'For our God is a consuming fire' Hebrews.12:29
Dear friends,
Can you believe we are now entering week twelve of lockdown?
Despite the welcomed lifting of some restrictions It may be sometime before we return to normality. It feels that returning to the way things were are not necessarily what many of us desire anyway. Neither may the old 'normal' be realistic as we move forward in a post-pandemic world. Of course, we are far from being out of the woods just yet. We move forward carrying the pain of many in our community whose lives have been turned upside down through loss of work, bereavement or other factors.
I do hope that over these past three months you have found some of our online activities useful and through them you have been able to encounter God and grow in faith. Do let us know what’s been particularly helpful or anything that we could be doing. Nonetheless, I am sure we all feel frustrated with the absence of friends, family and not being able to fellowship together at this time.
This Sunday, on the Podcast Paul and I will be having a fun discussion on the Second Coming, judgement and living like the Kingdom is near. In Kids Church Leanne will continue to look at God’s word and will be thinking about light. I have included a link to HTB’s Sunday service where they will be joined by Mike Pilavachi, senior pastor at Soul Survivor. I hope you will join me this week for these and some of our other activities. Please do keep in touch with family, friends and Connect Groups.
I have a number of thoughts on the events that have transpired throughout the nation over the past few weeks. How we should respond to these issues as followers of Jesus is not always easy to figure out. While it’s easy to jump onto the back of causes, or to oppose solutions that may make us feel uncomfortable, A good place to start is always with scripture and the words of the great commandment,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
The context of these verses is the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the passage our neighbours are those who are foreigners, aliens, outsiders, those who are different from ourselves.
What does it look like for us to love our neighbour at this moment in time?
Regardless of our views, our first response is to always seek God’s face and to pray.
During last Thursday’s prayer meeting I felt I had a picture. While someone was praying for the urgency of the church to gather in prayer at this time, I had a picture of a small fire being lit. Then someone blew at the base of the flames until the fire took hold in a dazzling blaze. I just had a sense that the wind of Spirit is longing and waiting to blow throughout our nation. But the Spirit is waiting for the people of God to gather at this time in prayer. As we pray we will be kindling spiritual fires that the Spirit will fan into glorious flames. Whether you are able to join on zoom or not I would encourage you to set time aside Thursday evenings and pray. May we witness a consuming fire, that moves through our community and nation, bringing life and transformation.
Thank you so much for all you are doing
Do keep this message handy and just click on the images below for all the links.
Lots of love,
Allen x
|
