Expectations of the Old

Based on the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, we contemplated what our expectations are when we are old. Remember we can be old in age, mindset or attitude.

Advent is a season of preparation, of getting ready for something exciting or important to happen. A season of expectation and anticipation.  Sometimes though we end up so weary, fed up with unfulfilled promises.  We are on the verge on a General Election and we are being promised so much.  We remember the promises of the Brexit campaign and our ability to trust these promises is fractured.  How do we know what is truth and what is spin? 

Sometimes we end up old – in age, in mindset, in attitude.  We know that old age doesn’t come itself.  Over the years the niggles in joints become regular events, the pace of the walk slows down, the mind that held multiple thoughts now stands in the middle of the room and asks what did I come for?  We look at younger people in their 20s and think they are 12 and should still be in school.  We look at younger people with a pang of jealousy.  Yet with age comes wisdom, experience and knowledge. For example, I wish I knew at 20 what I knew at 40, for then I might have made some kinder choices in my life. 

Sometimes we end up old in mindset or attitude.  I can’t do something because I’m old.  Rather than approach a situation from a different perspective we write ourselves off because we are old.  The minister encourages us to build the church and we think  to ourselves – well I’m too old for that.  And immediately we write ourselves off, as if there is nothing we can contribute.  Yet your experiences of this in the past can inspire and encourage the church of today.  We think the secular world is a huge problem, and yet many in the Church today come from the hard days post war pain and loss and ‘where was God in the wars?’.  

Younger generations are without time – giving them the gift of wisdom and knowledge that would help their time be used efficiently.  Or you have the time to pray for vision and God’s blessings…and of course every family needs the recipe for Granny’s apple pie!  There are equivalents to that in the Church – sharing the legacy of the church that was passed down to you and so on. 

Elizabeth and Zechariah were old, and felt that their time had passed. They were still faithful, good people of faith, fulfilling their role and worshipping God.  Zechariah was a priest but not one of the super duper variety.  Rather he was from a priestly line and was most likely just a simple country man with basic education in his field.  An ordinary old man, past the age of having children.  He is picked by lots to be in the Temple that day to burn the incense.  Probably a once in a lifetime opportunity but it is the right time.  An angel appears and tells him that his prayer has been answered.  I wonder if his first thought is – which prayer?  

The angel tells him that he will become a father, and Elizabeth a mother.  To be fair to Zechariah he wasn’t expecting to meet an angel never mind become a father.  When we are old there is a risk that we stop expecting God to do anything in our lives.  Yet in scripture, time and time again age is not a barrier to God.  Moses was 40 when he ran away and hid, 80 when he took the Israelites into the desert, and 120 when they found the promised land. 

Elizabeth hid during her pregnancy, perhaps to protect the child given her age.  Perhaps because she didn’t want to answer lots of awkward questions.  Perhaps because Zechariah couldn’t say a word, and that added its own issues to the situation.  But when Mary comes she is encouraged and enabled to accept and feel blessed by the pregnancy.  And perhaps she comes to believe that truly this child is of God.  When the baby is born she says his name is John.  It causes a reaction because normally the child would be named after its father or family, but she is adamant.  And so is Zechariah and as he confirms his belief publicly that this child is of God by writing down his name, he is given the power of speech back. 

Old age doesn’t have to silence us.  Old age doesn’t have to make us watch from the sidelines whilst others do the work.  Old age doesn’t make us dispensable.  But sometimes like Zechariah and Elizabeth we need to have our expectations challenged. 

If you have been silenced, ask yourself if you have silenced yourself?  Zechariah silenced himself by doubting the angel’s message.  Despite where he found himself, in a holy place, he could not process the moment.  And his doubt in God, in himself, silenced him. 

And only his faith that God was in the gift of this child, in obeying God was he able to speak again. How might you find your voice?  What doubts are holding you back from participating fully?  You might not be asked by God to have a child with a special mission, but you are asked to be part of the family.  Are there ways you can support, encourage, enable, build up, make paths smooth for others?  There are plenty people pulling down the church and people of faith.  We need an army of encouragers and enablers, wisdom givers and legacy holders to keep God’s people on track.  Proverbs says that grey hair is a sign of wisdom.  Generational characteristics say that the Millennium Generation get on better with their grandparents than their parents.  

Old age doesn’t come itself – it comes with wisdom, knowledge, experience, scars, and faith.  What are you doing with your old age?  Use it to bless others, and you will find it becomes less of curse for you. 

Amen 

Expectations of the Prophet - Advent 1

Reflection:  The Expectations of the Prophets – Hope for a broken world?

As Advent 2019 begins and we are left pondering how on earth it is this time of year again, I wanted to take just a few moments to pause and bring some context to this season.  Kind of like Easter that is lost in chocolate eggs and fluffy chicks and cheeky daffodils, the purpose of Christmas is lost in tinsel and busyness. In a world where the competition is to see who is ready first, and who will be raiding Asda shelves on Christmas Eve, we have to take a step back and remember as the cliché goes – the reason for the season. 

I deliberately started with the story of the fall – the story of Adam and Eve in the garden.  This story is designed to help us understand that the brokenness in the world around us is our own doing.  Of course we can blame evil influences, the devil indeed but the choice was and is always ours. We can choose to do good or to do evil.  We can choose to look after our own self-interest or we can choose to look after another. The story of the fall is powerful because it doesn’t allow us to lay the blame with another, and we see its counterpart in the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. He was offered a similar choice to Adam and Eve, and he was able to resist the temptation.  Could we find that as our faith and relationship with God grows deeper we too might resist negative and evil influences and make good choices? 

However, the story of the fall of humankind, the separation that appeared between God and human beings is important because without an understanding of this, the need for a Saviour seems irrelevant. Regardless of whether the story of the Fall is fact or fiction, we know that stories help us understand reality, and the reality is that humans are not willing to be under the authority of another.  To be fair we are usually too busy beating up one another to be interested in God. 

And throughout the Old Testament we read the stories of tribal warfare, of king against king, nation against nation, families against families.  We read in these stories the realities of today – mental health issues, family breakdown, adultery, murder, lies, genocide but also courage, bravery, wisdom, adventure, and love.  We might not be able to pronounce the names or keep up with the twists and turns as we race through the various kings, but when we look for the themes of these stories, we know, we know we are all the same.  Capable of good and evil, of heroic faith and epic failure, and yet into the broken world of the Old Testament, such as we have it recorded, comes God. 

The prophets foretold him – the carol singers sing – throughout these stories of death and war, poverty and exile, homecomings and heroes (girls and boys) – the promise of a Messiah.  One who bear everything – the suffering servant as Isaiah paints him.  And you know, this is what gets me every year when I sit to ponder the Advent mystery.  God doesn’t send some knight in shining armour, or angel soldiers to march across the land.  He doesn’t send us Thor or Superman or Wonder Woman but a baby born to a couple of young people barely born themselves it seems.  

We might want God to come stomping into our world and sort it all out.  Maybe he could be like Thanos and wipe a section of the population just to give the rest of a chance.  Maybe he reverse the climate damage we have done and we might believe in him.  What if God showed up and simply blew our minds? 

God did show up and he does show up.  But the prophets told us that this Messiah wouldn’t be a bully, he wouldn’t crush us – rather he would suffer and die for us, in our place.  And to truly know us, and for us to truly know him, he became one of us – God Immanuel.  God with us! 

This is the wonderful message of this season, reflected in the gifts we give, the time we spend with family, the celebrations that surround.  Yet all of this is window dressing, because there are still children even in Blantyre going to bed hungry, there are families separated by war, poverty, abuse…

We are setting up our divisions and building our barricades, despite all we know of Northern Ireland and the troubles, or the holocaust and the suppression of Jews…

In Old Testament times the prophets pointed to a coming Messiah, a message of hope, of reconciliation, of mercy, of learning how to be truly human in the image of God…and now we are called like John the Baptist to prepare the way.  To make the paths smooth – enable people to find God, find faith, find hope in this life and the next. It is not our job to protect God or his message.  It is our job to make it as easy as possible for people to meet the God who loves them.  

We are the prophets.  We are the ones who are bringing good news – news worth hearing, news that will bring hope in a broken world.  We are not just offering a Merry Christmas greeting, we are offering a way of living that is full of hope, peace, love and joy.  

As you prepare for Christmas once again, think about you share the reason for the season.  Can we really put Christ back at the centre of our Christmas?  Change what we do to put him at the centre even if that means breaking family protocol.  If we don’t put Christ at the centre of his celebration, then we are missing the gift given, and no-one else will believe he is necessary.  

The prophets spoke of suffering and then victory.  Who will you be celebrating the ultimate victory with?  Remember this world is transient but God’s world is eternal. 

Be a prophet – spread the message of hope in a broken world.  You have it – share it.  Amen. 

Blessings

Sarah 💖 

The Church is family

I know that I am a dreamer and naïve.  I live in hope of the perfect family. Maybe not quite white picket fences and apples pies cooling on the window sill, but I live in hope of the perfect family.  When I plan Christmas in my head I have visions of Nigella style cooking, family gathering around in their colourful but casual outfits, wine with no calories or hangovers, and laughter filling the air.  When Christmas actually happens…well lets just say the wine still happens! 

When it comes to the church family I am still a dreamer and naïve.  I live in hope of the perfect family.  A family that will love and support one another.  A family that will not judge one another, where you can find yourself in tragedy or disaster and still feel loved and wanted.  A family that embraces, a family that holds and supports, a family that laughs together, a family that spends time together. A family that will not stab you in the back.  A family that will look out for your best interests rather than seek individual glory or fame.  A family that will show the courtesy of respecting your space, your role, your position, knowing that you will do likewise.  For whatever is done by you as a member of the family, you can expect to be done in return. 

Family, however, are never perfect.  Families are made up of human beings who have good days, grumpy days, selfless and selfish days.  Days when sleep has been good and other days when caffeine is a must.  So we cannot expect the church family to be perfect either.  We are not family because of where we worship or the minister we follow.  We are family because we are children of God.  And no child is more important than another child.  I have two children that are mine through procreation and the wonder of childbirth.  I have a child who is mine because she chooses to be a child of mine.  I love them all and wouldn’t dream of sacrificing one over another…they are all very different – one even comes with a Yorkshire accent!  

So it is with God.  We are all his children, none of us is his favourite.  To be fair, I’m happy to give that particular title to Jesus and he sure earned it! Yet even Jesus said that we would do even greater things than him.  So it isn’t about titles or who is more spiritual or more clever or…it is about recognising that we are brothers and sisters in the family of God.  And for me, that means working together not against each other.  Competition is not of God, collaboration and community is of God.  Father-Son-Holy Spirit – different yet the same, collaborative and in community. 

 Personally, I have always wanted a church family where mistakes are absolved and helped, not judged and hindered, where all ages love and welcome one another, where we would socialise together not just worship, where we would bless each other without competing for glory or recognition, where we would listen for God not tell God what to do…where we might bring hope to families throughout the communities we serve.  There is a better way, and we can be family even as bunch of totally different people! We are the family of God - and one day our home will be together in the house that God built...😘

Every Blessing

Sarah 

It is ok to not be ok! Honest.

This week I have shared something within the Devotional of the Hamilton Advertiser that is from the heart and reflects the reality I see around me.  There are so many people who are not okay, and yet play the game each and every day.  They are always fine or ‘nae bad’.  But perhaps, if we can be more honest we would be okay.  Faith is so important to me, and this past year has proven to me God’s faithfulness, and challenged my superficial facets of faith.  I am not there yet in totally getting it all - in fact sometimes I feel like a complete beginner understanding God’s love and passion for me.  But I know that no matter how dark the world becomes, the light of Christ shines and leads me forward.  And if he does it for me, who has let him down and failed him, who has gone her own way and done her own thing, who has not always chosen the way of Christ, how much more can he do it for any of us?  None of us are ever truly lost to God even when we cannot find ourselves.  It is okay to not be okay, but I pray you know that God is faithful, even when we are faithless.

What I put in the paper this week!  May it bless someone in His name.

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2

Well 2019 has been a bit of different year for me, a year where I have taken the time to ‘honour my life’. 2018 was a tough year with lots of hurts, disappointments and for a time my mental health was in very poor shape.   Having struggled through Christmas I decided in the New Year to take steps to find my way back to my cheeky, optimistic, creative self.  I have surprised myself and all that I have achieved.  To be honest I never thought that by September I would be running 10km races for fun or weigh 4 stone less than the start of the year and be a size 10.  Please can I reassure those who keep asking if I’m not well – I am fine.  But one thing I have learnt folks is that we need to look after our mental health.  The physical health is important and it is part of the journey to better mental health.  However, it has taken a year to find my way back from my darkest place, and like many others, I still battle the symptoms, far more often than I’d care to admit.  Christians, sometimes, come out with those well-meaning platitudes or wonder how you can have faith and be in a dark place.  I want to reassure you today that if you are struggling with those dark, hurting places especially if you are good at managing or hiding them, that God will carry you through. I know God carried me through, but He journeyed with me through the valley of the shadow of evil rather than lift me out.  We live in this world, and that includes all that is wrong with it as well as all that is wonderful.  Please keep putting one foot in front of the other, and remember ‘it is okay to not be ok.’. God bless you.

Good Day?

I came across this poem in the book Hearing the Stranger by retired Bishop Michael Hare Duke (1994) and I wanted to share it.  It makes me think especially as it has been a hard week in some ways, taking me at times through hard conversations...it encouraged me and I hope it does you.

Was it a good day?
That depends on the shape of the ideal.
What I’d set my heart on,
slipped out of my grasp.
The meeting I planned was cancelled;
I wanted to impress someone
and he looked the other way.
“No access” blocked
the road I hoped to travel.
The weather was just the sort
that makes my head ache.
Definitely no the blueprint                  
for a red-letter day.

But if I turn the calendar,
with a frustrated flip
or scrumple the date
and throw it in the bin,
rubbishing the day,
I’ve missed the point.

It did not fill my fantasy.
It gave instead space to discover
new dimensions;
a chance to change direction
and not get hung up with resentment.
Not a perfect day - but good enough to grow in.

I hope you have a good day but even if you don’t there are silver linings somewhere.  Look for them!
God bless,
Love Sarah

Living Spirit Filled Lives - Week 4 of 4

Last week we talked about the fact that Paul is fully cognisant of the Spirit, and the Spirit’s role in his life.  The Holy Spirit is the key in his ministry, and keeps him fully connected in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  I was very honest at the beginning of these series to say that I am not good at this Holy Spirit stuff, but the more I have read and studied, the more I am convinced that we cannot operate fully in the ministry of the Gospel, of Jesus without living Spirit-filled lives.  I know fine well that the Spirit has been far more faithful to me than I have been to him.  Every fork in my path, every choice made, every closed door and opened portal has been the Spirit working in my life.  I’m not arrogant enough to think I stand here today in my own strength.  The Holy Spirit is in the centre, but I live skirting round the edges rather than embracing him.

Joyce Meyer talks about having trickles of the Spirit rather than being flooded.  She says ‘As the Holy Spirit floods your life, the Holy Spirit wants to move in and permeate every room.  He wants to live in every room of your heart.  Before he can do that, you must be willing to move out.’

Whatever image you use, or however you understand what it means to live Spirit-filled lives, I think that phrase – Before he/she can do that, you must be willing to move out’ is worth holding onto.  I think this is where Paul is going with the Church in Rome.  The reading we looked at begins by contrasting two types of life –
• Life dominated by sinful human nature
• Life dominated by the Spirit of God
And if I was to ask you which life you had we all know the answer is life dominated by the Spirit of God.  But if I asked which is it in reality could we truly answer life dominated by the Spirit of God?

I am not judging you – not in the slightest, because the Lord calls me out as well.  I believe that what happened to me last year was God challenging me regarding my priorities.  Paul is blunt and in other lists quite explicit as to what he means.  Jesus said we could not serve two masters – we can’t serve God and money.  We must choose.  This world is constantly vying for our attention – whether it crushes our spirits by telling us we are too fat or too skinny, poor or rich, stupid blonde, too old to contribute, too young to understand, job stealing immigrant and more….or building us up to sit on false pedestals of idolatry because we are top of our grade, our career, feeding our arrogance, singing our praise…if the world gives us our affirmation, our sense of identity or purpose, our home – we are lost.  Paul says we are on the road to death without the gift of eternity.

But to live a life dominated by the Spirit of God is to be constantly changing to become more and more like Christ himself.  We will all die, but when we are in Christ, death here is a step on the pathway of life.  Paul never feared death because he knew that Jesus was faithful and nothing in this world could take Christ or his promises away from him.  That is what it means to live a life dominated by the Spirit of God.  Nothing is to be feared because as Jesus said we should not fear those who can kill the body because they can’t kill the soul.  Peter in his first sermon tells the people that they need to repent, to be born again and receive the Holy Spirit.  

God meets us where we are, not where we think we should be.  This isn’t a question of how much faith we have but whether we are willing to choose Him.  Paul uses the image of adoption in this passage, and it is a powerful image for the Romans.  It was a tough process. If you are adopted, have adopted or have gone through the adoption process you will know it is not easy.  It is a minefield and it is a long process, but finally when those adoption papers are signed and all is legal, it is a time of rejoicing and permanent.

We enter the family of God, even though we did nothing to deserve it.  And in Roman culture, a son never came of age.  They were always under their father, their absolute possession and under his absolute control.  So when you were adopted in the Roman culture, and to an extent in ours the following happened.
• You lost all rights to the old family, and gained all rights in the new family.
• You were an equal heir to the estate, regardless of how many sons were born after you.
• Your old life was wiped out including debts.  You were seen as a new person with a new life.
• In the eyes of the law you were absolutely the son of the father, regardless of blood so no marrying your sister even if not blood related!

There were 7 witnesses should anyone question the veracity of the adoption, such as sharing the estate after the father died.  Paul says that the Holy Spirit is our witness to the adoption.  So to live in a Spirit-filled life is to accept that we are adopted into the family of God – we are children of God.

We were held by our sinful nature but God brought us into his possession.  Our old life has no more rights over us, our debts are wiped and our past is cancelled.  We have a new life and we are heirs like Christ.  If Christ suffers, we suffer, and when Christ receives glory, so do we.

In your baptism by water, and by the Spirit, you are absolutely a child of the Father.  And through the process of sanctification in the Spirit we are being transformed more and more into the likeness of God.  The world doesn’t have to shape you or dictate the terms upon how you live your life.  No matter how insignificant you think your daily work is, or how much money is in your bank, or how many followers you have on social media – all you need is to live a Spirit-filled life.  Everything else is window dressing…or as some put it we are to live in this world, but not of this world.

Thank you for joining us in this series.  New material coming soon.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit (week 3 of 4)

Good morning!
Here is the shortened version of Sunday 18th’s reflection.  We explored Numbers 11:24-30 and whether we might be jealous or protective of others gifts.  Hence why we say ‘it’s the ministers job’ or why people might hide their gifts for fear of jealousy or standing out in the crowd.  Our main focus was on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, exploring how the Holy Spirit gifts us more than love, kindness, empathy, strength...

Next week we are exploring what it might mean to live empowered by the Spirit...

I want us to have a closer look at this passage from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.  Paul, who we know is an intelligent man, trained as a Rabbi and very focussed in his calling then and later as a missionary for the Lord, believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Firstly, Paul is dealing with a church that is firmly set in a pagan culture, where miracles of healing, of alternative forms of worship, and massive data dumps of knowledge and philosophy happened all the time.  It wasn’t so much a secular society as a society where actually anything was possible and divine influences were common place.  The Christian church was one in hundreds of religious thought, and given that Corinth was key trading location, variety was most definitely the spice of life.  If anything, the church in Corinth, was counter-culture because it was such a self-less way of living, in a predominantly hedonistic society.

So Paul is keen for them to understand what is of the Holy Spirit and what is not.  A common fear even today for Christians, and an underlying reason why we avoid too much Holy Spirit stuff.  How do we know what is of God and what is delusion or self-belief or indeed of the devil?

He tackles the key problem by talking about ‘Jesus is Lord’.  This was an early creed in the Christian Church.  The Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed that we use nowadays built upon this simple creed.  To say that Jesus is Lord is to give Jesus the supreme loyalty of your life, and the supreme worship.  In Paul’s time this was said of Caesar, and so people understood that to say Jesus is Lord was to make Jesus even greater than Caesar.  To curse Jesus was to recant your faith.  Yet to truly mean it when you say Jesus is Lord, you must have the Spirit of the Lord within you.  It is through the grace of God that we can know God.

So Paul brings to life the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but he doesn’t see them as owned by individuals but given to the body of Christ.  These gifts are not for the glory of the individual member of the Church for the good of the whole.  We are not just strangers gathering once a week to worship God – we are family and we are disciples.  Nor are these gifts just intellectual but they are practical as well, all to be used for God’s service.  So whether you are a Professor or a plumber, an accountant or app builder, a journalist or a jack of all trades, you are valued and part of God’s ultimate team.

So, lets look at the gifts Paul talks about here–
Wisdom – the greek is sophia – wisdom comes from communion with God.  It is wisdom that knows God, hence how the Holy Spirit is also called the spirit of wisdom as we looked at last week.

Knowledge – the greek is gnosis is much more practical.  It is knowledge that knows what to do in any given situation, plus puts wisdom into practice.

So although wisdom and knowledge are connected there are differences.  A wise person is a knowledgeable person, but somehow their wisdom is beyond simply knowing something.

Faith is the ability to believe God for something that is otherwise impossible.  That is how Joyce Meyer puts it.  The gift of faith could be given for special circumstances, but faith also produces results.  Faith the size of mustard seeds can move mountains.  So it is more than intellectual conviction – the evidence I have found proves Jesus is real!  Faith is the passionate belief that makes one put everything you have into it!  ‘Faith steels the will and nerves the sinew of one into action, turns vision into deeds’. (Barclay).

Healing is a hard one today because we are not so sure how real it is and there has been such bad press around it.  Too often the accusation has been passed about that a person hasn’t been healed due to lack of faith.  I am not going into healing as a gift too deeply at the moment, but I do believe it is a gift of the Spirit that exists today.  And we do have a duty and a desire to pray for healing for others.  But I want to give you a little context for it from Paul’s time.  Acts of healing was a natural part of religious life in his time.  Indeed a Jewish person would ordinarily go to a Rabbi than a doctor for healing, and be healed.  In the early Church we know there were healing miracles –

Remember the story and song:
Peter and John went to pray, they met a lame man on the way…And he went walking and leaping and praising God…

The gift of healing is being rediscovered in the Church, as we see body and soul as one, rather than seeing the soul as the important element.

The gift of healing leads us nicely into what Paul means by ‘miraculous powers’ – which is exorcism.  Now for some of you the film the Exorcist is in your mind, but I promise no pea soup as I remember Leslie Nielsen using in his comedy re-take of it.  In Paul’s time all illness, and in particular, mental illness was attributed to demons and a continuing function of the church is to exorcise them.  Not many volunteers for this gift I suspect but as Paul reminds us there are more powers at work that are seen by human beings…

From there he goes into prophecy.  Barclay suggests that this should be interpreted as preaching, but to a point both translations work.  A prophet has to be close with God, as should anyone brave enough to preach, as both prophet and preacher must listen and share.  However, some messages are for the future but need to be heard in the now, and some are for now.  Prophets lives so close to God that they know the heart, mind and will of God and can make it known. Prophets and preachers bring rebuke and warnings from God and they also bring advice and guidance.  The Church has long ignored prophets and boy are we paying the price for it!

In his long list of 9 he talks about distinguishing between spirits – when something is beyond our normal, how do we tell the difference.  We have to understand before we condemn.  Interestingly that leads into speaking in tongues.

Like the gift of healing, or exorcism, the gift of speaking in tongues is readily dismissed or feared.  Even in the Church in Corinth it caused a lot of perplexity.  It was highly coveted because it was supposed to be due to direct influence of God’s Spirit.  I guess because it is an obvious one, and makes it look like you are very close to God.  It is the language of the Holy Spirit, and it unintelligible to the human ear, unless someone is given the gift of interpretation.  Paul believed in it and other texts throughout his letters suggests he values it, and embraces the gift.  However, it can be the gift of private prayer, where the Holy Spirit speaks to God through you.  Joyce Meyer believes that this is open to anyone and everyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit.  Others would say it is no longer relevant.  I have heard the language of heaven, and it is beautiful, but I haven’t heard it translated!

When we talk about gifts of the Holy Spirit, and see lists like this, we do well to heed the closing words of the section we read –
‘All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.’

These gifts are not a shopping list or indeed items on a shelf to be purchased.  They are gifts and not burdens.  The challenge is – are we putting the gifts of the Spirit in a cupboard unopened because we are scared of what might be?  I love the fact that are gifts are meant to work together in the service of God, and we are not meant to carry the mission of God by ourselves.  We are, dare I say it, in this together. Even with our brothers and sisters in the Baptist Church, the Catholic Church, and more.


We can let him know that we are open to his giftings and that we will honour them. Next week we will look at what it means to live empowered in the Spirit. But this week know that you are gifted by the Spirit – perhaps you just need to take the bow off!

God bless…

Live and Love in the Spirit of Jesus Christ to the Glory of the Father.  Sx