wednesday focus

January 28 - Who Are You?

3 Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world. They belong to us because we belong to Christ.

 4 God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created. He chose us to be holy and without blame in his eyes. He loved us. 5 So he decided long ago to adopt us as his children. He did it because of what Jesus Christ has done. It pleased God to do it. 6 All those things bring praise to his glorious grace. God freely gave us his grace because of the One he loves.

Ephesians 1

Who are you? A mum, a shop worker, an executive, teacher, public servant, footballer, musician? We all define ourselves in some way. But our culture mostly defines us by what we do. Subtly we are rated against our job, and so many people make judgments on that basis. Is this person a success, or attractive, or good? Have you noticed how damaging that can be to us. What if we don't have, hate or no longer do a job? Why should we be judged by these standards, and reduced to simply what we do?

That's why Ephesians 1 is such good news for us. Read the verses again and remind yourself the identity God gives you. You are his creation chosen for goodness and holiness,and blessed to belong to him. Now ask yourself the question, 'who am I?', and answer it with those things. And with thanks, pray.

January 21 - A New Era?

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Romans 12

12 noon, January 20 2009 was for many the start of a new era. Yesterday as Barrack Obama became the 44 president of the United States there was a sense of hope across the world. One journalist described the people in Washington DC in startling terms, 'it's like Children on Christmas eve, everyone is excited, wide-eyed and full of hope.' Only time will tell how much this man can deliver the weight of expectation laid upon him. There will be inevitable disappointments as reality bites. We must pray for him and his advisers.

If 3 million + people who gathered to witness the occasion can be so overtaken by joy, how much more should we be constantly living out the life of Jesus by being 'joyful in hope'? In Romans 12 Paul commends this to us as part of what it means to be transformed by Jesus. The three things he encourages are a wonderful mix of the visionary and the practical. They're all about how we are to live in the world.

Today as we continue to live, work and witness in difficult times, how will our joy in hope minister to those around us? If we face trouble, what will it mean to be patient in a Godly way? How will our patience help others facing trouble today? What chance will you have today to be hospitable - at the shops, by your desk, in the office, in your home...?

And of course we're called to be 'faithful in prayer'. As part of our vision we believe God continues to call us to pray together. But what shape and focus should that have? Should we continue with Wednesday Focus in its current form, times and shape? What should be the balance of our on-line praying and our actual, physical meeting together?

How is God calling us to be more faithful in prayer?

Do pray and let us know your thoughts: in person, on line or any way you like!

As for today, it certainly is the start of something new for America and us all. But the real difference in our homes and streets, work and communities, will come from us. 3 things to be and do to transform your part of the planet today:

Joyful in hope. Patient in affliction. Faithful in prayer.

Let the Revolution begin!

B.O.G.O.F?

44 Then Jesus cried out, "Anyone who believes in me does not believe in me only. He also believes in the One who sent me. 45 When he looks at me, he sees the One who sent me. 46 "I have come into the world to be a light. No one who believes in me will stay in darkness.

John 12

B.O.G.O.F.

It’s a phrase we will get more and more used to in 2009. Buy One, Get One Free. It’s no longer just a marketing tool. For many businesses it might be their last hope.

Whether it’s the senseless slaughter of 1000 people between the opposing sides in Gaza, or the constant fall of jobs and companies regarded safe, the word seems scarier by the day.

Faith in Jesus may seem flimsy or confusing. It may like raging against the storm. But at the heart of Jesus' life and work was a single relationship that sustained and shaped him in the face of death itself. It was summed up in one word, Father. When we connect to Christ we get in on that relationship. We’re not just mates of Jesus, we get to join the whole family and the great father becomes our father too.

So whatever shocks or joys today brings remember that with Jesus comes the Father as well. ‘To trust Him is to trust the Father; to observe or contemplate Him is to observe or contemplate the Father. He s come not to give light to the world, but to be light in the world’ (William Temple)

The ultimate Bogof offer. This one is not just for this month, or the downturn. It’s for eternity and it can face anything. St Paul knew that with Jesus you get the Father and here’s the prayer he prayed on that basis. Remember that next time it’s 2 for 1 at Tesco.

I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
Amen.