Today’s message is inter-active, which simply means at various points you will need to pause reading and do something before coming back to the next part of the message. Enjoy!
Start this time with the Lord by singing, or at least humming this song:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
or put ‘Turn your eyes The glorious Christ’ into YouTube search and play the version of the song we have been singing recently at church.
In our bibles, just after psalms comes the book Proverbs. Read chapter 3, verses 5-6 which start with the instruction to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…”
Earlier this week in the book I was reading, it said “If you want to trust Jesus more, get to know him more. Look at him more, listen to him more, spend more time with him. It really is that simple. The more you see Jesus, the more you will trust him, because he is the most reliable, loving and powerful person you will ever meet.” (Pete Grieg ‘How to pray’ / YouTube: prayercourse)
Whether we are still at work or not, we all have more free-time at the moment, let’s spend some of that time learning to fix our eyes on Jesus our Saviour and Lord. The New Testament book of Hebrews uses that same phrase ‘fix your eyes’. Look up Hebrews ch.12: 1-2 in all the different translations of the bible you have access to (or use biblegateway.com). They all say the same thing but often using very different words and phrases, which do you find most helpful?
Our Covenant verse for this year tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength” (Deuteronomy ch.6: 4-6) which is what we will learn to do as we fix our eyes on Jesus. Think about any one particular incident from the life of Jesus. What does it tell us about who Jesus is? Is He reliable / trustworthy – caring / loving – powerful? How does he treat the people in this incident? Write down the words which relate to Jesus in that instance. Can you think of another event? Do different words come to mind, or the same ones again? Is there a third occasion you can bring to mind? What words describe Jesus this time? Put your list of words somewhere where you will see it often – perhaps turn it into a piece of art (or doodle) and send a photo of it to me. Spend a few moments praying – telling Jesus how thankful you are for knowing him as your Saviour, friend and Lord – use in your prayer some of the words you have written down.
If you have been reading the Prayer Requests at the bottom of the website page
you will have seen that Judy has sent us her latest newsletter. Contact me if you would like an email of the whole newsletter and if you would then like to reply to Judy, email me your message and I will pass it on to her.
#LiveLent moves on to a new theme ‘Creatures of Sea and Sky’ and the hymn for the week ahead is the very well-known “All things bright and beautiful.”
It will be easy for you to hum or sing this hymn throughout the coming week as you go about your everyday routine. Perhaps sing some of it now and / or on YouTube
search for “How Vast the Love The Glorious Christ” and listen to it.
Speak to you again on Wednesday - Stephen