Mapperley Monday Morning Mail, 18th March 2013

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Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning!


It's been another busy week at St Jude's. Many thanks to all who came along to the men's breakfast on Saturday, and even more thanks to those who brought friends! One of the things I'm really passionate about for the life of St Jude's is that we get better at building friendships and inviting folk along to events where they can meet other Christians and hear more about Jesus. But more of that anon... If you'd like to hear the talk I did on "Does Jesus fit with science?", there's a link here or listen via the church website.


Yesterday morning we finished our morning series on Leviticus 1-7 with a look at the instructions for the priests in Lev 6-7. If we ever have the privilege of meeting the Queen, she has the right to say how we should dress, bow and so on. And in the same way, when we come to worship God, he has the absolute right to say how we should worship him, which is what we see in all the detailed rules in Leviticus, even down to when the priests should change their clothes. God doesn't give us those sorts of rules for how we should live in the New Testament, but he makes two things very clear about what it means to worship him.


Worshipping God means coming through Jesus, and through his death for us. There is nothing that we can do to earn the right to come to him – we can never be good enough for God. Nor can we just presume on his love, and assume that he will accept us. But he has opened a way for us to come into his presence through Jesus' death and resurrection – we need to take hold of that and to hold onto him, being careful not to drift away, either away from the church all together, or into the busy-ness of serving God which can so often lead to forgetting that we need his grace and the encouragement of being part of his people.


Worshipping God also means following Jesus in the way that we live. We don't get to say how much of our lives we give to him; he asks for everything. In particular, that means loving each other as brothers and sisters, even Christians we don't know yet and even those in prison. And it means being willing to look stupid for Jesus, not necessarily by wearing silly clothes, but by acting and speaking in ways that others might think strange, bigoted or wrong because we love Jesus and we love other people.


Hebrews is brilliant book that works through a lot of the significance of the Old Testament sacrificial system for Christians today. And towards the end, it says this, which I think is a great summary, and a prayer for this week:


Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. (Heb 13:15-16, NIV)


God bless,


John


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