Know where you’re going ….

 

There was once an elderly and slightly forgetful Bishop who was traveling by train to perform a confirmation service. He misplaced his ticket and wasn’t able to produce it when requested by the conductor. "It's quite all right, Bishop, we know who you are. It’s no problem" The bishop replied, "You don't understand - without the ticket, I don't know where I'm going."

Our readings this morning have made it clear that the best way to go in life is towards God, which is very helpful for us !

In our Old Testament reading we heard a call or an invitation to seek the Lord while He may be found. This seems a rather gentle statement from Isaiah who sometimes had harsh words to say as he called people to repentance. However, in this passage he shows the ways that we receive an invitation from God. I really like this. God invites us into relationship with Him.

In the Psalm we were reminded of how when we are spiritually thirsty this is when we can know where to turn and so receive the amazing and life giving love of God. The Psalmists soul clung to God and so does ours when we know where we are going. 

So far so good for encouraging readings but then in the letter to the Corinthians we are reminded that others had turned away from God and gone their own way. A way which sounds rather hair raising and front page tabloid worthy with various displays of bad behaviour. 

There is a call though to be careful reminding people to stand firm. That is to keep knowing where they are going, which is to get closer to God. This is incredible, we are being shown that the right way is always to get closer to God, and if we mess up we are turning to God who invites us, in whom we find our spiritual drink and life and who will not let us be tested beyond all we can bear.

In our gospel reading (Luke 13:1-9) we heard of people going to Jesus with questions. The questions that they asked aren’t that different to the type of questions we might ask Jesus. 

In the reading we heard of people going to Jesus because they were concerned, naturally, that Pilate had killed some Galileans, they were confused it seemed like a senseless attack. But as  people went to Jesus He reminded them that, sadly everyone suffers. To do this He reminded them of the people on whom a tower had fallen.  No one ever deserves to suffer. In all the suffering though we are reminded that God is with us and He loves us. Jesus showed this as He told the story of the fig tree. 

I think that this is the best bit of the gospel reading. 

Now I am no gardener, I remember my Mum in law buying us a beautiful rose plant once, she said we didn’t need to do anything with it, meaning we didn’t need to plant it. So we put it outside the back door and went on holiday. When we got back we discovered that the plant was dead. Apparently putting it under a shelter which stopped it getting wet and not watering it before we went wasn’t a good idea !

Anyway in our gospel reading the man with the fig tree, who had looked after it well was not very happy. He had looked after the fig tree for three years but it had never produced any fruit. For this reason he wanted the Gardener to cut the tree down. The gardener refused to give up and he suggested waiting to see if it would produce fruit one day.

In this story the owner of the fig tree is us and the gardener is God. The man who owned the fig tree had given up. We can all do this. It might be giving up on praying as much as we used to, it might be not reading our Bible as much, it might be us not being as patient with others, it might be us giving up on people who have let us down again and again. The fig tree needed to grow and to do this it needed even more love. It is the same for us and our faith. We need to live more and more like God so we can become more like Him in the ways that we treat others.

The gardener who is the wise one, is as I have said, God. The gardener refused to give up on the tree and wanted to wait and give it another chance. This is how God sees us and forgives us. He gives us chance after chance waiting for us to grow more and more into His likeness.

We love and worship God who sees us as we truly are. Whether we are praying more, or doing more Bible study, being a better person,  at the end of the day in this time of lent we can know that the main thing is to do as we always should. That is to make sure that we know where we are going and that is to God. As we do this we will grow more and more into His likeness.

In lent we are taking time to think more about who we are before God and others. It can be quite an intense time, a time when we don’t think that we match up. Actually it is a time when we remember that God has given us  yet another chance and He will keep doing this. 

I am hopeless with directions and I always blame it on the fact that I don't drive, if there is an easy and obvious direction to go in, I am likely to go around the houses first. It can be like that in our life of faith, we can think that we are doing everything right, but we may have forgotten the most obvious part. This is that God invites us and we can go straight to Him. We can also know that if we lose our way at all, we can keep going to Him for forgiveness and start again.

Back to the Bishop if we know where we are going .... we are more likely to end up there. Where we are going is to grow closer and closer to God. So, may we be ready to turn to God knowing that He will always give us chance after chance and may we keep trying to be more like Him, growing into His likeness. AMEN

Promises

 

Life is full of agreements and promises. From a promise to someone else to a promise to God - our lives are full of promises.

There was once a little boy who was in trouble with his teacher. The teacher said, ‘Didn’t you promise to behave.’ ‘Yes’, said the little boy. ‘Well,’ said the teacher, ‘What did I promise to do if you misbehaved.’ ‘ you promised to punish me’ said the little boy. The teacher said, ‘ Well then you know what to expect.’ The little boy replied, ‘ well, as I broke my promise I don’t expect you to keep yours.’ 

Promises are great particularly when they are kept. In our readings this morning we have heard about promises and we have also heard about what happens when we don’t trust someone to keep their promise.

In the Old Testament reading (Gen. 15:1-12,17,18) we heard of the great promise from God to Abraham, a promise that God kept of Abraham having a huge number of descendants. 

It is often quite interesting to read about Abraham. He was a man who trusted God but like us, he still had questions. He wasn't convinced that he would have children although God had promised him. God had promised him a wonderful home, but he still wasn't convinced that he would be able to find it.

God had promised Abraham that not only would He protect himk but he would have a great reward and rather than saying thank you - Abraham asked what the reward was. Can you imagine it? A great man of faith was actually a bit cheeky!! 

Perhaps rather than seeing Abraham as cheeky we should see him as someone who can provide us with comfort. After all,  I am sure that even though we follow God and trust Him, there are times when we naturally question Him and try to find out what is going on.

It’s not a lack of trusting God and His promises, it is more to do with wanting those promises to be fulfilled straight away.

After the comfort that it is natural to question God and His promises, we were reminded of the protection that God gives us. We can trust God and His promises because He never lets us down. In the Psalm we were reminded that because God is our light and our salvation and we have no – one to fear. 

That is the same promise that God made to Abraham, he had the protection of God and we do as well. It doesn't mean that bad things won't happen to us, but it does mean that with God as our light and our protection we know that He is always there for us and we can turn to Him, knowing His love for us.

In the epistle reading (Phil. 3:17-4:1) we heard more about promises as we heard of the change that God can make in our lives. Paul the writer of the epistle was bemoaning the people who did not trust God’s promises. That is the people who didn’t turn to God. The people who wanted to rely on small things as a way to experience a better way of life. How many times have we seen people put their trust in things expecting them to be the best thing ever and then for those things  to collapse around them?

Paul in the epistle was pointing out that there is only one thing that we all need. There is only one promise, there is only one offer that will never fail and that offer is the transformation that Jesus brings.  Those who follow Jesus are able to enjoy glory and not humiliation. We have a promise of a life where we can enjoy the glory and love of God both now and in eternity. 

In the gospel reading (Luke 13:31-35) we heard the harsh words of Jesus calling Herod a fox. This is not very nice and not what we would expect from Jesus, however Herod like the Pharisees questioned the mission and work of Jesus and tried to prevent Him from the work He needed to do. That work was to go to Jerusalem and be crucified for us. Jesus had the ultimate promise to fulfil and that promise was for our salvation. In this passage Jesus grieved. You can hear the pain as He talks of Herod being like a fox trying to take His children away from Him. 

Jesus pictures Himself as being like a mother hen protecting her brood. Jesus was protecting people by doing the incredible for them. That incredible was to die for them and for us. This passage comes after a sentence that we only get in the gospel of Luke. This sentence is that Jesus had set His face towards Jerusalem. He knew what was going to happen and nothing was going to deter Him. 

The determination of that sentence is perhaps one of the most humbling sentences we can ever hear. Jesus set His face to Jerusalem and He did it for us.

Regardless of the ways that people turned away from God, regardless of the fact that people didn’t trust the promises of God there was a plan. That plan was to bring us back to God.

In the same way that God had determined to keep His promise to Abraham, as the psalmist saw that God was his light and salvation  so He keeps Hs promises to us. God never leaves us.

Paul saw that we were able to be transformed by the glory of Jesus both now and in eternity.

In our readings we can see the promises God makes to us, promises that always become true. 

God has made a promise to us and that promise is not just that God cares and understands our need for help, but it is also that God wants us to turn to Him like a chick to a mother hen. What a beautiful image.

God loves us and wants to protect us, He is our light, He is our salvation and we do not need to be afraid. How will we show our gratitude? Will we be like those in the epistle who had sought after other things, or will be those who are ready and waiting for the transformation that only God can bring? May we be ready to be transformed as we trust in God’s promises. AMEN

Take a breath.

 Well we are in Lent and the first Sunday of it.  Lent is one of the great seasons in the Church when we take time to take stock of our lives, to consider where we stand with God and other people. 

Lent is traditionally the time when we give something up and take something up. This means we give up anything that takes us away from God and take up something which will bring us closer to God. 

I remember in one Church where we worked a teenage girl explained to me that she was finding lent really hard. She had given up chocolate and had done so for two weeks, she asked me in a very exasperated way when lent was due to end. I had to explain to her that it wasn’t due to start for another two weeks !! 

Anyway, we are definitely in lent and you can tell this because we haven’t said the Gloria and the reason is that we are getting ready for Easter. It is a somber time. I once asked a friend the best way that I could describe this time and he said, it is like taking a deep breath.

He said when you are about to sing really loudly you take a deep breath. He said not saying the Gloria or using the word Alleluia during lent is like taking a deep breath ready to rejoice at Easter.

I loved the idea of lent as being a time to take a deep breath. This morning in our gospel reading (Luke 4:1-13) we heard of the temptations of Jesus. Straight after His baptism Jesus went into the wilderness to take time, to reflect before He entered into His public ministry. 

Jesus took time, He took a breath and this is what we are doing as well. Jesus was then tempted by all the things that would take Him away from God the Father, all that would stop Him trusting, all that would take Him away from His mission to bring us salvation.

Jesus took a breath and in taking a breath He was tempted but He stayed strong and He did it for us. He was tempted into an easier life, He was tempted into a life that would make Him seem more popular with everyone and not just His followers. He was tempted to trust in worldly power and authority. He refused and He did it by showing that His way was better. 

We are taking a deep breath and in our time of taking a deep breath, we are taking time to reflect on our relationship with God. 

In our readings today we have heard about the type of things we can do as we take our deep breath both during Lent and always. In the reading from Deuteronomy we heard about the need to remember. In that reading written to a people who had been freed from slavery in Egypt by God, we heard of the people being reminded to remember.

It sounds strange that they were being reminded of the need to remember. When the people left Egypt they kept wandering for over 40 years until they got to the land that God had promised. By the time they had reached the land families looked quite different as some members had died and new members had been born. The people who settled into the new land were living on the memory passed down from others about how they had been freed from slavery by God. 

This is another reason why they needed to be reminded to remember.

In the reading from the letter to the Romans we heard about remembering again. This time all you needed to remember was that Jesus Is Lord and He had been raised from the dead. You were also to say this when asked, and it was to be your belief. This is quite an easy one for us I think. 

In the gospel reading we heard of Jesus being tempted in the desert by Satan. Each of the Temptations made to Jesus were biblical, and he of course, responded with biblical answers.  Each one of the Temptations came from the book of Deuteronomy. This is an interesting fact as our Old Testament reading was also from Deuteronomy. 

In the gospel of Luke, as I said earlier, the account before this was of Jesus’s baptism. A moment of rejoicing when Jesus was blessed by the holy spirit. Jesus had received strength and this led him to the desert. I think this is how Jesus although fully God but also fully human was able to stand against the temptation set before him by Satan. Obviously, Jesus could stand against anything, after all He is God. But I like to think that it is by our own time spent in prayer asking for the strength of the holy spirit that we are able to stand against temptation.

I am not saying that we will that we will find ourselves in a desert, but each day we can be tempted in all sorts of ways. I’m not just talking about what we eat but more about what we say and how we act. Imagine if Jesus walked up to us right now, will we be able to say that we are never tempted to do or say something that’s not quite right. This is why we confess, no one is perfect.

Lent is a great time for us to grow closer to God and to each other as we think more about him and how he changes our lives and helps us in how we relate to each other.

It’s a little like an extreme exercise time. I have never done one of these for my physical health. However, it does sound brave to say that we can do this for our spiritual life. 

Back to remembering, how about if this lent we saw all we do as a way to give thanks to God for all he has done for us. It doesn’t sound very scary and also it is the perfect way to live.  As we take our deep breath may our  praises be to God both now and always. AMEN

To doubt or not to doubt.

Life is full of moments of excitement and anticipation. There are so many times when something so brilliant has happened that we can’t help but be excited.  Holidays, new jobs, nice meals out, seeing family and friends you haven’t seen for a while can all be moments that we look forward to. Maybe even get excited about. 

I was thinking about this when I looked at the gospel for this morning. The disciples had been through the mill. They must have had such a mix of emotions and in such a short time. They had followed Jesus, they had trusted Him, He had died but then He had risen from the dead. It was all a bit confusing to say the least. The disciples had moved from apprehension to sadness to joy to confusion and as they waited to see what would happen next they must have felt a mixture of anticipation and excitement. 

The disciples were waiting to see Jesus. It isn’t easy but try and put yourselves in the disciples shoes for a moment. How would you have felt on seeing Jesus? Maybe you would have thought immediately of questions such as ‘What is going to happen next ? Is there going to be a new start for Jesus’ ministry? Are we going to go to the Temple and overthrow the people who killed Jesus? Maybe we are going to watch Jesus take over the political power in the world and rule himself?’ 

Jesus who had been through so much with and for the very friends that he was speaking to – Jesus, who had confounded their expectations by rising up from the grave – Jesus, who was now standing amongst them confounded them again by offering the simple words… ‘peace be with you’

Incredible, no immediate ideas for the future, no action plans to discuss! Amidst all the excitement and anticipation, the wonder of what might happen next Jesus stood and said ‘peace be with you’ and the disciples could have been forgiven for thinking ‘what else do you want to say to us?’ 

After all the emotional turmoil, and now full of excitement the disciples may have felt a bit let down to be honest. 

But then Jesus said something more, He told the disciples that they had work to do. He did this by saying,‘ As the Father has sent me, so I send you’.

Jesus, through His victory over death, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that would come to all his followers at Pentecost was handing over the earthly ministry to those followers – as they received the peace of Christ, so they were to share it with others. They were to do as Jesus did. In the same way that He had been sent so He was sending them out to make a difference to the lives of others. To help people to find their way to a relationship with God. To know healing, to know the way that lives can be changed. Jesus was giving them a job to do that was, that they were to go out and they were to proclaim peace. 

As we begin to put Easter behind us, as we finish off the easter eggs and chocolate it’s time to get back to some sort of normality – no more Lent disciplines for this year, no drama of Holy Week services in Church – but what there is remains a reminder of the celebration of the risen Lord Jesus. Because of that first Easter Day we are different, our lives have been transformed, and each Easter Day is a wonderful reminder of that fact, but it is also a commissioning to live transformed lives, to go out from here and share the peace of Christ with others…. ‘As the Father sends me, so I send you…’ we are in on the action plan !

In our gospel reading we also heard of Thomas. Poor Thomas, I often feel sorry for Thomas, who will forever be known as doubting Thomas. But put yourself in his shoes, maybe you wouldn’t have been swept away with all the excitement and anticipation of the others, maybe you would have wanted to step back for a moment and be sure.  Maybe, that would seem to be the most natural thing to do. We are all different and maybe we would have wanted to calm everyone down and be sure, maybe we would want convincing because we had been hurt once and we didn’t want that to happen again.

I remember being in a service once when the preacher decided to preach a long sermon about Thomas. It was a historical type of sermon, and at the end of the service a little boy who was 4 went up to the preacher looked at him very seriously and said, “Thomas is a train not a man.” 

Back to the disciple Thomas, and not the tank engine.  Maybe Thomas with his doubts is perhaps one of the most comforting disciples. After all, the reaction of Jesus to Thomas and his doubts reminds us that in times of doubt, times of questioning, times when things don’t seem to make perfect sense, Jesus is there waiting for us to approach him, and we can know from Thomas and Jesus that whatever we may have done to Jesus, or not done to him or for him, he waits with open arms to welcome us back.

Thomas is the inspiration that reminds us that the peace of Christ is a peace that passes all understanding, and a peace that is always available to us.

Just as those early disciples must have stood before the risen Jesus and wondered what comes next, so we can stand, firm in our faith, wondering what comes next, but knowing that God is with us, and assuring us of his peace.

We can remember that in all things and at all times we have been redeemed by a Saviour who offers to each one of us in all circumstances the simple words, ‘Peace be with you’. We can also remember that as often as we remember that Jesus died for us so we  can remember that Jesus rose again for us so that we can know His peace, and this is so that we can go out and share that peace and the difference that God makes in our lives with others. May we share the peace of God in all that we think and do and say. AMEN

Jesus is Alive.

 If I was to describe today it would be a celebration. We have journeyed with Jesus to the cross and now we arrive at the most joyous moment. The moment when we celebrate that Jesus is alive. Death has been conquered. We are now able to live forever when we go to our home in heaven.

Jesus is alive and because He is alive we know that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Every Easter I have to apologise, because I get very excited about the day. I always feel that out of kindness to everyone I know, I should be muffled ! My favourite day of the year, the day when we celebrate that God loved and loves us so much that He not only died for us but He showed that He is almighty as He rose from the dead.

Jesus is alive and so we can celebrate. There is a problem with lots of rejoicing and that is that people don’t always feel like rejoicing, because life continues for us and the pains that we had on Good Friday, the hurts that we hold are still here today. 

The difference is that because we know Jesus is alive, we know that He loves us and understands when we don’t feel completely like celebrating. It doesn’t mean that the resurrection of Jesus means any less to us. 

In our gospel reading today (John 20:1-18) we heard of Mary seeing Jesus resurrected. To be honest, when I was a child I never understood how she didn’t recognise Jesus. Except now I get it, because when you see someone in a different place to normal you take longer than you normally would to recognise them. For Mary she had seen Jesus die, she was going to the tomb to do all that she could now do for Jesus by looking after His body. She would hardly have expected to see Him alive. 

Mary recognised Jesus eventually, when she heard Him calling her name. There can be something so amazing when someone calls your name. It can be a really special moment. 

When I was a teenager I was at an international Anglican youth conference. We had been taken to a reception with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, I had met him and had a quick chat, then I had gone and got a piece of chocolate cake. There I was happily enjoying my chocolate cake when I heard a voice say, “Helen, is Welsh. Helen please come and join in a photograph with other people from Wales.” The voice was the Archbishop, it was a pretty brilliant feeling. I did finish my chocolate cake quickly first.

If that is how I felt, imagine this rather beautiful moment for Mary. She was in despair and doing the best that she could do for Jesus when all of a sudden she realised that she was talking to Him. Not only that but she realised it was Him when He called her name.

Jesus is alive and He calls our name. He looks at each one of us with love and He knows our name. He knows how we are feeling, He knows that we love Him and He looks at us and sees someone He loves.

Back to Mary, rather understandably she didn’t want to let Jesus go. Jesus almost pushed her away, but it was only so that she could go and tell the others this amazing news. This news that changed not only her life but the life for all the other followers of Jesus. The news that changes us and our lives. 

We all have times when Jesus seems so close  to us that we went to tell everyone about Him. We have seen the Lord. Mary went and shouted to the others, I have seen the Lord. Can you imagine how excited she must have been and what a great feeling ? A feeling of complete joy and happiness. A huge moment of celebration. 

Before Mary saw Jesus she had been in shock and distress believing that someone had taken Jesus’ body away. She went and got Peter and another disciple and they followed her in distress running to see what had happened. There was no joy for them, just the pain and indignity that not only had their Lord, the one who was to save the world, been crucified, now His body had been stolen. 

They rushed off to see what to do next. Mary stayed and ended up being the first person to see Jesus alive. I wonder if afterwards Peter and the other disciple were thinking, “that’s not fair, we didn’t wait and we missed out.”

This happens to us too, we can see other people having a great time and wonder why we are missing out. Today is a day of celebration and it is a day when we can celebrate not only that God loves us and knows us by name but also that we don’t miss out. We don’t miss out because God is always with us, life can be tough but God never leaves us. 

Jesus is alive and we can be changed. Changed into more and more the person God would have us be. That is more and more like Him. God loves you, just because you are you and He wants you to know that He will be with you always. He will help you to be transformed constantly into His likeness. 

You see, God loves us and He understands that we love Him but sometimes we don’t feel like celebrating. God loves us and He understands that sometimes, like Mary, at first we don’t see what He has done for us and that He calls us His own. God loves us and He understands that sometimes we feel like we have missed out and that everyone else is better than us and more worthy. God loves us and He understands when we want to shout how good He is and what He has done for us. 

Most of all God loves you because you are His child. A child for whom He suffered death and was raised to life so that death would no longer be the end. We can rejoice, loudly or quietly, because God has set us free, free to be in a relationship with Him, a relationship with our creator. The best place for us to be. AMEN

Waving and weeping

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday.  On this day we remember the crowds praising Jesus and following him into Jerusalem whilst He was riding on a donkey. Things took a dramatic downturn though. As next week goes on we will remember all the pain Jesus suffered.

I remember a lady who told me that she was always really sad during holy week. The reason for this, she said, was that she couldn’t understand how anyone could be so horrible to Jesus. 

Certainly Holy Week does take us through lots of emotions and challenges as we remember all that Jesus both has done and keeps doing for us.

There are a couple of readings from the gospel according to Matthew on Sunday. The first (Matthew 21:1-11) of these describes how Jesus sent his disciples to find a donkey, which they did.  I think the disciples could have wondered what on earth they were doing. They had been sent on a very mysterious errand. Jesus told them to go to a particular place and ask for a donkey. Jesus used this donkey to ride into Jerusalem.

As He did this, He was greeted by people who were full of joy, praising Him.  I wonder if the people were caught up in the moment and were happy to join in the celebration. Did they know what they were celebrating? Or maybe they knew the prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) about the chosen one, the one who would save them, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. This would have been an obvious reason to rejoice. 

I can imagine word spreading quickly of the incredible scenes of celebration. However, as I picture people cheering I also wonder about the religious leaders of the time. They had promised Rome, who were their occupying force, that there would not be any disturbance or attempts to overthrow Roman rule. A group of people surrounding a teacher with as big a following as Jesus had, would have been a concern. In addition to this the leaders didn't agree with all that Jesus was teaching.

Something needed to be done as far as they were concerned, Jesus needed to be stopped. This happened with the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus. 

Back to Sunday. As I remember the triumphal entry into Jerusalem I am left with a question which challenges me. This is because, I often think of the people who were cheering for Jesus on Palm Sunday and  wonder if they also formed part of the crowd who were crying for Jesus to be crucified in the other gospel reading (Matthew 27:11-54) for this Sunday.

I am sure that I would not have wanted to be part of the crowd looking for Jesus to be crucified. The challenge is though, do I really make sure that I always show my love for Jesus and my desire to follow Him as fully as I can? It is one of those thoughts that pulls me up. Am I giving the best I can to Jesus ? Am I living as someone who follows Him above everything else ?  

On Sunday we will be entering Holy Week, but as we journey through the week, as we think of the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday there is a challenge. This is, are we ready to make sure that we think of all that Jesus both has done, and continues to do for us, and to living our lives as a response to this ? 

Passionately living

This Sunday is Passion Sunday.  The Sunday when our gears shift slightly. Lent is continuing but we remember that we are getting closer to holy week and the marking of Good Friday. I remember that in the Church where I grew up all the crosses would be covered on this Sunday. This was done to remind us that we were entering into the final weeks of lent which are called Passiontide. 

In Passiontide we focus on the suffering of Jesus. This suffering involves humiliation, torture and death but it also takes us into the hope and promise of new life. It reminds us that we are forgiven. This is great news but before joy there is pain.

The gospel reading for Sunday is John 11:1-45. This passage is about Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. This happened in Bethany.  

The first time I went to the holy land was with a number of other Church leaders. When we arrived in Bethany there was an opportunity to go into the tomb of Lazarus. When we went down to the tomb there was plenty of room and we had time to spend there. When it was time to leave peoples names were called out. This was followed by the words ‘come out’. This of course, was very much like the words that Jesus used when he called Lazarus. 

Thinking about it now though, I can see that in the same way Jesus called Lazarus back to life, He calls us as well. 

We can all put ourselves into a place where we want to despair or be left alone. We can all want to try and hide from Jesus, or just refuse to hear Him calling us. We are not physically dead, but I think that we can put up barriers to protect ourselves from hurt, or doing something that we fear. 

Maybe we just need to imagine Jesus calling our name, making us leave the barriers that we may have put up. 

Lazarus was called to life and we all are as well. Jesus wants us all to enjoy a relationship with Him.

The next two weeks will lead us to remember Jesus dying for us and rising again so that we can enjoy life by following Him. 

I rather like putting a spin on words and I feel this about Passiontide. I want to see the life Jesus calls me to as a life which I will live ‘passionately’, or maybe put another way, ‘completely’. We are all called to live for Jesus and to do this wholeheartedly. As we do so we remember that it is because of His Passion that we can live forever in eternity.

Let's be passionate about living our lives for Jesus.