Here’s our second podcast, with leading by Ali Phelps. Praying that it inspires you to create something!
So much has happened in the last 5 weeks since I last led the group on this same passage! On Monday 24th February we knew there was a fast moving new Coronavirus faraway in China, we knew that 6 people in Italy had died of it but it wasn’t then called a pandemic. Now it is, with over 33,000 deaths worldwide, including 10,779 Italians. Here in UK our entire pattern of life has been turned upside down. Last time, the pain of climate change was very much on my mind as we read in verses 18-25 that ‘all creation waits in eager expectation’, and that ‘the whole creation has been groaning’ but ‘will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into glorious freedom’ with the image of the contractions of childbirth and an amazing future ahead.
Today I’m reading from Romans 8 verses 14-17*, very conscious that we all need our Daddy especially in stressful times. As we reflect, we pray for the many children suddenly at home, to know eternal safety in an insecure world.
In the Message this reads ‘ …get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life …is adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are: Father and children. …We go through what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. ‘
Facing tough times is what new life in the Spirit is all about. Our older brother Jesus has shown us how it goes and we can trust our Father all the way.
* NIV: ‘Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God…by him we cry “Abba, Father”…Now if we are children, then we are heirs –heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us’
Header image – digital collage by Graeme D