Accepted here

•March 23, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Romans 5:1-11

1By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. 2Christ has also introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. 3But that’s not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. 4And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope 5that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love. 6Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. 7No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. 8But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.

9But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. 10Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.

We’ve recently had a lot of trouble with our credit cards.  For some reason or other, that no one seems to be able to work out, they have been being randomly declined.  They have become unacceptable to the vendor as a method of payment.  And I’m old-fashioned enough to feel that as a slight on my character.  It makes me feel unacceptable.

There may be things in our lives that we feel have made us unacceptable to God.  If we’ve disobeyed, been moany, got things wrong… all things that we’ve seen through the passages we’ve been following, then perhaps we think God will no longer want to be bothered with us – we won’t be acceptable.

BUT

our very faith in God makes us acceptable. Jesus, who came from God, introduces us to all that God offers.  Those things that we thought were a block are taken away by him.  God is not angry with us, because he looks not on us, but on Jesus.  Jesus has done what we couldn’t do.  He has died for sin, because there is nothing we could do about it.  But he can – and he has.

And that offers to us the reality of peace and of hope.

Not accepted?  Not so!

Thank you Lord

that there is hope for me,

that because Jesus stands in my place

I am acceptable, forgiven and loved.

May I feel that peace.


Posted in forgiveness, Jesus, Lectionary, lent
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The Parable of the Worms

•March 22, 2011 • Leave a Comment

image

And lo, there was a household. And it did produce much waste. Much of the waste was tea bags, veg peelings, fruit skins and scrap paper (mainly with confidential information on).
On Mondays the bin men came to call, for blue bin (cardboard, paper, tins and plastic), brown bin (garden waste), or green bin (anything else). That rubbish was gobbled up by the bin lorry and taken away. It is gone and dealt with.
Yet not all that seems rubbish is…
For the tea bags, the veg peeling, the fruit skins and the paper were given to the worms. And Lo the worms did gobble it all, and in time it became lovely rich compost. And that compost went back on the garden and helped grow more fruit and veg. And the worms were very happy and well fed.
The moral of this tale?
There are things in life that need to go. And if we hand them over God will take them and deal with them.
There are other things that seem like rubbish, but if we allow God and time to deal with them, they will become rich experiences and feed our lives.
Fortunately, unlike the bins, we don’t have to sort them – but God will. Whichever way, our lives are lighter for allowing him to take what we want to be rid of, and let him deal with it as he knows best.

Posted in Uncategorized
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Doing what you’re told

•March 22, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Psalm 95

Worship and Obey the LORD

1Sing joyful songs to the LORD!Praise the mighty rock

where we are safe.

2Come to worship him

with thankful hearts

and songs of praise.

3The LORD is the greatest God,

king over all other gods.

4He holds the deepest part

of the earth in his hands,

and the mountain peaks

belong to him.

5The ocean is the Lord’s

because he made it,

and with his own hands

he formed the dry land.

6Bow down and worship

the LORD our Creator!

7The LORD is our God,

and we are his people,

the sheep he takes care of

in his own pasture.

Listen to God’s voice today!

8Don’t be stubborn and rebel

as your ancestors did

at Meribah and Massah out in the desert.

9For forty years

they tested God

and saw

the things he did.

10Then God got tired of them

and said,

“You never show good sense,

and you don’t understand

what I want you to do.”

11In his anger, God told them,

“You people will never enter

my place of rest.”

There are rules about going on a journey.  The Railway Byelaws, for example, make fascinating reading – apparently!

So journeying with God is not just about having a great time, praising and worshipping him, exploring where he’s taking us – obedience has to come into it too.

Obedience is one of those words that has got a bad reputation.  It’s really not the done thing for anyone to tell anyone else what to do.  But unless there are some rules everything can get very confusing and even dangerous.  What would happen if we all climbed into our cars and made up the rule as we went along?  It would not be very long before there was a collision.

And so, in this Psalm, yes we are invited to worship God, to thank him for all the amazing things he has done and will do – to enjoy the view if you like; so we are also reminded to listen to his voice – and having heard what he says, to not to be stubborn, not to rebel, and not to test God.

If God is anything, he is the one who knows the rules – he made them.  Returning back to Genesis – there was just one rule – and look where disobeying that has got us.  If we are going to trust God, then we have to trust him to know what is best, and follow it.  Popular or not, that is the way to successful travelling.

God leads, he protects, he holds it all in his hand – what’s not to trust?

You will have to watch this directly on YouTube

Lord you know

that I’m, not always good at doing what I’m told.

I like to do things my way,

in my time.

But I know really

that you know best,

so help me to turn my belief to trust

and my trust to action

and obedience

Posted in God, Lectionary, lent
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