For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth over and around us lies;
Father, unto you we raise, this our sacrifice of praise.
For the beauty of each hour, of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light.
Father, unto you we raise, this our sacrifice of praise.
(Folliott Pierpoint 1835-1917)
Look around your room and thank God for the place where you live, then look out of your window and thank God for what you see.
Listen to YouTube: My heart is filled with thankfulness lyrics
At our last Sunday in church many of us went home with Nasturtium seeds – that morning we were thinking about ‘seeds of hope.’ I have been receiving news about how those seeds have grown, and now I am starting to get photos of the flowers those seeds have produced. Nasturtium leaves and flowers are not just something nice to look at (to feed our minds) they are also edible (to feed our body) – most often used to garnish salads or cakes. Today we think about how God cares about every part of our lives – heart, soul, strength and mind.
Read Mark 12: 28-34
In the Old Testament if you wanted to show that you ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength’ then you would make sure that three times a year you made a journey to the temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of Passover (unleavened bread), Pentecost (weeks) and Tabernacles (Deut. 16: 16-17). In Old Testament times Galileans would have had one of the longest journeys as it is 94 miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem, but once we reach the era covered by the New Testament Israelites would be travelling much further distances as they came from across the Roman Empire to be at Jerusalem for these three celebrations.
The feast of Passover (unleavened bread) recalls the events of ‘The Exodus’, when Moses led the Israelites out from slavery in Egypt and across the Sinai wilderness toward the land God had promised to them. This was the festival people were celebrating when the events we call Easter were happening.
This coming Sunday will be the feast of Pentecost. This title simply means ‘50 days’ - 50 days after Passover(Easter). Sometimes the bible refers to Pentecost as the ‘Feast of Weeks’ – signifying that it is to be celebrated after a week of weeks 7days x 7weeks = 49 days. Originally the people gathered at this festival to give thanks to God for the barley harvest, but by the time Jesus was on earth, they also celebrated the occasion when Moses was given the 10 commandments on mount Sinai. Initially you might not see the connection between the two events, but if I say that they were thanking God for caring about the whole of their lives – mind and body - their heart, soul and strength, then perhaps you can begin to see the connection.
At this festival there is a recognition that God gave the 10 commandments not to restrict life, but to enable people to live life in all its fullness – to give them healthy lives, just as the barley harvest would give them food so they could have healthy bodies.
Hopefully you can still find the cards I gave out at our covenant service back in January. On the card the 10 commandments are re-phrased into 10 questions (the questions can also be found on the gallery page of the church website). Perhaps today or tomorrow you could spend some time thinking about these 10 questions (n.b. Question 2 could be rephrased as ‘Is there anything which stops us yielding to God?’).
Our Covenant verse for this year (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5) is a summary of what those ten commands or questions will enable us to do if we apply them to our lives. The 10 Commands / Questions cause us to consider both our thoughts and our actions – our body and spirit. They remind us that God created us with heart, soul and strength (ability). It isn’t that our thoughts are more or less important than our actions but rather that both need to be in harmony with each other for us to know the peace (shalom) of God.
Read John 15: 9-17
If I asked you to think about one event in the life of Jesus, what springs into you mind? How does that event / teaching affect both our thoughts and actions? How does it affect your body and mind? Everything Jesus did had implications to how we think about things and everything he said which causes us to think should also affect our actions.
Read the lyrics below which remind us that God is greater than any and every situation, then pray, asking God to help you to live your life so others might clearly see Christ’s love through our worship, words and actions.
O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder consider all the works Thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, the power throughout the universe displayed;
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
how great Thou art, how great Thou art!
(Russian Hymn translated by Stuart K Hine © 1953 Thankyou Music)
Sing along to YouTube: What a faithful God have I lyrics
We have two new posters displayed in the church windows which are causing people to pause and hopefully think. You can see them on the front page of the church’s website. Friday’s ‘Guest Writer’ is Janet; I look forward to writing to you again on Sunday - Stephen