Aiming for Greatness in God's Kingdom

Matt 5:19

 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Being great in the Kingdom is surely something worth striving for. We certainly don’t want to be least. We need to ask ourselves am I guilty of setting aside, ignoring or disobeying certain commands that don’t fit with my thinking, attitudes or lifestyle?  The Sermon on the Mount that this verse is taken from certainly challenges our thoughts and attitudes. Some dismiss the teaching as idealistic yet does Jesus really set the bar so high it is unattainable? Should we give up trying because we sometimes fail? Jesus demands both a hatred of sin (vs 27-30) and a radical commitment to God and sacrificial love of others. He claims his followers must be better than the religious leaders in obedience or they won’t even be in His kingdom (v20). Of course obedience doesn’t earn a place in God’s good books but neither is obedience an optional extra. Indeed clearly this verse teaches what is important to God, namely living an example of obedience to Him.

Father show me where I am setting aside one of your commands, that I may repent.  

Les Mis -Worth a Watch

Les Miserables the film

I have just seen Les Misirables with my wife at the cinema. I’ve never really appreciated musicals as a genre of film and would not normally choose to watch one. I’m glad I saw this! This was a really powerful film. It certainly brought tears to many who were watching including me. What is so wonderful from a Christian point of view are the very clear themes of forgiveness and redemption. The depiction of grinding poverty, injustice and love is both emotionally stirring and profoundly thought provoking. The casting, acting and singing was, I thought, excellent. Although Les Miserables could be described as dark and in many ways sad I feel there was a real sense of hope and justice winning through. This story expresses both the goodness of God and the depravity of men and women it raises issues of conscience, highlights courage and integrity.

Lord may we be both courageous and just, compassionate and forgiving.

Creative worship for the 'Uncreative'

I don’t play a musical instrument or paint, I’m not very practical and have never felt inclined to try most of the creative arts. In fact this is true of my wife and my three children. But actually God has made all of us creative. I create through my preaching and my writing. I do have some ability in drawing and even flower arranging (I’m not supposed to admit this in the north of England!) though I have never developed these gifts. I am happy to have others come with ideas and creative ability but often neglect my own modest capacities.

Creative worship is not my natural style but recently we got together as a family and instead of opening the Bible we spent an hour “being creative”. I gave some suggestions of things family members might consider doing and although there was an initial fear about what to do all four of us got on with our own creativity. I collected things from the garden, a piece of wood, some small stones, foliage and the only flowering plant in the garden at the moment. I made a kind of collage of these things as an act of worship. One of my sons made two very professional looking origami angels after some trial and error. Another son collected some sweet smelling foliage and wrote a poem/song which he bravely sang to us. This is more or less unheard of in our family. Another member of the family wrote some letters to friends and prepared a very special tea break as her act of worship. We ended with a table full of what we had produced including a picture taken of the sky that morning. God really met with us, it was a simple, different and actually rather freeing to spend time doing something we rarely if ever normally do.