Concluding our series, we look at the final bad thing: division. Two divisions that have touched every part of our existence is the divide between God and humans and the divide between people. In Jesus, these divides come crashing down as one new humanity is created, a humanity that is one with God and others through the Spirit. So when we choose to follow where the Spirit flows, we live heavenly lives that are no longer marked by division. Let's choose the Spirit, division leaves us feeling afraid and alone.
The Antidote to Hate
The Antidote to Self-Serving Power
What is the church for? An antidote to self serving power. As Christians we have access to the most powerful force in the universe. But the gospel is power unlike the world has ever seen. It is selfless power, power for the other, power to be given away. Let’s us be powerful people- empowered by the spirit - for the sake not of ourselves but everyone else.
Meditate and Receive At Home - An introduction
This is a starter episode for anyone who is a) not a regular mindful meditator or b) not a regular pray-er of the prayer ‘come holy spirit.’
The crossover between what the science says is brilliant for our brains (and stress-levels and sleep and abilities to heal and accept what is out of our control, and remember things, and approximately a zillion other things) about mindful meditation, and the way we - in the spirit-filled church - prepare our minds, bodies and souls to experience the holy spirit, seems like a weirdly undiscussed marriage.
So here’s the explainer. To both sides.
Any time you want to know more of the presence of God, then give this a listen…
Meditate and Receive at Home - Breath + Spirit
Meditate And Receive At Home - Sweet Sleep Is All I Need
This one is a meditation and prayer for anyone struggling with sleep… It’s a 20 minute session specially designed to calm your breathing, and your mind, and help you find God’s rest.
NB - After 10 minutes of instruction the music will keep playing but remember to turn off continuous playback in your podcast settings, otherwise (assuming this has done its job) you’ll be rudely awoken at the end of this by whatever is up on your playlist.
Meditate and Be Grateful - Meeting Anxiety Head-on With Thankfulness
Meditate on Creation - God all around us
Grace over Greed
Carrying on our series on what we can learn from the brand new church in Acts, we’re looking at the antidote to greed today. For many of us, greed is that icky thing we've picked up as means to survive. It tells us the more we possess, the safer we will be but ironically, it leaves us feeling more empty and it almost always hurts others. None of this is new, and if we want to be who Jesus has made us to be, we'll need to look inward ourselves and be oriented towards grace just like the church in Acts did . When we trust the Spirit and lunge into community, we rob greed of its power and become open handed people engaged in kingdom activity.
What's So Bad About Individualism?
Our own personal identity in Jesus. It’s what some of us spend our youth chasing after. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be clear on who he made you, what he’s calling you to, and we will NEVER stop talking about how much He loves you. But we’re pretty clear that there is a real imbalance in Western christianity right now. That our culturally indoctrinated lens of individuality has invaded our church spaces, to very damaging degrees, and that we need to talk about what we’re called to. When we receive what Jesus has for us, it changes how we think about self, and other, and power, and peace and ever needing to win again.
What Difference Does The Church Make?
Why is it that sometimes it’s difficult to point to the positive impact church has had - not just in our personal lives but on society in general? The church has unlimited potential. But the degree to which we see goody fruit and godly impact will always be dependent on the degree to which we become people of his spirit. The fruit of his spirit affects our personal ethical life, the gifts of his spirit affects our corporate societal life. Let us open ourselves to both as much as we possibly can; for our sake and for the sake of a world in need.
Good Grief!
As much as we want to be looking forward to what lies ahead this year, we believe God is speaking to us about grief. Life is, of cours, full of beauty and wonder, but it is also - start to finish - full of loss (It’s hard to imagine there are many among us who haven’t lost something meaningful in the last 12 months!) Jesus’ life shows us that there is only one holy and right response to loss, and it is grief. There is no way to bypass or shortcut this often painful process, but we must fight the cultural lie that sadness is shameful, and mourn, like Jesus mourned, for what has been lost. At the end of it all, it’s not just about our recovery or healing, it’s about what He can plant in the fertile soil that grieving tills.
Leave It At His Feet
2021 - What a Start!
Advent - What We All Need Right Now
What does everyone need right now? A bunch of hope. Which is what the whole of Christmas is about. It’s hope despite our circumstances. It’s hope even when the rest of the world is hopeless. Because this is hope that comes from outside this world. When the world is mundane, it’s miraculous. When the world is lonely, it's intimate. When the world is constrained, it’s free. And when the world is banal, it’s divine. This is what Jesus has come to earth to bring us and it’s ours if we want it!
Gracious Giving, Gracious Vision
The gospel is very clear about how we are to think/feel/act on our relationship with money. We can try all we want to squirm out of it (believe us we’ve tried) but Jesus told us to be like himself: not giving out of surplus, not guilt, but being willing to give everything up. Where we (all!) fall short on that, let’s now come back to the grace thing. Grace is where every single thing in our christian lives must begin and end and never ever run dry. It is not a doctrine, grace is a person, our only answer, our only fuel, if we’re to be the kind of self-giving people we know we want to be. So - as we take this moment to remember the kind of church we know bread will be again - let’s make it about grace.
Philippians - Letter of Hope - Freedom from Worry
Philippians - Letter of Hope - Kingdom People
Paul paints the vision of Christian community: God's children, citizens of heaven, turned outwards to face the brokenness of the world and revealing glimpses of heaven's glory, transformed through our relationship with Jesus. We remember that we don’t do this Kingdom-building in our own strength.. Empowered by his spirit, we do it together as a community (yes! even in these crazy, ongoing pandemic days)
Philippians - Letter of Hope - All Under Christ
Philippians - Letter of Hope - Citizens of Somewhere Else
As if by magic, the part of Paul’s letter to a persecuted and divided church in ancient Philippi felt more than a little bit relevant to our national experience this week (it was a scheduling fluke, but it’s kind of amazing how often that happens!) Paul’s major concern for any church and any situation is ALWAYS the gospel… How can we help people know the love of Christ, and for us today, every bit as much as the Philippians, that means knowing what citizenship really means, and what harmony is always going to require of us.