Listen again to one of Sunday’s songs. YouTube: Your mercy is more
Praise my soul, the King of heaven to His feet thy tributes bring;
ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, who like thee His praise should sing?
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise the everlasting King.
Father-like He tends and feeds us; well our feeble- frame He knows;
in His hands He gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Widely as His mercy flows.
(H. F.Lyte 1793-1847)
Thank God for the ways in which you have recognised God being a ‘Father’ to you
‘I swear by Almighty God to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - so help me God’ familiar words if you watch crime dramas on TV. If I ever found myself having to give evidence in court I would not say those words, I would ‘affirm’ and simply promise to tell the truth. Why? Read the next section of the ‘Sermon on the Mount:’ Matthew 5: 33-37
Jesus is continuing to give examples of how he wants us to be ‘Salt and Light’ to those around us and is still following on from his statement that he has come to bring about the completion of the Old Testament laws and regulations.
We spent Sunday thinking about the intention behind some of those laws as initially we considered the rules our parents gave us as we grew up, and recognised the good intentions behind being told to eat our vegetables or warning us not to touch the hot cooker. From these reminders we went on to consider how God’s commands are given to us because he is a good Father who wants to take care of his children, and wants us to stay safe and grow strong in our faith.
Having already shown how his completion of the law affects the commands ‘Do not murder’, ‘Do not commit adultery’ and ‘Do not covet (want what isn’t yours)’ Jesus now speaks about the command ‘Do not lie.’
Jesus is saying if we have become a light to world, showing people the goodness of God and we are also behaving like Salt, bring out the full flavour of life, while inhibiting the spread of rottenness, then people will look at our character and simply trust what we say to be truthful, without the need to add oaths to it.
Read the remaining verses of chapter 5 and see how many well-known saying you can spot. Matthew 5: 38-48
So have you recently ‘turned the other cheek’ or gone the extra mile’ or used any of the other well-known phrases we have just read? Jesus is still helping us to see how God, through giving us instructions wants us to enjoy the ‘full-flavour of life’ and reflect the same attitudes and actions we see as we look at Jesus’ life.
You perhaps found the final statement perplexing as Jesus tells us to be ‘perfect’ as God, our heavenly father is ‘perfect’. Perhaps if instead of the word perfect, we use the words ‘complete and whole’ you may begin to understand that we are being taken full circle to the opening of this sermon where the Beatitudes tell us about all that God wants give us, as we submit to the reign of King Jesus in our lives.
The command to be Salt and Light isn’t something we have to struggle with alone and achieve a certain standard before God will help us, but rather our Heavenly Father has given us his Holy Spirit so that we can be constantly helped in showing other people the goodness of God.
Listen to YouTube: Good, good Father lyrics
Use these lyrics to help you to pray about your life being a more effective at reflecting the type of life we see Jesus living.
We want to see Jesus lifted high a banner that flies across this land,
so everyone will see the truth and know He is the way to heaven
We want to see, we want to see - we want to see Jesus lifted high
Step by step we're moving forward, little by little taking ground,
every prayer a powerful weapon,
strongholds come tumbling down and down, and down, and down
We want to see, we want to see, we want to see Jesus lifted high
(Doug Horley © 1993 Kingsway's Thank You Music)
Prayer Clock - Thursday 30th July
Please contact me if you want to take part in praying for Kevin and his family on the day he has his operation. We are trying to fill the day with prayer, with a different person praying every 15 minutes. I am NOT asking you to pray for the whole 15 minutes, but perhaps pray a bit longer that it takes for a clock to chime the ¼ hour.
I am hoping that some of you will be willing to volunteer to pray on more than one occasion throughout the day, perhaps volunteering to pray twice or three times.
Tomorrow (Thursday) a leader will be in contact to ask if you wish to attend on Sunday – please be ready with your answer. We are intending to share communion at both of the identical events held at 10:30am and 6:30pm. If you aren’t contacted and wish to come, contact me on Friday - turvesgreenbaltist@gmail.com or 07456 826 326.
On Friday our ‘Guest Writer’ is David Jackson and I will share a message with you on Sunday - Stephen