We now have some great posters up in the community hall.

The verse is 1 Peter 3:10 in the CEV: “Do you really love life? Do you want to be happy? Then stop saying cruel things and quit telling lies. “

The verse here is Psalm 4:8 (“I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”)

This cute dog reminds us of Hebrews 13:6

And this maybe not-so-cute dog reminds us of Hebrews 10:23 (“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”)

Last week, we looked at Ephesians 2 in the Bible study.

The chapter begins with Paul’s reminder of what we were before we became Christians: how we were dead in transgressions and sin and totally separated from God and all of His promises for mankind. Now, we have been made alive together with Christ: indeed, we have been raised and made to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places, that God might show even more riches of His grace in the ages to come. All of this, God did by His love, grace and mercy. Our part is faith – and even that is a gift from God! – not works, so that we cannot boast that we engineered our salvation ourselves. The end result is that we have been created in Christ to walk in good works, which God planned beforehand for us to do.

The second part of the chapter looks at how far we have come as Gentiles, courtesy of Jesus Christ. Once strangers from the promises made to Israel and without God in the world, we can now draw near through the blood of Christ. By His death on the cross, Jesus abolished the law and commandments which separated Jews and Gentiles and has reconciled us both to God in one body. We Gentiles can therefore be fellow-citizens and members of God’s family. We are alos part of that grand temple being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the cornerstone. We then become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

In the discussion that followed, there were many points raised for reflection. Perhaps the most fundamental is that without an appreciation of our true state without God, we cannot appreciate the enormity of what God has done for us. We do not have a ‘cheap salvation’, but one which cost so much because our state was so desperate. We can marvel at God’s love, grace and mercy, but we can never earn these things. They are offered freely to us. Then the challenge is to walk in the works God has prepared for us to do. As Michael Card so eloquently says in his song ‘The Poem of your Life’ (based on the Greek word for ‘workmanship’ (poiema) in Ephesians 2:10):

“Life is a song we must sing with our days
A poem with meaning more than words can say
A painting with colours no rainbow can tell
A lyric that rhymes either heaven or hell.”

Yesterday was our usual coffee morning, but this week we decided to join Macmillan in their fund-raising efforts and hosted a Macmillan coffee morning. We raised £124 from the coffee morning – thanks!

Here’s the new board we have had made to advertise the coffee mornings:

Welcoming people:

Joan always has a smile!

A smile from our host, Diane (and Garry!):

More smiles…

We sold some books and buns as well.

This Saturday (25th September), the coffee morning will be in aid of Macmillan, the cancer support nurses. So if you would like a cuppa, come along on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 12 noon and know that you are supporting this cancer charity as well as getting to know people from church!

Ephesians 1 in the Authorised version tells us that we are ‘accepted in the Beloved’ (Eph 1:6) Mark preached on acceptance on Sunday evening, beginning first of all by asking if we had ever modified our behaviour in order to be acceptable to others.

Have we ever…
… dressed to please other people?
… modified our speech to fit in?
….pretended to be something else just to feel acceptable to others?
… bought things to impress other people rather than because we really want or need those things?

People may judge us by outward appearances, but God sees the heart (1 Sam 16:7) and it is always better to be real than to be a fake.

Chameleons are lizards which can often change colour according to their background and surroundings. This is a kind of camouflage and can help them to survive. So… we may have green chameleons…

or we may have orange chameleons…

or even striped ones!

Chameleons may benefit from this ability to merge with their backgrounds, but we are not chameleons. God wants us to be real people, not adapting our behaviour according to the company we keep, but allowing His life to shine through us. Moreover, sometimes we even try to do things to be acceptable to God, failing to understand that it is God who has made the way for us to be accepted in the Beloved.

Reading the Word, praying and doing good works are to be commended, but they are not in themselves enough to make us acceptable. Only the blood of Jesus can make us acceptable to a holy God – any spiritual sacrifices we make are acceptable to God because they are through Jesus (1 Pet 2:4-5) Grace is God’s unearned favour, and we need to understand that we are accepted because of what Christ has done, not because of what we can do.

“I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well
Your Spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again”
(Billy James Foote)

The parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32) has so much to teach us about differences in personalities and managing relationships. The younger son, somewhat reckless, independent and immature at the start of the story, wants his share of his father’s estate and isn’t prepared to wait for it. He has the demandingness of youth, a belief that he is entitled to something and an impatience which couldn’t wait to be off on its travels. He is impulsive, someone who has great ideas but not much stickability.

Making mistakes, as he did, is perhaps inevitable, but at least he learned from his mistakes. The younger son comes to earth with a bump. Famine strikes and he ends up with a job that brings him no satisfaction and a hunger that won’t go away. He sees something of his selfishness and foolishness and resolves to go back home. He’s no longer going to demand something of his father; he’s going to offer to work for him as a servant. Now, he’s got rid of the spirit of demandingness and entitlement which we saw at the start of the story. He respects his father and understands that working for him would be far better than working for a pig-man. He has been humbled through adversity. Sometimes it seems that adversity is the only teacher we’re willing to listen to…

The older brother has a completely different personality. He is hard-working, dutiful, responsible and sensible. He’s worked hard for his father all his life. He hasn’t squandered money on wild living. He’s probably regarded as a ‘model citizen’ by people around him.

Yet it becomes increasingly clear that dutiful obedience isn’t what relationship is really about. The older brother may have been doing all the right things outwardly, but inwardly he is seething with resentment and suppressed anger which boils over when his wastrel younger brother is welcomed back so lavishly by their father. His duty has been perceived as ‘slaving’; his cry is really the one all parents of two or more children have heard at some point: ‘it’s not fair!’

Whether we believe we are entitled to something from God or that God does not always behave fairly, both attitudes reflect a lack of understanding of grace. Grace can never be earned. It is freely offered to us by God, but we don’t deserve it.

The father in the story, a type of God the Father, shows both wisdom and understanding in how he handles his children. He understands that his younger son needs the freedom to make his own mistakes. He lets him go, even though he doubtless knew that no good would come of this venture into independent living. He cared enough for his son to allow him the freedom to discover for himself what truly mattered and he left the door open for his return. He cared about his older son, too, not wanting him to react in sulks and anger, assuring him of his ongoing love and support.

In the film ‘Bruce Almighty’, God gives His powers to a mortal called Bruce. He has all God’s power, but God reminds him that He has given people free will. When Bruce’s relationship with a lovely lady breaks down, he asks God, “How do you make so many people love you without affecting Free Will?” God’s answer is “Heh, welcome to my world, son. If you come up with an answer to that one, let me know.” The truth is, we cannot make anyone love us. God gave us free will. We choose to love. Relationships ultimately are not about manipulation or forcing people to do what we want.

Being a parent means learning to let go, which can be painful and costly. There is no guarantee our children will come to their senses and learn from their mistakes. As a parent, we would like them to learn from our mistakes and we long to protect them from making their own mistakes. But we have to let go and entrust our children to God.

One of the things I am slowly learning and which this parable illustrates so clearly is that not everyone is like me. Relationships often seem so difficult because we are all so different. Whether we are more like the casually irresponsible younger son or the duty-driven older son, though, we need to understand that change is not only necessary but possible. The father, who was possibly wise from ‘bitter experience’, loves both his sons freely and without strings. True love always wants what is best for the other person. God’s love for us is so great that He longs for us to return to Him freely, serving Him out of a delight that we are in relationship with Him rather than out of a fear-stricken sense of duty that actually seethes and stews with resentment.

Grace is God’s undeserved favour. We’re not entitled to it. We don’t deserve it. We can’t earn it. Nonetheless, John tells us that ”to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12) God, in His great love, wisdom and grace, has poured out His love on us and given us the right to enter His holy presence, to become His children, to have a right relationship with the Creator of the Universe. May we neither take that for granted – as the younger son originally did – or try to earn it – as the older son did – but freely receive all that God has for us and serve Him with gratitude and with joy.