Increase our faith!

They say that there is nothing as faithful as a dog, don't they? Our Toby, who most of you will have met, was a prime example of this. He never made a fuss if he was going on a long drive such to to our favourite beach at Aberdaron in North Wales or had to stay in the car for the ferry crossing between Portsmouth and Ouistreham.
His passion in life was to have a ball thrown for him to chase, he never tired of it and would spend ages hunting for one that got lost in long grass or the hedge!

Loyal, reliable and loving, those traits we find so often in our pets seem much harder for us to maintain! 

Faithfulness is a key characteristic of the God we worship. However, there are subtle nuances of meaning when we talk about faith in relationship to God.
Our God is loyal, reliable and loving, that almost goes without saying, but those traits are the product of other fundamental attributes that He alone possesses. Because he is perfectly holy, eternal and immutable (unchanging), being completely steadfast, faithful and reliable is a natural part of His nature.

We, on the other hand, are human, frail and easily led astray, by people and our ambitions. We are naturally self-centred and find it hard to put others first.In Luke's gospel, the disciples had just heard Jesus telling them that they had to go on forgiving their brothers, even if they offended them seven times in one day; (Lk. 17 v 1- 5)....their reaction was, "Lord increase our faith!"

The disciples knew that the only way that they could hope to live in the way Jesus wanted them to, was by faith. They must have been even more shocked to hear the next response from Jesus. He told them, "If you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea', and it will obey you". (v 6)

It is faith that Jesus is looking for from us, wherever he found it during his earthly life he commended it, remember the the centurion, (Matt. 8) or the woman in (Matt. 15)? Both were praised by Jesus for their great faith.

In these unusual times, it is our faith in God that should mark us out as Christians and I'm pleased to say that I have seen so much evidence of 'love in action' among our friends, but the challenge Jesus gives us in these verses is that we should expect our 'small faith' to produce 'great things' for God.

Sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs...

Today I want to reflect on a few verses from Colossians that have been suggested for us to share. They are found towards the end of Chapter 3 and are verses 15-17:

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

As you see, Paul is prompting us to fill our minds and lives with spiritually healthy things. Things like the the word of God, music and songs. Often the word of God is encapsulated in songs, and many recent worship songs try to focus our hearts and minds on key bible ideas that will stay with us once we are away from the church service and everyday life is more compelling.

One such song that I love is "Every promise of your word" and below I have pasted a YouTube link, so that you can listen to it again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l8RVhxndYg

In these verses, Paul has just finished explaining how we should live now that God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness (1 v 13), how that we should now live in the 'kingdom of light'. He has shown us how Christ's death has reconciled us to God (1 v 20).
Next he teaches us how to grow, being strengthened in our faith (2 v 6); he also shows us how useless mere 'religious observances' are. (2 v 22)
Paul's answer to all this is found in chapter 3 verse 1, where he exhorts us to set our hearts and minds on Christ and on 'things above'.

But it is in the verses we have at the top of this post, that Paul gets down to the practicalities. By reading the bible, by singing spiritual songs that are based on God's word, we can really force our unruly minds to focus!

In those verses are another key to making our faith real.... that is to practice gratitude and thankfulness (verses 15 & 16). As we deliberately put aside the negative things and thank God and those around us for the many blessings we have, we are suddenly praying; the third string to our bow.

When those three things coincide: God's word, prayer and spiritual songs then the peace that Paul promises has the opportunity to descend to rule in our hearts. Worry, doubt and fear will be dethroned and Jesus will take His rightful place once more.

Holding onto the Unseen

I hope none of us is feeling like this today:

Empty! What's unseen in this picture is all the stuff the panic buyers in Tesco have horded up in the hope of not missing out on something they need....

As members of the Church, we have something unseen to grasp hold of, and it's something that will never run out, something that we really do need and best of all, it's freely available now!

I am, of course, talking about our faith. Here is what the writer of 'Hebrews' said about it:

"Faith is....the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen"  (Heb. 11 v 1)

From John we hear, "No one has ever seen God"(John 1 v 18)  , and Paul puts it like this: 

"For we walk by faith, not by sight" and also, "So we do not lose heart....because we look not to things that are seen but to things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal".   (2 Cor. 5 v 7 & 2 Cor. 4 v 16)

So, instead of joining in with any of the hysteria, we put our faith in the God who created us and this beautiful world in which we live.

We can see the beauty all around us:

St. Malo last Sunday

And even on our own doorsteps:

I'll give the last word today to Peter, he put it like this:

"Without having seen Him you love Him; though you do not now see Him you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy" (1 Pet. 1 v 8)

We walk  faith in our loving God and we enjoy his creation, we trust in His word and share our confidence that He will hold on to us as we hold onto him.

Day One

Evening Sky over Passais towards Mantilly

As we begin these extraordinary days of 'lock-down' here in Normandy, it would be all too easy to join in with the 'siege' mentality that this expression evokes.
In reality, along with the limitations on our behaviour, also comes some unexpected freedoms. Most of us will have some unplanned extra time on our hands, as many of our usual activities are currently 'on hold'. 

As Christians, what better use can we put some of this time to, than in working on our relationship with Jesus and in devoting our attention to those means we still have open to us to engage with our Church family?

Firstly, on a practical note, please telephone, email or message Joan and I if you need any assistance with getting your 'attestations' printed off, to allow you to travel.
We can also help with shopping, collecting prescriptions etc...(within the strict guidelines of permissible travel and contact)

Secondly, on a spiritual note, the next few weeks may bring unexpected opportunities for our faith to be exercised and challenged. This is what Paul is talking about when he wrote in his letter to the Romans:

 Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Our normal everyday lives may be disrupted, but let's take this as an opportunity to be creative in how we worship God and exercise our fellowship as the body of Christ.

Finally, on Sundays, at the usual 10.30 am Cafe Church time slot, I hope we can either use "Zoom" or Facebook video messaging, to share a half-hour meeting on-line. Please let me know if you want to be involved in that. I will write more about how to access this later in the week.

For now, we wish you every blessing! 

Tim & Joan xx