Wednesday’s Word – 20 September

“I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.”  The Lord, Genesis 9:15

We can easily think of limiting God.  Of reducing God to an idea, a place, an experience in the past.

But the story of Noah and the Rainbow ends with an outrageous promise.  That the Lord, creator of sun, moon and skies, promises to be our God and the God of all.  The promise is not limited by any conditions.  The promise does not stop with a few.  But for all time and with all people and all the earth.

Lord God, grant that we might look for you this day, today, even now, in the good lives you have given us..  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

• Greg

 

Wednesday’s Word – 13 September

“God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ ⁴But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; ⁵for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”  Genesis 3:3-4

In Genesis 3 there is a basic tension between what God says and humanity’s ability to live it.  The boundaries are clear.  They exist.  There is a better way to live.  God gives it.  But as much as the first humans may want to exist in harmony with God and God’s intention,  they find that on their own power they cannot.

The New Testament talks about that tension this way:  “ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate….Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.”  Romans 7: 15-20

Part of the Good News is actual power for living God’s good ways – and that’s available through trust in Jesus Christ.

Lord God, grant that we might hate sin and trust in Christ’s power to transform our wills, emotions, words and actions, to be in harmony with  you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

• Greg

 

Wednesday’s Word

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”  Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning – in fact before it – there was God.  And after the end there will be God.  We live in the middle.  In God’s good creation.  All we have is from God.

From nothing, from ‘a formless void’, God created.  This is a fundamental action of God, the creator.  Terrence Freitheim says, “God’s creation is going somewhere; it is a long-term project, ever in the process of becoming”.

It’s a basic belief we share.  That, as part of God’s creation, we are going somewhere.  God is always at work among us.  That wind still blows.

Lord God, guide us through this week in the assurance that as our Creator, you are still forming and shaping us, and our church, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

P.S.  Please remember Margaret in the church office, with busy start to the church program year, the Blessing of the Backpacks liturgy this Sunday the 10th, the Almahamid family we sponsored from Syria as their three children begin school in Hamilton, and all the children and youth at Central heading back to school.  A special donation was made this week from the Benevolent Fund to purchase back to school supplies for 25 children at the Good Shepherd’s  emergency residential centre.  Thank you for your generosity in giving to this fund!

• Greg