Dear Family in Christ,
Autumn has arrived! And all of us settle down to concentrate on the tasks in hand. For me, just back from two weeks tutoring in Prague, it is a real privilege and honour to share this challenge with you. Because, returning from a gathering of Christians from all over the world, I am acutely aware of what has been entrusted to us, as the Christian church. It is an awesome thing.
I believe that we, at Bristo, have been called to pioneer new ways of living out church as community. Not just a community that exists for itself. But a community seeking to work out how we can give expression to a life that prioritises care for the genuinely disadvantaged, promoting justice and mercy; and doing so where we can make it count the most.
What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that what matters most is the way we treat and deal with people who are around us each day. And also what we do with what has been entrusted to us. If nothing else, the present collapse of major financial institutions should make us wake up to the fact that there is no security in pursuing security in this world! We live in a culture where people have prized privacy and personal prosperity. And now we reap the fruit of it.
Following Jesus involves breaking out of the cocoon. It takes us outside the illusions of permanency and the fantasy of unchanging constants. Following Jesus means that we plunge into the depths of discipleship and commit to the risks of radical obedience.
I feel genuinely sorry for people who imagine there can be any permanency in this world, a world torn by sin and marred by madness. The message that we have to offer and share is that permanency now is an illusion. What matters, rather, is pouring the resource of our lives into the purposes of God and participation with Him in what He wants and what He is doing.
So let us enter this autumn alert and awake. Let us encourage each other to focus on being conduits of God’s love and mercy, filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit. Let us look to do the work of the Kingdom, rather than wring our hands over the collapse of follies. And rejoice that God has called us into a life that spans beyond the present into His future.
With love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
Autumn has arrived! And all of us settle down to concentrate on the tasks in hand. For me, just back from two weeks tutoring in Prague, it is a real privilege and honour to share this challenge with you. Because, returning from a gathering of Christians from all over the world, I am acutely aware of what has been entrusted to us, as the Christian church. It is an awesome thing.
I believe that we, at Bristo, have been called to pioneer new ways of living out church as community. Not just a community that exists for itself. But a community seeking to work out how we can give expression to a life that prioritises care for the genuinely disadvantaged, promoting justice and mercy; and doing so where we can make it count the most.
What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that what matters most is the way we treat and deal with people who are around us each day. And also what we do with what has been entrusted to us. If nothing else, the present collapse of major financial institutions should make us wake up to the fact that there is no security in pursuing security in this world! We live in a culture where people have prized privacy and personal prosperity. And now we reap the fruit of it.
Following Jesus involves breaking out of the cocoon. It takes us outside the illusions of permanency and the fantasy of unchanging constants. Following Jesus means that we plunge into the depths of discipleship and commit to the risks of radical obedience.
I feel genuinely sorry for people who imagine there can be any permanency in this world, a world torn by sin and marred by madness. The message that we have to offer and share is that permanency now is an illusion. What matters, rather, is pouring the resource of our lives into the purposes of God and participation with Him in what He wants and what He is doing.
So let us enter this autumn alert and awake. Let us encourage each other to focus on being conduits of God’s love and mercy, filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit. Let us look to do the work of the Kingdom, rather than wring our hands over the collapse of follies. And rejoice that God has called us into a life that spans beyond the present into His future.
With love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
