Links for reading
Happiness is fleeting. You feel it when you find a carpark, but loose it in a moment when someone beats you to it. Happiness is fickle because it’s entirely connected to situations that can change in a moment. Joy is something else. Jesus reckoned that he told his disciples a whoile bunch of stuff so that their joy might be complete (John 15:11). Check out the Bible projects video on Joy below
Everyone hopes. It’s a looking forward to something, or someone. It’s the possibility of change for the better. In the midst of brokeness and pain we hope for something better. Kids find it natural to hope. As adults, most us have tempered our hope against our experiences of life. It’s truly human to hope, but the Bible tells us that it’s not only humans that hope. The Bibles outlook is that creation is looking forward to a change, longing for better. Check out the Bible projects video on hope. TO LISTEN, TO LOOK (Anne Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem) Is it all sewn up-my life? Is it at this point so predictable, so orderly, so neat, so arranged, so right, that…
The first coming of Jesus was a surprise. He arrived in obscurity, lived at the fringes and few recognised him. The Jewish people had been long awaiting a messiah. The season of Advent looks backward to Jesus’s life, and forwards to Jesus’s open arrival in the future. Advent involves waiting and looking forward. This year, amongst the many Christmas focused events’ we’re going to look forward to peace, hope, joy and love.Have a look at the Bible project’s video on peace: Peace reminds us that what the followers of Jesus look forward to is not simply the absence of conflict, but a place of rightness and wholeness. There is a “setting right” that we’re called to look forward to and…
We’re pretty committed to reading the bible. God can and does speak through this. It can be a bit confusing at times too, so many different styles of writing and written over such a long time period. The bible project has put up a series of videos that are short and informative and have a bit of rigour. Here’s the first one. https://youtu.be/ak06MSETeo4 And click on this to see all their contributions. The bible project
Friendship isn’t about always being ‘excellent’ with one another. Friendship is about preparing a space for authentic conversation. And sometimes authenticity happens when everything is a bit scruffy. What do you think ?