Please consider registering just to the right of this message (click on 'Login/Register') so that we can know who you are and keep in touch. You don't have to be a member of the church to be a member of our online community.
If you already have an account please login so that you can add your comments and participate.
Weekly Greeting: Sunday 11 July
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2010-07-09 09:26
Dear Friends
In our final focus on this sermon series within our 150 Days or Renewal, we consider engraving the word courage onto our "Cup of Life." It is hard to think of life without this word engraved deeply into each person.
At this moment some are directing their courage towards facing very real challenges before them – disappointments, uncertainty, brokenness, addictions, trauma, suffering and grief. On a weekly basis, I and other staff members draw alongside many of these courageous people. In ministering to them we discover that we are being ministered to by the faith they display in very trying circumstances. You may be sitting next to these very people today!
Although courage makes itself noticed under trying circumstances, it is needed no less in everyday living. As a Christian it takes courage to pray, speak and act in response to God's promptings as we live our lives. It is not easy to live in truth. It takes courage to live in faith, hope and love. It takes courage to hold on to the promise of God found in Isaiah 43:2 “Take courage, for I have redeemed you; and when you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.”
I think these godly calls on our lives are a little like God's call to Noah to build an ark when there is no apparent need for it. These promptings of God make our lives conspicuously different and subject to the dissection of critics and the scorn of unbelievers. Courage allows us to live authentically and in life-giving rather than life-taking ways in the presence of critics and unbelievers.
May you and I as the church continue to sustain ourselves on those things that support courageous living and continue to provide ministry opportunities for others to live more courageously in everyday living and also in times of trying circumstances.
As a practical way forward, I invite you to do a little exercise:
1. Take this weekly pamphlet into your daily praying
2. Read through the ministry opportunities offered in each coming day
3. Holding that event before God.
4. Ask God what God is saying to you in your life through this ministry.
We would love to interact with you over this exercise.
Shalom
The Ministry Team
Post new comment