Reflection: "Seeing the Great Glory of God"Have you ever been to the top of a mountain where it seems like you can see forever?
You stand there, slowly rotating through 360 degrees and all you see is pure beauty. If you’ve ever watched the Winter Olympics, you’ll know that on top of a snow-capped mountain you will see sweeping, blinding white, panoramic magnificence from the top of the runs. There are certain places in this world where it seems as if you can see forever, but you’ll probably also know that mist and fog can descend on a mountain, making it impossible to see past the hand in front of you. There are not only mountaintop experiences that happen on actual mountains; but there are also what are called “mountaintop religious experiences.” These are those special times when you see with utmost clarity who God is. When there is no fog, no haze, no trees, no obstructions, and there, for a moment, in that mountaintop religious experience, you see with utter clarity a vision of who God really is. In the book of Exodus, Moses saw this clear revelation of God, even though there were ominous black clouds swirling, with flashing lightening and the thunder growling. In the lightning and the thundering, Moses was talking with God. When Moses came down from the mountain, his face was shining brightly - evidence of a mountaintop experience. He walked down the mountain with the Ten Commandments, the moral law for the human race. Moses saw with utter clarity, the moral law for the earth. So, Moses was on the mountain in the Old Testament, but the New Testament also has a similar story of a mountaintop experience, and it’s called “the Transfiguration”. In this story we can see with utter clarity the truth about God. Peter, James and John were on the mountaintop with Jesus and their eyes were dazzled with visionary ecstasy.Jesus was transfigured before them. He was utterly changed before their eyes. This was where the human, Jesus of Nazareth, was transfigured into this divine Christ of glory. At children’s birthday parties, we often light sparklers and let the children wave them around. The sparkler itself is a bland piece of grey wire with some material coating around it. The sparkler is dormant, apparently dead, before heat is applied, usually with a match or lighter.And then, suddenly, the sparkler comes alive and sparkles intensely. The sparkles are so alive and bright, compared to the bland piece of grey wire. Thus it was with Jesus, on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus came alive, as if he was shining with sparkles. At least, that’s how it was described in Mark’s recording of the Transfiguration. We read that Jesus went through an enormous transformation. And on the mountaintop, the disciples saw a vision. And in that vision, they could truly see who Jesus really was - the Son of God - the very presence of God in divine form. Glorious. Bright. A dazzling shining light - like an angel. In this vision, we saw Moses, the lawgiver of the Old Testament, the founder of the Ten Commandments. Also in this vision was Elijah, and he was the greatest of the Jewish prophets. The Law and the Prophets, were the two divisions of the Jewish Old Testament. Peter was there, too, and he saw Jesus sparkling. Peter was there to see it all, and we are happy that he was, for Peter often said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Peter had “foot in mouth” disease and we like that, because we often have the same problem. Peter said, “I have a good idea. Let’s build three huts. One for Jesus; one for Moses; and one for Elijah.” He implied, “Let’s make this experience more memorable and long lasting.” Suddenly, a voice thundered from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” This is my Son who is greater than all the laws of the Old Testament. This is my Son who is greater than all of the prophets of the Old Testament. This is my Son, Jesus, the Son of God - listen to him. He is the voice of God for you. Don’t centre your attention on the laws and prophesies of the Old Testament. Far more important than these, is the importance of God’s Son, Jesus. Listen to him. Suddenly, it was all gone. The vision was all gone. All that was left was Jesus and some ratehr stunned disciples. Visions are those rare moments in life when there is no fog, no haze, no trees, no obstructions, where you clearly see the truth about God and the truth about Jesus Christ. Visions aren’t hallucinations. Hallucinations usually happen to unstable people who are going through a period of instability in their lives. For example, an alcoholic will have the DTs (delirium tremens), after they’ve been drunk for a long time. Or, if a person is on drugs such as LSD, that person may have hallucinations. Visions are not hallucinations, nor are they fantasies. Fantasies occur when you can’t deal with the real world, and so a person creates this imaginary, pretend world, as an escape from the real world. Visions are those special moments in life when we see something with utter clarity, knowing that it’s true. We can understand the fact that God has put us on this earth for a reason. We all have a purpose and perhaps you may have already discovered what yours is. Visions – the moments of truth when there’s no fog, no haze, no trees in the way and no other obstructions. A time when you see your God-given destiny. When we think of today’s Biblical story, with the vision on the mountaintop, we can’t help but think about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, who, on April3, 1968 said, “I have been to the mountain. I have seen the Promised Land.”King had this vision of the Promised Land where all people, black and white, would live together in peace, where black and white would live together as family, as brothers and sisters, a vision of God’s creation between the races.” Dr. King had a vision; he believed the vision; he gave his life for that vision - the very next day. You usually need visions to see the possibilities in life, to see beyond the problems and past the haze and past the fog and past the trees and past the obstructions - past the hindrances and to the possibilities. Visions are moments of truth, where we know for sure about God and his destiny for our life. Have you been to the mountain? Have you had visions…where you know for sure that you’re loved by God? Visions of what it means to love one another. Have you caught the vision of God’s kind of love? Have you been to the mountain and, with Martin Luther King Jr., have you seen the Promised Land? If you’re fortunate enough to have a mountaintop experience, you just may be able to see forever. You may even be fortunate enough to see God’s glory and have a vision of his love for you. I pray that you do and that you can. Pastor Rick
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Reflection: “Living in the Freedom of God”What does it feel like to be free?You feel like you can do anything and not have others criticise you for it.The Psalmist obviously felt free enough to cry out his love and praise for his God.
The apostle Paul, writing to the fledgling community at Corinth, felt free to let them into his secret for sharing the gospel with non-believers, when saying that he would adopt the persona of whoever he was appealing to. In doing so, he could speak freely at their level and not appear as an outsider. He would put himself into their position and try to understand how it would be for them to best understand the gospel news that he had come to tell them. Have you ever noticed it’s difficult to get a group conversation started, or bring that discussion to a deeper level. Luckily for us, there’s a game called TableTopics, that’s designed to get conversation started between two people, or a larger group. TableTopics consists of a clear cube, filled with cards that have one question on each card. Each person in the group draws a card and reads their question aloud, with all people taking turns to answer it.The “Holy Spirit” version helps people get into deeper, spiritual, conversations, that help them explore their own personal faith, as well as getting to know their friends better. It gives them a chance to freely express their faith, hoping that others will be answering the same way, too. For example, one of the questions leads to a discussion about the difference between being healed and being cured. Do you think there’s a difference between being cured and being healed? Can you be cured without being healed, or vice versa? When we’re physically ill, we want a cure to make us feel better. But even though we may feel better, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are healed. Our understanding of healing, especially in our gospel stories, means something more:It means a restoration of wholeness, particularly when it comes to our spiritual lives. When we’re healed, even if we’re not cured of a physical ailment, we then have the ability to re-join our community in whatever way we are able and we can be at peace on our journey. Throughout our lives, we meet people who are burdened with spiritual illnesses. When we’re ready to be healed, it demands action on our part.It demands that we are ready to invite Jesus into the place that is wounded and help us. In our reading from Mark today, you may have noticed that Jesus doesn’t just seek out people who are sick. Often, they come to him, either on their own, or through the disciples. Simon’s mother-in-law is brought to his attention as soon as they arrive at her house and, as soon as Jesus heals her, she immediately goes about serving him and the others of the house. She was restored to her community, allowing her to continue serving. It’s interesting that the Greek word meaning to “serve” is the same one that Jesus uses to describe himself. He calls himself the “one who comes to serve”. This example of serving embodies the ideal of discipleship, as service to others, which was what Jesus was trying to get people to understand. It was because of the woman’s encounter with Jesus, that she responded with immediate discipleship. Although Jesus continues to cure many who were physically sick and casting out demons, he doesn’t allow the demons to speak, because he didn’t yet want people to know that he was the Messiah. The fame of Jesus was already spreading from the time when he taught with authority in the synagogue at Capernaum - casting out an unclean spirit there, too. But Jesus’ call was always first and foremost to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God; everything else, including the miracle healings and exorcisms, was secondary. As it often happens in human nature, people were getting caught up with the “messenger” and not the “message”.Sometimes we get caught up in the hype of someone who’s charismatic and the next thing we know, we’re buying something, giving away our savings, donating a kidney, or whatever it is that person has seduced us into. Jesus didn’t want to be seen as just another miracle-worker, because that was not his mission.His mission was to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is here, through God’s authority, not human authority, so he felt free to pursue that course of action. It’s in the third part of our gospel story today that Jesus teaches us something very important, when he gets up early one morning and goes out to a deserted place to pray. Observing morning prayers was a regular part of Jewish religious practice, and we know that the desert and the wilderness were places where a person could feel a closer contact with God. After all that pouring out of himself in the previous days, Jesus needed to feel free and get in touch with God again. Being battered with the intense and desperate needs of the world can make things a little foggy. When the needs of your boss, your spouse, your family, your school, your church, your friends, call on your time, it’s easy to forget what it is that GOD needs.The way Jesus dealt with his issues was to go out to pray and be reminded of who he is and what his mission is. If Jesus had come to solve all the aches and pains of people on earth, then we’d be sitting here with a very different gospel and none of us would ever catch COVID, or the flu, have arthritis, or general aches and pains. By getting himself free of the world’s woes, Jesus is able to get his priorities straight, talk to God and decide that it’s time to move on and to proclaim the gospel somewhere new. There will always be more need than one person can deal with, that’s why discipleship is important. The response to an encounter with Jesus is a converted life – a life in line with manifesting the Kingdom of God in the world, proclaiming the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. There’s a whole world out there that hasn’t heard the Good News yet. Isn’t it time that we committed to following the example and way of Jesus and tell them the Gospel story? If we didn’t feel that we had been saved by our love of God, we’d have great difficulty in enthusing ourselves to follow the example of Jesus, taking the gospel message to new areas, where the people were yet to hear it. It might not necessarily mean travelling to far away mission fields – because the needs are all around you. I pray that you will feel God’s freedom in your lives and that you will take up his challenge to proclaim the gospel. I’ll leave you with this Christian thought, often mistakenly attributed to St Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel constantly, and when necessary, use words.” “May the love of God shine light in places of darkness. May the presence of Christ bring hope and healing in places of need. May the transformation of the Spirit bring change to places of struggle. Amen” Pastor Rick Reflection: "Authority"We are in the church’s season of Epiphany (which means “a sudden insight, or understanding”)
and this time is when we reflect upon how we have been touched by the presence of God - through the human manifestation in Jesus Christ, just as the Magi, or wise men, were, thousands of years ago. Our reading from Deuteronomy tells us that the Lord (YHWH), would raise up prophets, and as we look through the various books of the Old Testament, we see that the prophets were, almost exclusively, people without office, not of high rank, not high priests, not judges. They were generally farmers, or other manual labourers, until the Spirit of the Lord came upon them. And then they were able to speak with authority - and the people listened. There are actually two kinds of authority. There's the authority that comes with an office – e.g. a judge, or Prime Minister, or priest, has authority through the law - or by the office they hold and their ability to influence, to increase, to cause something to happen. But there's another kind - and that's an innate, inner type of authority – with which Jesus spoke. When he came to the synagogue at Capernaum, it was clear that there were those present who had been appointed to positions of religious authority and civil power. But Jesus came into the synagogue and began to teach “as one having authority” - and the people were amazed, because his teaching seemed, somehow, different. It had authority, but not because of his position (for he had none) and he wasn’t a member of the Sanhedrin. He wasn’t a judge or a priest and yet he spoke as one who knew the truth. Jesus surprised people with his note of authority. When he spoke, people found something powerful happening in their lives. When Jesus spoke, people said, "Ah-hah...yes, that's true, that's true about me." We read often in the scriptures that Jesus would speak to a person, and they would respond with words like: "How did you know that about me?" When Jesus saw a person, he really looked inside them to reveal their inner self - he was aware of who they were and seemed to know them better than they knew themselves. Yes, Jesus had this amazing authority, but it wasn’t because of any office that he held, or any educational degrees that he'd been given. He had a unique kind of authority, as the son of the creator of the universe. Even the unclean spirit, from our reading in Mark’s gospel, recognised this authority – it was scared that it would be changed if it listened to Jesus. Of course, it did become changed, as the authority of Jesus healed the man, and he was whole again. As people of faith, for two thousand years we’ve come to understand that this authority in the person Jesus is uniquely powerful, because it’s intertwined with God. Paul said, "God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." Even the centurion who stood guard at the time of the crucifixion, who had probably never seen or heard Jesus before, was so filled with awe and wonder at this man as he died, said, "Truly, this was a godly man." And Thomas, who like most of us couldn’t really believe until he had strong evidence, when he was able to touch the manifestation of God's presence, said, "My Lord and my God." Jesus spoke with authority and, as believers, we see that authority rooted in his relationship with God, the Creator. In Jesus, we are touched by the divine. So how do we relate this understanding of Jesus, as one speaking with authority, to our daily lives? With the understanding that each of us also has some innate authority. We all have influence - on family, friends and neighbours, work colleagues, etc. So, what authorities influence us? We know that some authorities are givens. We live under the authority of the constitution and the laws of this nation and these influence and impact our lives. But many of the authorities, under which we live, are chosen. I have chosen to be married and so I live under the vows of marriage. I have also been baptised and I choose to live under the covenant of the baptism. Some of us may even give up our lives to the authority of addiction. An addiction, whether it's to drugs, alcohol, nicotine, or whatever, is when we allow that substance to have great authority and influence over our lives. So today, as we meditate on Jesus and the authority with which he spoke, let's ask ourselves, "What authorities rule my life?" Money? Family? A job, a boss, or maybe friends? In fact, a good discipline for each of us, is to write on a sheet of paper the various authorities and the various influences they have on our lives, and then try to put them in some sort of priority. What's the highest authority? Most of us would not like to admit it, but money will be very high on most lists, higher than we’d like to admit. So, I encourage you to look at that list and ask yourself “How do we need to change it?” What’s on that list that makes us uncomfortable? And then we should ask ourselves, "How do I use my authority with others? How do I use my authority with my family, in my workplace, in my neighbourhood? Do I use my influence to control people, to frighten people? Or do I use it to raise up people when they're lost or weak? Do I use my authority to support and affirm other people?" And also, what does it mean for me to accept Jesus as the primary authority in my life? Not just attending church once a week, but giving our lives wholly to his authority, resisting all others. Millions of peoples, over thousands of years, have found their lives radically changed for the good, by accepting Jesus Christ as their primary authority. We offer ourselves, our souls, to God. This is who we are. Today's Gospel shows us Jesus teaching people who were gathered together. The decision to accept Jesus as the primary authority in our lives is an individual decision, but the spiritual journey to make that authority real, is a community journey. I therefore urge you to meditate on this powerful reading from the Gospel of Mark and ask yourselves the question about authority and how important God’s authority is in your everyday life. Ask yourselves “How do I use the authority that I have?” You know, we all have much more authority than we believe. Many of us are prone to say, "Oh, I don't have any influence. I don't have any authority." - Yes, you do. You have major authority upon the people you live with, your neighbours, your family, your friends, your fellow workers, the people you know and meet on the street. Even today, our appointed leaders still get threatened by the teaching of Jesus, which can turn upside down all our ideas of who is important and valuable. Jesus shows us that the seemingly least important are valued by God as much as the person in highest authority. He shows us that the greatest leader is the servant of all, not the one with the highest position or most money. He shows us that the greatest force in the world is not the greatest army, but love. We believe that God has touched us through the person of Jesus Christ, made us aware of the divine presence. I encourage you to meditate on how to accept that divine word and how it will affect your daily actions. Then make a plan of how you will use your own personal authority, given to you by God, to influence others to listen to his word, too. Pastor Rick Reflection: "Let's Go Fishing"In a recent report on contemporary family life, a somewhat exasperated young fatherdescribed parenthood as “always filled with joy, but sometimes not much fun.”
Many parents could probably relate to his words. And it doesn’t just apply to modern parenting, either. For being father, or mother, with all its wonder and joys, was not easy in any era. Good parenting invariably entails a great deal of giving and self-sacrifice –which as we all know is “sometimes not much fun.” That father’s offhand comment seems somehow appropriate as we reflect on today’s gospel account of the calling of the disciples – particularly James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Mark’s gospel tells us that they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. What must Zebedee have thought as he saw his otherwise perfectly sensible sons suddenly get up and leave their nets and their chores? And to do what? To follow a little-known itinerant preacher no less.Not much fun in that for Zebedee, one supposes, as the hired men probably stared open-jawed in amazement at this little family drama unfolding before their very eyes. Apparently, parenthood, and family life, was no simpler 2,000 years ago than it is nowadays.By the way, commercial fishing was – back then and is still today in many places – a family business in which each member of the household has his or her important role. It’s fair to say that fishing for a living is a lot of hard work and is not always fun. While a family-run fishing business might not have been the most glamorous profession in ancient Israel, nor have put one into the highest echelons of Hebrew society, it was nevertheless a respected profession and a solid means of income to support one’s family. It was, in fact, more highly regarded – according to some scholars and experts – than the work of a lowly village carpenter, as might be levelled at Joseph, the father of Jesus, and even Jesus himself. So, to follow Jesus – as admirable as that may seem from our advantaged perspective 2,000 years later – also meant for James and John, the giving up of a not-insignificant trade or profession. As they say, people will always need to eat. The troubling conclusion also seems almost unavoidable: Following Jesus might well mean leaving parents and family and the security and comfort of a good job or career. With only the hired help with him, Zebedee was probably wondering how he would manage. And “Follow me” is precisely what Jesus says to that other pair of brothers, Peter and Andrew, also fishermen at the Sea of Galilee. His call to James and John must certainly have sounded a similar note. Even now, there are probably few words in all of Christian scripture more demanding than these:Follow me, we’re going fishing. Jesus gives no explanation for his challenge. Nor does he give his followers or recruits a clear 7-point business plan for his new start-up ministry. He makes no promise of success or riches either.His vision statement – if you can call it that from a present-day corporate perspective – is only that his disciples will come to “fish for people.” And can there be much of a future in that? The disciples obviously must have thought so, because, curiously, they’re not portrayed as having agonized over their decision to drop everything and follow the Lord. They didn’t first go home and sleep on it, or discuss it at length with family members, friends or village elders. And surely, if they had approached their local rabbi for advice, they would most assuredly have been sent back to Zebedee to continue the family business. Still, there’s something truly energizing and exciting in the response - or impulse, really, because it hardly seems to have been a decision at all for these first disciples. Perhaps, in leaving their home, they comprehended at once the larger family of humankind to which Jesus was calling them. To “fish for people” is, after all, about community – and family. And, though not always fun, as the disciples were themselves later to discover, it’s most definitely about joy – the joy of bringing the Father’s love to others sorely in need of the Good News of the gospel. Most of us have, no doubt, from time to time dreamed of dropping everything and heading off on some personal journey of discovery – until we sit back and calculate the cost, come down to earth and get back to reality. Probably there would be very few of us today who would leave our nets, much less our “Internet”, to follow in the footsteps of James and John, Peter and Andrew – or even Jesus himself. Yet our Lord’s challenge to the disciples of so long ago remains there, continuing to test us today – just those two words: “Follow me.” The fact that we know from the perspective of faith, just who Jesus is and what he calls us to do, seems to make little difference. In some sense, our challenge/task is perhaps even greater than that of those impulsive young followers of Jesus. For most of us are called to follow our Lord at the very same time that we’re challenged to remain where we are – at the side of family and friends. Yet, perhaps paradoxically, accepting our Lord’s gospel imperative, invariably leads us to fish for other people, even if we never actually pull up stakes and leave home. What the early disciples must have instinctively known is something we must not forget – that in following Jesus we might leave everything, but we lose nothing. That’s the good news of God that Jesus and his disciples proclaimed with great joy throughout Galilee – and we can also do so across our world today. And probably even the disciples’ own father, Zebedee, could find joy in that. Good leaders must be servants first, seeking to serve the highest priority needs of others. The leadership of Jesus followed these principles, as he didn’t say to the disciples: “Go” - but: “Follow.” Jesus was not really the gentle, meek and mild person he’s sometimes portrayed as, but was, in fact, a strong servant leader, who stood up to the forces of this world. He asked the fishermen to leave the safety of their nets and become fishers of men. Now he calls each one of us, today, to follow him in the greatest adventure the world has known. Are you ready to go fishing with Jesus? Pastor Rick Reflection: "Following Jesus"We aren’t given many details about Philip in the Gospels, but John tells us about his calling by Jesus.He tells us that Philip responded in faith and followed Jesus.
And the very first thing Philip did after that was to find his friend Nathaniel to tell him, “We’ve found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote.”This is often the way the gospel spreads – one person recommends it to another, face to face, in the context of a personal relationship. Now Nathaniel was passionate about Israel and their deep longing for meaning and worth, coming from a national identity as the people of God - and like many good Israelites, he longed for God to redeem Israel. He longed for the messiah to come and lead Israel into a new era of international prominence. He bound up his sense of purpose and worth with his people, yet he was disappointed. The Maccabean revolt, a century and a half before, had failed to establish Israel’s prominence. Prophets and preachers wandered throughout Israel proclaiming that the messiah was coming, yet Israel was still in Roman chains. Nathaniel was a cynical and jaded man who thought “I’ve heard all the claims, now let’s see some action.”Philip persevered, inviting Nathaniel to “Come and see. Come and see the Christ and encounter him for yourself, then you’ll get the answers you really want.” Now we shift scenes to the encounter between Christ and Nathaniel, where Jesus said two things. First, he called Nathaniel a true Israelite, in whom there was no guile. Second, he told Nathaniel that he had seen him sitting under the fig tree.The “true Israelite” image could just be Jesus saying simply, “You are faithful.” On another level, this statement was a play on words referring to their patriarch Jacob, a man in whom there was lots of guile, lots of falsehood.Read his story in Genesis (Chs 27-32), and you’ll see that he was a trickster until he wrestled with God. Following this encounter, his perspective changed, he turned his life around - and God named him Israel. So, there was subtleness when Jesus called Nathaniel a true Israelite in whom there was no guile.Also, the fig tree was a place of rest and comfort and the ancient prophets used the image of the fig tree to convey a picture of God’s end-time kingdom. In Zechariah 3:10, after describing how God would remove the sin of the high priest and the land, the prophet wrote, “In that day, each of you will invite his neighbour to sit under his vine and fig tree, declares the Lord Almighty.” Jesus used these literary images to convey his understanding of Nathaniel’s deep identification with Israel and his longing for deliverance. In effect, Jesus was saying to Nathaniel, “I know what’s on your heart. I know you’ve been praying for the messiah. I know you want God’s kingdom to be restored.” We don’t know exactly what Nathaniel expected, but Jesus greeted Nathaniel by speaking directly to what was most on Nathanial’s heart, immediately getting past the cynicism to encounter the core issue. Jesus didn’t play games, instead penetrating the yearning that Nathaniel most felt and Nathaniel responded with simple faith and joy, by saying “You are the Son of God, the King of Israel.” His quick switch from cynicism to earnestness indicates the depth to which Christ had touched him. This is an example of the kind of disarming encounter we can expect from a meeting with Jesus Christ. Jesus gets past our defences to speak to our longings. He reminds us that we were designed and created with dignity. That we’ve been given talents and abilities that can be used for a purpose. That our daily labours have more significance than just the grind of earning a wage. That our physical bodies and relationships mean more than mere gratification. And that as God’s people, we’re cherished, loved, adored and doted on. As smart as we may think we are - we really don’t have all the answers and we can quickly get in over our heads theologically, when trying to explain the love of Jesus to others. All we can then do is point the person we’re conversing with, to the one who has all the answers – Jesus.Isaiah 55:11 says: “So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.”Jesus gets past walls and defences to touch people where and when they most need it. Now look what Christ promised in today’s reading from John 1, verses 50 & 51. This statement was guaranteed to blow Nathaniel’s mind because it spoke to his heart yearning, but in a way that far exceeded expectation. Christ didn’t promise to restore Israel – he promised to open up heaven and show the inner workings of creation. He didn’t take for himself the title “King of Israel,” but instead called himself “Son of Man.” Jesus was saying “I’m a bigger king than you ever expected.” Who else could speak to our deepest yearnings but the one who was present at the beginning of creation and who crafted those very yearnings within us? Christ knows those yearnings even better than we do. As we walk with him, and grow deeper and wiser in faith, he’ll teach us, revealing to us understanding about the yearnings he’s placed within us, and about the corruption that sin works on those yearnings. Christ will be a king of a totally different sort.The Gospel (good news) is for cynics – like us. And sometimes it’s hard for us to recognise God’s calling for us. Like Samuel, we might think it’s someone else, like his mentor Eli (read 1 Samuel 3:1-10). But God doesn’t give up on us that easily. He keeps calling, offering his life to us and it’s up to us to receive that gift with gratitude, change our lives and follow him. Are you ready to follow? My prayer is that you’ll search your heart and ask Jesus to come into your life. Pastor Rick |
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