Archive for The Holy Spirit

Days of Elijah: some Old Testament heroes

July 28, 2009 at 10:36 am · Filed under Old testament, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , , , , ,

 

 

( Talk given at a Family Service. The names of the heroes were presented on a board using the technique of “ladder writing” with a paint brush.)

Sing Hymn,  “Days Of Elijah”,  by Robin Mark ( Songs of Fellowship No. 1047 )

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord:
And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it’s the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes.

These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days of Your servant David,
Rebuilding a temple of praise.
These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world,
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!


Let us think about these four Old Testament heroes:

 
ELIJAH

Elijah was a great man of God he lived at a time when the Israelites were turning away from the true God to worship all kinds of false gods. The chief of the pagan gods was Baal. And there were hundreds of priests of Baal in the land, all supported by King Ahab and his evil wife Jezabel. One day God told Elijah to go and see King Ahab so he went and challenged him to a contest. “Let’s see who is the true god. Gather together all the prophets of Baal and of the goddess Asherah and come to meet me on the top of Mount Carmel.

On the mountain Elijah said to the people, “How long will you limp along with two opinions? If the Lord is God follow him,   if Baal is god follow him!
Let’s see which god can answer by fire.  Let’s build two altars and put a sacrificial animal on both. You pray to your god and I’ll pray to mine. The god who sends fire down from heaven to burn up the sacrifice is the true God.

So the prophets of Baal started praying to their god. All day long they cried  out, “O Baal hear us!”  They ranted and raved, they went into trances, they even gashed themselves with swords and spears. But their god did not answer them. Then it was Elijah’s turn – all alone,  surrounded by 850 pagan prophets. He gave orders that the altar and the whole sacrifice should be soaked in water. Eventually it was saturated.  (It would have to be some fire if it was going to burn up that!)

Then Elijah prayed. He simply asked God that he would send fire and prove he was the true God. No ritual, no dancing, and certainly no slashing himself with a sword!

And God answered! There was a sudden bolt of lighting from the sky and the whole sacrifice was incinerated. Even the stones were destroyed. And all the water was evaporated. All the people bowed down and worshipped the Lord.

 So Elijah was used by God to restore the true worship of God in Israel.

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord

God calls us to do that today – like Elijah.

 

MOSES
Moses was used by God to bring the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. God did many mighty deeds through Moses, parting the Red Sea, etc.  And God gave him the Ten Commandments, the Law for his people. To show them how they should live their lives.

We also are called by Jesus to shine out with good deeds.

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

 And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’

 

 EZEKIEL

Perhaps we don’t think of him as a hero, but Ezekiel spoke God’s words to the Jews when they were in exile in Babylon. They were very discouraged and so was Ezekiel. And God gave him a wonderful vision to encourage the nation.

There was this valley full of dry bones – the bones of a mighty army that had been slain. God told Ezekiel to prophecy, to ask the Wind to come from the four corners and to breath into the bones. He did this, and then he saw, before his eyes, the bones being covered with flesh and skin. But they were still dead. God told him to prophecy a second time, to ask the Wind or Spirit to come and breath life into them. He did so and they came alive and rose to their feet – a mighty army!

This vision was given to encourage the people of the Jews. God was going to bring the nation back to life. he was going to revive them and bring them back from exile. The Wind, or Breath, is the Spirit of God.

We are called today to pray for God to send his Spirit in fresh power, to give new life to his church. We feel like dried up bones but he can make us vibrant and alive for Jesus.

These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh

 
DAVID

David was a shepherd boy who became a king. As a lad he defeated Goliath through  his trust in God. He wrote psalms of praise to God and accompanied himself on a harp as he sang. As king in Jerusalem he started to get ready the materials to build the first Temple of the Lord.  (Actually it was his son Solomon who built it,  but David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, ready for the building of the Temple.)

And these are the days of Your servant David,
Rebuilding a temple of praise.

We are called to build a Temple of praise to God with our worship, and to go out and bring in others.

These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world,
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it’s the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes.

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Möbius strip

July 15, 2009 at 9:50 pm · Filed under God the Father, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

A Möbius Strip

 

Talk (A)

Produce three paper loops.Demonstrate cutting in two longitudinally:

·  simple loop    =    results in two separate loops
·  loop with one half twist =     results in one large loop
·  loop with two half twists   =     results in  two linked loops

 

Application:

 
·  Two loops: God and us, we are separated from God by sin, self-centredness. Every human being is like this by nature.

·  One big loop:   Jesus. He is different . The only man who never sinned. He is perfectly at one with God. “I and the father are one,” Jesus said  (John 10: 30). “then they took up stones to stone him” for blasphemy.

·  Two interlocking loops:  this is us, linked to God for eternity. When we believe in Jesus, when we turn away from evil, when we ask Jesus to rule our lives,  then we are linked to God. Our sins are forgiven, we become new people and we share in the life of God’s
eternity.  Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  ( Romans 8:35–39)
Recap: two loops – we are separated from God
  one large loop – Jesus is one with God
  two interlocked loops – in Jesus we are joined to God.

 

  

Talk (B)  Möbius Strip

 

[show Möbius strip]
This kind of loop is called a Möbius Strip.  It is a loop with a twist in it.

Can anyone think of somewhere where you can see a Möbius loop in everyday life?  How about at the recycling centre?
The universal symbol for recycling is a Möbius loop in the form of a triangle:

See full size image

 

 Why is it called a Möbius loop? after August Ferdinand Möbius, a German mathematician. he discovered it and studies its amazing mathematical properties. (I’m afraid  we haven’t got time to go into all those equations, etc! )

Let me just  show you something strange: If I draw a line along the strip it comes back to where it was at the beginning. So what? That would happen with any loop. Yes,  but look: the line seems to be drawn on both sides, but it can’t be. I did not allow the pen to cross over the edge! I only drew on one side. If an ant was walking along this strip it would have gone right around the whole strip without once crossing over he edge.

You see: a Möbius strip has only one side – even thought it is a 3-dimensional object!
Most things have got more than one side. A sheet of paper has two, a book has six (think about it). What about a ball? That’s only got one side. (Unless it’s hollow then it’s got an inside and an outside.)
So a Möbius strip is like a sphere,even though it looks very different. Like a sphere it has only one side.Now here is the mathematical symbol for infinity:  

See full size image 

But some people  think the Möbius strip is an even better symbol. You see, it just goes on and on, and never ends Also, it includes both side in one. It is a bit like God! He is infinite and eternal, he goes on for ever. He also covers everything. He is everywhere and he combines in his nature various attributes that we might think are opposites.

For example: God is perfectly good and holy, he can not look upon sin and evil,  but at the same time he is perfectly loving and forgiving.
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5) 
 - that refers to his holiness. He can not tolerate evil.

But at the same time:
“God is love”  (1 John 4:16).
- God loves us and yearns for us to come to him and know his forgiveness.
One part of his nature has to punish our sins but another part has to forgive our sins. These two seem to be in opposition.  How can God forgive the sinner and punish the sin at the same time?
Well, in Jesus he has done it.  He has done the seemingly impossible. Just as the Möbius strip brings together two sides into one, so Jesus brings together God’s holiness and his mercy. When Jesus died on the cross he took our sin upon himself. He was punished in our place. At the cross God’s holiness and God’s love come together.

Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.    (Psalm 85:10, New American Standard Bible )

 

 

 Talk (C)  The Holy Trinity

[Demonstrate cutting a strip with three half turns in it. Straighten it out into a trefoil knot.  (Girl Guides should know this!)

 

See full size image

 

 

 

 

 

It's just one loop, but it is knotted in such a way that it looks like three interlocking loops. Amazing, isn't it? And our God is amazing too. Far more amazing than this. For he is three Persons in one God.

So this trefoil knot is a symbol of the Holy Trinity. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are three distinct persons. But they are only one God.  Just one Being. You can not separate them. They are bound together eternally in love and holiness. And such is the love of our God, the Lord, the Holy Trinity, that he actually came into our world in the person of the Son.  Jesus came to bring salvation to us.

[Recap the first talk with the various loops.]

This talk was given in the Brecon Presbyterian Church at a service of worship for all ages.

 

 

 

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The Holy Spirit in the Church

June 8, 2009 at 7:43 pm · Filed under Christian living, The Church, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , , ,

 
 
 

 (based on a sermon outline by Roger Campbell, p179 in Preach for a Year # 1 )

Acts 11: 9-14, 2: 1-8, 42-27

 When God’s Son came into the world, the world did not know him, even though the world was made by him. That was the coming of God’s Son into the world. After he had returned to heaven he sent the Holy Spirit, and it was the same old story. The world did not recognise him. Indeed, on the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, some people just said they were drunk!

And since then in the history of the Church there have been times when people have not recognised the Holy Spirit. And they have forgotten about him. They have gone about the Christian life as if it were just a matter of keeping laws, man-made rules and regulations in one’s own strength. The Holy Spirit is in the Church, and the Church was made by the Holy Spirit, but at times the Church knows him not.

What a difference it would make to our Christianity if every individual member of the Church were to be filled with the Holy Spirit! We can look into the Book of Acts to see what that situation would be like. What is a church like when it lives in the renewing power of the Holy Spirit?

We can note three things:

 

1)  From weaklings to witnesses (Acts 1:8)

The early chapters of Acts show us the followers of Jesus, just after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Just before he ascended to heaven Jesus met with his disciples and they asked him some questions:

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (V6)

In other words: “Is it now time for us to go out in your name and bring in the Kingdom of God?”

Jesus said, “Not yet.”

“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you (v7-8)

You must wait first until the Holy Spirit comes upon you – you will not carry out this work in your own strength.

 

When we consider the weakness of that first group of disciples we are amazed at what they were able to achieve in the power of the Holy Spirit.Remember just who they were:

· There was Peter who had denied his Lord in a moment of crisis.

· There was Philip whose faith was weak, who had asked, “Lord show us the Father and then we will believe.”

· There was Thomas who doubted the Resurrection of the Lord.

· And there were all the other disciples, cowering behind locked doors for fear of the Authorities.

These are the people Jesus took, and filled with his Spirit, and used to turn the world upside down.

However weak we may be in our own human strength we will be witnesses to Christ when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

 

2)  From faction to fellowship  (Acts 4:32)

There was the possibility of all kinds of faction and division in the early Church. Those first followers were such a disparate group of people. Some had been fishermen: others tax gatherers. Some had been Zealots, fighting against the Romans: others had worked for the Romans. Some had lived highly moral lives others had been crooks or prostitutes.

Before the death of Jesus his disciples had quarrelled about who was going to be the most important in the Kingdom. After the Resurrection there was still the question of Peter’s denial, Thomas’s lack of belief, the other disciples forsaking Jesus at his arrest. Yes, there were plenty of possible causes for recriminations and dispute.

But after the coming of the Holy Spirit they are united in heart, mind and will

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed any of his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they had.” (Acts 4:32)

The Holy Spirit had united them with a bond of love that was far more important to them than mere possessions.

It is always so with the Holy Spirit. When he is at work he brings unity and love among the members in the local church. When the Christians truly love one another, then their work of outreach is not compromised. But if there are divisions in the church, how can they expect to be able to bring in others?

Sadly some of the very churches which make the greatest claims about the work of he Holy Spirit are riven by internal divisions. Such division between groups of people who both believe in Jesus is a sure sign that the Holy Spirit is not being given his rightful place. However much lip-service may be paid to the work of the Spirit – if there is division, then he is not being given his rightful place.

 

 

3) Growth without gimmickry (Acts 4: 33)

In the Book of Acts, every time we see the Holy Spirit at work in the church we also see growth.

· 3000 people were converted on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 41)

· After Peter and John had been arrested, the number of believers rose to 5000 men (not counting women and children). (Acts 4: 4)

· After the incident with Ananias and Sapphira, multitudes were added to their number. (Acts 5: 14)

· “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6: 7)

 

This was church growth in New Testament times.

· It was not the result of a strategy drawn up by a committee.

· It was not attained by adhering to “church growth principles”.

· It was not the result of massive evangelistic rallies with world-famous names on the platform.

· It was not the outcome of natural gifts and abilities.

· It was not brought about by gimmicks.

Such things are often used today to try and whip up revival. But without the power of the Holy Spirit none of these things will produce real growth. And by that I mean growth in depth of faith and love, as well as growth in numbers. And the Book of Acts shows us that the Holy Spirit does not need any of these things to produce revival!

Aren’t you tired of gimmicks? I am.

All we need is what those first disciples had: we see it in Acts 2 as they waited in the upper room.

They joined together to pray and to worship God in the name of Christ. They waited on God with a humble spirit.

Are we prepared to do this?

 

If we are, then we too can be:

· changed from Weaklings to Witnesses,

· our relationships can be mended as we go from Faction to Fellowship,

· and converts will join the Church as we experience Growth without Gimmicks.

If only we will trust God for his power.

 

 

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Pentecost Power

June 5, 2009 at 6:12 pm · Filed under New Testament, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

 

Acts chapter 2

(Sermon Preached in Brecon Presbyterian Church on Sunday 31 May 2009)

Today is Pentecost Sunday – although I don’t ever recall it being called that when I was a child in Park End Church, Cardiff. I can’t remember it being called anything but Whit Sunday. In those days Whitsun was a bank holiday and Whit Monday was always the day for the Whitsun Treat. I remember us as children clambering onto a lorry with Sunday school benches roped to it. We clung on to those benches for dear life as the lorry climbed the steep hill out of Cardiff,  up to some farmer’s field, where we had games and a picnic. There didn’t seem to be any Health and Safety regulations in those days!

I think, to most of us, the the religious significance of Whitsun was completely lost. We must have been taught about it in Sunday School but I don’t ever recall hearing about the coming of the Holy Spirit. For children today it probably has even less significance. It’s not even called Whitsun now, it’s the Late Spring Bank Holiday, and it doesn’t always happen on Whit weekend.

By the way, if you’re wondering about the origin of the phrase Whit Sunday, it comes from the time when confirmations were always held at Pentecost. The candidates for confirmation all wore white robes and dresses: hence White or Whit Sunday.

 

Rumours

But how can we get back to the true meaning of Whitsun? It helps a bit, I think, to call it Pentecost because that reminds us of the events we read about in Acts Chapter two. On the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, when Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims from everywhere Jews lived, the Holy Spirit came. He came upon an obscure group of Galilean fishermen and ex tax-collectors who were followers of Jesus of Nazareth -  Jesus who had been crucified seven weeks previously. On that day, Good Friday, the Sun had been darkened, there had been an earthquake and the heavy curtain in the Temple had been torn in two  – momentous and apocalyptic events.

A week later there were rumours going around that Jesus had risen from the dead and had been seen by his disciples. His tomb was empty and his body gone – the Jewish and Roman authorities didn’t know what to make of it.

And still the rumours kept coming. More and more people said they had met with the risen Jesus – on a mountaintop, by Lake Galilee, in Jerusalem behind locked doors, in the village of Emmaus. Jesus kept popping up everywhere! But despite these appearances of the risen Lord his followers seemed to be pretty intimidated. They were scared of the authorities. They didn’t want to risk facing jail and crucifixion, so they met in secret. No doubt the authorities hoped all this religious enthusiasm would die down. After a while surely people would realise Jesus was dead. And then his followers would disperse – going back to their old lives as fishermen, etc. That’s what the authorities hoped, but how wrong they were!

About six weeks after the Passover there were more rumours rumours going round. This time it was claimed that Jesus had gone back to heaven. Some of his followers even claimed to have been at his ascension. It all seemed too ridiculous to be true to the authorities, but his followers continued to believe in him. They started holding daily prayer meetings in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem. They were waiting for something to happen – the coming of that mysterious power Jesus had promised them.
“Do not leave Jerusalem,” he had said, “but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”      (Acts 1:4)

And that’s what they were waiting for.

 

 

A storm of spiritual power

Then, ten days after the Ascension, it happened. On  the Day of Pentecost there was a sound like a rushing wind, something that looked like tongues of flame resting on each follower of Jesus. Every one was filled with the Holy Spirit, They felt a new joy and peace and love, a new power. They started praising God in strange tongues. It all happened at once. That quiet little upper room in Jerusalem suddenly became the centre of a veritable storm of spiritual power. People outside heard the noise and came running. And the disciples spilled out into the street proclaiming God’s glory in a variety of languages. And so the Christian Church was born.
Imagine a news report of the time might have looked (if they had had them).

 

AMAZING EVENTS IN JERUSALEM AS RELIGIOUS HYSTERIA HITS THE CITY

Yesterday a tremendous wave of messianic fervour hit the Metropolis as crowds of followers of the prophet Jesus rampaged though the streets. Jesus of Nazareth was a messianic pretender who was crucified by the Romans seven weeks ago, during the Passover festival. Now his followers claim he is alive again. They have been seen in the streets shouting out in many different languages that Jesus is the Messiah and praising him as the Son of God.

Why do the authorities tolerate such blasphemy? Why don’t they just produce the body of the imposter Jesus and put paid to these claims? And how did these ignorant men become proficient in so many different languages – Parthian, Elamite, Phrygian and Egyptian among others?

In an astonishing further development it appears that about 300 people publicly joined themselves to the new Jesus sect yesterday.

The man Peter seems to be the ringleader of the group. Yesterday he harangued the crowd and publicly accused them of responsibility for the death of Jesus. Then, in an unprecedented turn of events, instead of lynching him, the crowd asked how they too could become followers of the so-called Messiah! Will this madness never end? Will it take over the whole world? Can the authorities do nothing?

 

Well, we know it didn’t stop there – and it is still taking over the world. Here, in the West, we get despondent when we see the decline of Christianity in our society, as well as the increase in other religions such as Islam. And yet the Gospel is spreading like wildfire in many parts of the world. Even in the Muslim heartlands of North Africa thousands of people are turning to Christ.

Here in Wales – formerly known as “the Land of Revivals” – we have a situation which makes us feel despondent. Our clinging to outworn traditions and basking in our knowledge about the great revivals of the past have made us complacent. We somehow think revival will come automatically, like the ebb and flow of the tide. 

  • But will it come if we don’t pray?
  • Will it come if we don’t spread the Gospel?
  • Will it come if we don’t repent of all evil in our lives?
  • Will it come  if we don’t seek reconciliation with our brothers and sisters?
  • Will it come if we don’t open our hearts to the work of the blessed Holy Spirit.

(close with prayer)

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The fish and the bicycle

September 27, 2008 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Christian living, God the Father, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

Baptismal Family Service: The fish and the bicycle

(used at a baptism service in the Brecon Presbyterian Church)


Sometimes you hear people saying “I need that like a fish needs a bicycle!” In other words: “I don’t need it”. A fish has no legs  -so a bike would be useless to it. I’m going to talk about a fish and a bicycle today: but this will be about things we do need.

The fish

Once there was a little fish who said to his mother, “Mum, where is the ocean?”        “Well, you’re in it!” she said.
“What do you mean? I can’t see it.”
“No you can’t see it, but you’re swimming in it. And you’re breathing it when you open your mouth – water goes in and passes over your gills. But you can’t feel it because you’re in it all the time.”
“I don’t believe you!”, he said. If I can’t see it and I can’t feel it, then it doesn’t exist. There’s no such thing as the ocean! And  with that he swam off to play with his friends in
the wide and deep ocean!

 

What a foolish fish! Because he was in the ocean he could not see it. But if he had been caught in the nets of a trawler- that would have been a different story. He would soon have realized what the ocean was. And he would have missed it badly as he gasped in the hold of the fishing boat – a fish out of water. Then he would have realized how important the ocean was to him.

I think  a lot of people are like that fish. They say God doesn’t exist, just because they can’t see him or touch him. But like the fish in the story they are  being foolish.
 The fool says in his heart, There is no God. (Psalm 14:1)

You see: like the ocean, God is all around us, and in us. He created us and everything else, and he keeps it all in being. He is the Ground of our Existence.
In him we live and move and have our being. ( Acts 17:28 )

You know, the worst thing that can happen to a fish is to be taken out of the ocean – and the worst thing for us is to be separated from God. But if people continually reject God  (we are warned in the Bible)  they shall eventually be eternally separated from God. There is a word for this state of separation -  we call it Hell.

But the wonderful good news is that God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not die eternally but shall have eternal life.  (John 3: 16).
Jesus died on the cross to save us from that state of separation. It’s like rescuing a fish and throwing it back alive into the ocean, and seeing it swim joyfully away.

The Good News is all about Jesus.

 

The bicycle

Gethin and Rachel, you have just confessed your faith in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
You can think of the Father as the one in whom we “live and move and have our being – the ocean in which we swim, if you like.
 And you can think of Jesus, the one who took human form and died on the cross to save us from eternal separation from God. To save us from our sins, our wrong deeds, and to put us right with God.
Whenever anyone believes in Jesus, and trusts in him, and commits themselves to him they become a new person. They receive the Holy Spirit,  who is the Third Person of God. He helps us to live as Christians. He gives us the power to live the Christian life – to live lives of love, and honesty, and truth, and integrity.

Electric Bike

Here is  a bicycle.  Now a bike is a good way to get around,  especially on the flat, but when you have to climb hills it can he hard work.  It’s easier if you’ve got good gears – like on a mountain bike. But this bike is not a mountain bike. it’s not an ordinary bike either.Can you see anything different about it?  It’s a bit heavier than usual. What’s this box here? It’s a battery!  Yes this is an electric bike. It’s got a motor in the back wheel. [demonstrate power]
So it’s much easier getting up the hills here in Brecon.

Now there are two ways of using this bike with the power on. If you put the switch in this position you you can use the throttle, and off the bike goes without  you having to pedal at all (although you might have to pedal a bit to help it up the hills).

But with the switch in this position you have power assisted mode. You pedal the bike as normal and whenever the pedal moves the motor give a bit of a push to the wheel. so you go forward faster.  You get a bit of help. If you pedal faster it gives  you more help. If you stop pedalling it stops giving you power. So in the power assisted mode you and the bike work together to go forward.

Now I would say that living the Christian life is like that. God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit  to help us to live as Christians should live. But we’ve got our part to play as well. Sometimes God will not help us  unless we do certain things – just as you only get power assistance when you move the pedals.

So there are some things we have to do. For instance:

  •  We have to believe in Jesus and commit ourselves to him
  • Then they asked him, What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, The work of God is
  • this: to believe in the one he has sent. (John 6: 28-29)
  • we have to be humble
  • we have to be sorry for our sins
  • we have to listen to God. He can speak to us through the Bible.  We’ve got to read it, or listen to it being read.
  •  we have to learn about Jesus and his ways
  • we have to come to church and worship God with other Christians
  • we have to pray and to seek his help to live our lives.

Rachel and Gethin today have asked God’s help and blessing on their child Craig. But they’ve got to play their part too. They must teach Craig and Nerys and Owain about God and Jesus, pray with them, pray for them, bring them to church. Family services like this are a good way to start.

In God we live and move and have our being.  He is all around us, but we will not connect with him until we play our part. When we trust in him, his divine life and power can flow into our lives.

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