proverbs 18:12

Colossians 3:1-17

1 Peter 5:1-11

Building on the Power of Silence

2011-07-07T04:17:00.000-07:00

Silence and sanctuary - two quite powerful words. What do we think of when the word sanctuary is mentioned? Do we really know what to do when we encounter silence?

In order to build a place of sanctuary there must be a time and space for quiet, for reflection. There must be time for the building of the sanctuary and the nurture of it and then there must be encounter with the world. John Wesley said that transformation – sanctification must have an impact on the surrounding community. The result is that as communities are changed, so are whole counties and nations. Wesley said that there can be no inner transformation without a resulting social transformation and vice versa.

The process of sanctification is about living a daily Christian pilgrimage and begins at the moment we make a commitment to the way of Christ. We are renewed inwardly by the power of God and it is an instant as well as a lifelong process. We are changed and look to the things of God and towards serving others. This doesn’t mean that Christian pilgrimage doesn’t involve struggle and doubt at times but the difference is that we have Christ as our focus and help.

After the initial positive feelings of conversion, we all get to that point where we come face to face with the reality that we have to live our faith in the real world full of noise, distractions and demands but it is important to remember that we are empowered by the Spirit of God to begin to live a new life in Christ. As we become passionate about the work of God and we seek to live according to His commandments and we worship God regularly, completely and with humility, so in a way we are partnership with God in the process of our transformation. We are not passively expecting God to change us with no effort on our part but neither does it depend entirely on our own efforts. It is a daily taking up of our cross in Christian pilgrimage.

And central to all of this, is that if we are going to build a place of healing and transformation it must be grounded in prayer. Prayer must be the centre of everything. Perhaps that is something of what Jesus means when he tells the parable of the house that was built on the rock, is that it is no use building anything without being completely centred on Him, in that way the Christian pilgrimmage can lived out in the midst of the joys and the chaos of daily life..

Passages for Study

Luke 6: 46-49

Ecclesiastes 9:17

Mark 4:35-41

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

1 Kings 6:1-38

Psalm 20

Psalm 63

21st Century, Instant Coffee and Not-So-Instant Faith

2011-06-30T05:34:00.000-07:00

How long does it take a kettle to boil water for a cup of coffee? It would probably take less than five minutes. And if it took more like ten minutes, then perhaps we’d begin to think something was wrong with the kettle!

We are used to getting things done quickly. Everything in the twenty-first century happens with great haste. But what does it mean to be a Christian in the midst of all this haste...? Perhaps that’s what John Wesley meant when he spoke about the process of sanctification, about slow, constant, lyrical transformation – a healing that might take a lifetime; about not running away from daily realities.

So much about living in the present age is instantaneous. We give thanks to God that we live in an age of great discovery but one of the issues is that we want everything to be made right immediately. We expect quick fixes, especially in terms of our relationships. But if we believe in the process of being transformed in Christ then we will know that the building of relationships is long-term and requires deep commitment. We need to live in relationship with each other that it will be difficult, and we will know that it requires discipline and humility. As well as allowing the Holy Spirit to work our inner transformation, we also have to engage in the process.

Relationship is key. It is about creating a place of sanctuary for all people. In the midst of this is the image of the cloister that I mentioned in an earlier post – a place of peace that calls us to leave our own agendas at the door. The cloister acts like a kind of filter, providing sanctuary but also set in the centre of things as a beacon, a reminder of what it is that we work towards in our Christian pilgrimage – balance, humility and grace. Healing in the Christian tradition is also about a commitment not to walk away from the realities of life. It’s about working with the pressures and stresses of modern day life, but also attempting to bring them into balance and living with the mysteries that are a part of life and faith....

Passages for Study:

Psalm 71

Matthew 5:13-16

Ephesians 3:14-21

Romans 6

Philippians 1:1-26

Isaiah 58:6-14

2 Timothy 4:1-5

Right There Waiting

2011-06-23T10:19:00.001-07:00

Who enjoys waiting? Waiting in a queue for something? We all know that feeling when we have to choose a queue at the supermarket because it always feels like the queue we choose will be the one that will take the longest for some reason.

The essential thing about the Christian pilgrimage is that it is based on waiting on God’s agenda and not on our own. It is also about tenacity and perseverance and discernment.That’s where prayer comes in. Everything must be grounded in prayer. Through prayer and study one is fed spiritually to meet the demands of ministry and community living.

Throughout Christ’s time on earth He surrendered Himself to the will of the Father. We never see Jesus in the Gospels as being locked away from the world. He took time to be in quiet and away from the crowd in order to spend time in prayer but He is also totally engaged with the nitty-gritty of life. The challenge is again to keep the balance between interaction and service to the local community and study and prayer.

Contemplative prayer must be at the centre of any organisation and anything that we do. It empowers us completely. How a community balances a ministry to the surrounding community and also keeps those aspects of prayer is related to how those in leadership of the community manage that interplay between ministry, outside influences, contemplation, silence and prayer.

Waiting can feel unproductive and in this age of continuous busyness and high productivity, it is perhaps not something that we enjoy. However perhaps it is in learning to wait in prayer that we find abundant life.

Passages for Study:

James 5:7-11

Proverbs 8:32-38

Luke 2:22-40

Psalm 5

Luke 12:35-40

Psalm 27

Hebrews 6:13-20

Choice Choices

2011-06-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

What to have for breakfast in the morning? What to wear? What to do with our free time? In the world today we have so many choices, sometimes we can get lost in all the choice available. Yet the Christian life is about voluntarily limiting our choices, of submitting to one another, of humility. That has infinite and eternal appeal because deep down the human psyche longs for those things.

It’s what we do with those choices that matter. It’s also about making the right choices in how we conduct our relationships and living our faith in those relationships. Perhaps that’s what Jesus meant when he spoke about gaining the whole world and losing one’s soul, that there is an innate power in the choices we make.

St Paul in his letter to the Corinthians is very specific that there must be mutual respect within a community and in the relationships that operate throughout that community. If a community is to work effectively then the leadership of that community must be based on love, humility and compassion. If there is harshness and arrogance, then that community cannot be truly unified but just based on the carrying out of actions for the sake of it and the atmosphere within the community is oppressive and counter-productive. There is no love involved and where there is no love; there can be no following of the way of Christ.

So it is that where there is true Christian community obedience and love go together. Each individual contribution is valued and there is always an invitation to choose to follow the way of Christ. Sometimes the realities of being in community, of being in relationship mean sacrificial love and that sacrificial love is a choice. Making the choice to love not based on feelings or society’s ideals of loving perfection but just on the choice to be who we are in Christ.

Passages for Study

Joshua 24:16-28

James 4:11

Proverbs 15:33

Psalm 25

Luke 9:21-27

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

1 Corinthians 13

Discipline Seems to be the Hardest Word

2011-06-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Discipline is a difficult word in today’s world. It immediately conjures up images of school and regulation and a limiting of freedom. I like the Benedictine sense of discipline because for them the word is not draconian or punishing but it is like a weighing out of measures on a scale, a setting of a standard of balance. It is not so harshly enforced that it destroys all possibility of self-discipline and yet by the same token it is a solid framework which promotes growth and wholeness.

Throughout his Rule we have this sense of St Benedict communicating with us that God is not fooled. He sees everything as it is. In the twenty first century we struggle with that because it requires from us a high level of accountability and also reminds us that we are mutually accountable to one another – with the concept of living a mutual discipline.

A Christian community must accept people for who they are but also set standards for community life. The concept of mutual discipline is also built on the forming of a community that is separated from the world but also part of it. Obedience is like a solid line that runs through community life. It forms the boundaries that keeps the soul safe but also is the aqueduct that brings the soul living water. Obedience is not a point of separation but is rather a point of reconciliation of the soul to God and itself. Obedience must always lead us to Christ and to serving Him and our fellow human beings otherwise it is a false humility. So rather than discipline and obedience being a limiting of freedom – it is in obedience to God that we are liberated.....

John Wesley was a great community builder and even now hundreds of years later his words have great wisdom. This is based on his ‘Portrait of a Methodist’. It can make for daunting reading, but I think it is a framework that Christians who seek to live in community and have a vision for building up the Kingdom of God, should aspire to.

A Methodist is one whose heart is filled with the love of God by the Holy Spirit.

He loves the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength.

She rejoices evermore, prays without ceasing and in everything gives thanks.

His heart is full of love for all of humanity and is purified from envy, wrath, malice and every unkind affection.

Her one desire and the one purpose of her life is not to do her own will but the will of God.

He keeps all God’s commandments from the least to the greatest.

She doesn’t follow the customs of this world, for vice does not lose its nature through becoming fashionable.

He approaches all things even-mindedly and in moderation and practises good stewardship of his financial resources.

She cannot speak evil of other any more than she can lie.

He cannot utter unkind or evil words.

She seeks the good of all people, neighbours, strangers, friends and enemies.

Passages for study:

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Psalm 119:41-45

Isaiah 40:12-14; 27-31

Matthew 6:19-24

Ezekiel 47:1-12

Romans 5:1-11

Romans 8:18-39

Transforming Community

2011-06-02T02:05:00.000-07:00

What is community? It seems like at the moment people talk about it a lot, or the perceived lack thereof. The irony is that we probably have more ways than ever to communicate with each other and to build community – even across distance, continents and national and cultural boundaries. In the New Testament, the basis of community life is set out very clearly. There are four main points:

· The Gospel must be our focus.

· We must persevere in obedience to God’s will.

· Take on the armour of God.

· Persevere in prayer and pray with confidence.

Prayer must be the basis for all that we do. Prayer releases God’s miraculous power and also grows our faith. There is the lovely image in Ephesians of stirring to the sound of God’s voice. It is only a community that is centred on prayer that will be able to do that. The world and the church need prayer so much at the moment.

The practice of silence is an important part of that – getting to that place of silence within oneself, that point of complete surrender – that one is totally open to God. In that process we have to let go of all of those things that we can fill silence with in order to avoid encountering God. Those things that we hold onto so tightly that it feels like if we let them go we will have to encounter the very essence of who we are with our struggles and our shortcomings – but in letting them go before God, we find our identity in Christ and most importantly we find life in abundance. We also find that God accepts us completely for who we are even if we feel completely unworthy of such acceptance.

This process of healing transformation is about a gradual change - a transformation in Christ. The Benedictines call it conversatio morum. John Wesley called it sanctification. Very complex sounding theological concepts but the essence of it is about this process of healing is in prayer, drawing near in a mystical and loving relationship with God, prayer that flows from living simply and close to the earth. It speaks about bringing peace in the midst of chaos. It serves as a reflection of how we need to create an oasis of calm and simple refuge within ourselves – not only for ourselves but that those around us can encounter the peace of God.

Ephesians 6:10-20

Ephesians 5:8-20

Romans 12:1-8

Nehemiah 8:1-18

Matthew 28:16-20

1 Kings 3:1-15

Psalm 42

Prayer Central

2011-05-26T03:53:00.000-07:00

It is amazing in this age of scepticism and talk of decline regarding religion that people still flock to cathedrals. It is perhaps something to do with the amazing the sense of place that almost overwhelms as one walks into a cathedral and the sense of people having worshipped in a place for many centuries.

Another aspect of cathedrals that is not often mentioned is the cloister. The cloister is a beautiful symbol of Christianity as a way of life, God’s presence at the centre, and flowing outwards as healing into all the other aspects of living. It was a place for silence and reflection but it was also the organisational fulcrum, joining all the various aspects of the monastic community’s life. The cloister garden was at the centre, a place of ordered beauty and peace. It reflected the ideals of taking that which is of value both sacred and secular and treasuring it, enhancing and nurturing it. This was a ministry of great importance because in that way, the monasteries preserved great texts and art and were centres of learning and healing during the middle ages.

Scripture reminds us that we can hear the call of God in creation – and the call is for us to live eternal values. We are called to find God in that life rhythm of creation, wherever we are. The cloister and the cloister garden were about taking time to listen to God at the centre of a busy life and ministry. One of the ways God calls us to do that is through listening to nature, through listening to the music of creation.

Perhaps that’s why cathedrals are still so relevant to life today hundreds of years later because they were built around careful rhythms of prayer, of study and of singing at certain times of the day. As we encounter the rhythms of the Creator, we are able to set ourselves in tune with His call. We are able to be true to ourselves as He created us, to encounter wholeness and everything that means.

So perhaps we should seek to build a sort of cloister into our daily living. It doesn’t have to be big or important – a corner of a room or even a desk or if we are lucky enough, a garden or a beach, or a special place of natural beauty. It can be anywhere but it should be a place of prayer in the midst of everything, a place of connection and peace, from which the presence of God can flow into everything we do.

Passages for study:

Genesis 1:1-31

Mark 6:30-44

Jeremiah 33:1-16

Psalm 1

Isaiah 58:9-12

John 15:1-17

Psalm 92:12-15

Summer Hope

2011-05-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

There is something very special about spring and early summer. With the wonderful weather we are having at the moment it is almost hard to imagine the snow fall of the previous winter. I always enjoy celebrating Christmas in winter in the northern hemisphere as it is a great to celebrate Christ as the Light of the World in the darkness of winter. Yet as summer approaches, it is also good to reflect on the story of the incarnation as it is told at Christmas time because it reminds us to listen for His coming at all times because it is in listening that we are liberated. As Christian pilgrims we are called to listen to each other with care and to God through Scripture but also to encounter Him in unexpected places. It is a wonderful mystery that we can find Him in quiet, almost unassuming places and yet His Spirit is also a powerful catalyst for change and transformation. Jesus teaches us that we find God and ourselves through humility.

The Christian way of life works in tandem with creation, embraces God’s revelation and interprets it into the surrounding community and to the next generation. So many are searching for truth, yet the truth is with us. The story of a child born thousands of years ago to be the Light of the World shows us that truth of the incarnation is at the centre of God’s plan of salvation for humankind.

So we face the challenge of listening in the midst of all that comes to us in a day, in the midst of the seemingly endless demands. I believe strongly that the process of learning to listen to God must not be a burden but more of a gradual learning because if it becomes a burden, it defeats the object of seeking to listen in the first place. It is perhaps in the new bright days of spring and summer that we can take a moment to listen for Him in the music of His creation...

Passages for study:

Philippians 2:1-11

James 1:19-25

Colossians 3:12-17

Psalm 85:8-13

Proverbs 8:31-35

Proverbs 18:12-13

Philippians 2:12-18