Pete's Blog
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MARTHA AND MARY (LUKE 10:38-42) 09/10/19 Last week we had the privilege of hosting the Fresh Streams regional day of prayer and fasting. As part of this we explored together the story of Martha and Mary, which raises questions such as “are you a Martha or a Mary?” Some of us are more naturally outgoing, task orientated, like to get things done. Some of us are more reserved, reflective, like to weigh things fully before investing time and energy into things. This passage is a preacher’s favourite, but sometimes we can get an unbalanced view. We know that Martha was too busy and that Mary dropped everything to focus on Jesus; that Jesus said that she’d made the best choice. Often we are told that this is model for Christians to be predominantly reflective/contemplative and not to join in the busyness of “the world.” I think a better approach is recognising that each of us is meant to be both a Martha and Mary. Not that we have split personalities (no Nestorian horse for the theologians amongst you) but that we are designed to be both. The real question is are we being Martha when God calls us to be Martha and Mary when he calls us to be Mary. More simply, there are times we are to be busy, work hard and conscientiously and other times we are to rest, reflect, and contemplate on God and scripture. We are called to work at stewarding the earth, but we are also called to Sabbath rest. God needs Martha’s. Without them the kingdom will never grow. God needs Mary’s, without them we will never hear what God is saying and run around doing the wrong thing rather than the right thing. The question is what are you called to be at any one time? We all need balance in terms of work and rest. Do we work from a place of rest, or rest when we collapse at the end of the week from work? Our culture is increasingly output orientated and driven by the next thing, fad or fashion; where we are called to look after the ancient ways and walk in them. Do I have a good balance between work and rest? Do you? EASTER; HERE WE GO AGAIN! 15/04/19 I was struck this week at how we often run through the year at a non-stop pace celebrating key events and key dates in our own lives and key Christian dates like Easter and Christmas. We can all be busy in different ways preparing for different things at Easter and Christmas; church events, community events, family events. Time away, people visiting. Children at home for holidays. It’s easy for any of us to rush around and go on “automatic pilot.” It’s easy to do this without pausing to fully reflect on the significance of these events. When I was younger in the faith I recognised how easy it was to lose the real meaning and amongst the busyness and I intentionally took time out on my own with God on Easter day/Christmas day to read scripture, pray and reflect on the profound events and profound truths of the life of Jesus. This is something I have lost somewhat and need to regain! In the words of Matt Redman “And I’ll remember you, I will turn back and do the things I used to do.” As a church we have spent the last six months going through a preaching series on Discipleship and then on Spiritual Disciplines. As we approach this Easter, it’s a reminder to all of us of the importance and value of taking time out to focus on the core truths and maybe try some of those spiritual disciplines for ourselves e.g. Study, Prayer, Meditation/Contemplation, Solitude, Confession and worship. As we approach Easter weekend I pray that God reveals more of the depth and wonder of the Easter story to us, so that we see and hear something new, that we grow a little bit in our faith this Easter. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Hallelujah! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRUDHOE TOWN FAIR 03/06/18 Today I went to the Prudhoe Town Fair, a traditional summer Street Party, very British with bunting, tea/coffee/cakes and drizzle! We also had a Royal Wedding recently which is also very British, Prince Harry and Angela Merkel, or was it Meghan Markle? Bishop Michael Curry talekd about “Love is the Way” and helped the couple with their wedding vows - “never leave or forsake till death do us part.” Harry and Meghan have good intentions, but often reality is different. Charles and Di divorced, our parents may have divorced, we may have divorced and if we’ve never been married we’ve all had relationships that have broken down and broken up. People let us down. Bishop Michael Curry said “Love is the Way”- yet our love is not perfect. The royal family get it wrong at times; we all get it wrong at times, none of us are perfect. I don’t know about you but I could do with someone in my life who loves me, will never let me down, will never leave me, is always there for me, is always rooting for me, someone who helps me be the best I can be. I could do with a perfect friend or a perfect parent. But only God is perfect and only his love is perfect. He is the perfect parent, the perfect Father. God loves us, God wants to be part of our lives, God wants us to know him, God wants to forgive our sin, God wants us to fulfill our potential. And God says to those who follow him: “I will never leave you, I will never abandon you.” Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are not like us, they live in big fancy houses whilst we live in flats, terraces, semis or detached if we are lucky. God is also not like us, he lives in heaven whilst we live in houses. How do we get to know a God who is not like us? 2000 years ago God made it easy for us by sending Jesus to show us who God is, to help us find God, to help us meet God. As God’s son Jesus’ love is perfect and he is the perfect friend. He promises all who believe and follow him: “ I’ll will be with you always, even until the end of the world!” Love is the way - and Jesus comes to show us God’s love in the way he lived, died and came back to life. Love is the way – and Jesus shows us God’s love by sacrificing his own life for us. At the Royal wedding Prince Harry and Meghan Merkle held hands saying “I’ll never leave or forsake till death do us part.” Jesus holds his hand out to you today saying “I’ll never leave or forsake you till death do us part.” The only question is will you take his hand? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST BLOG! (11/05/18) Well here we are, my first ever blog on our new web-site. My last spurt of blogging was whilst working with Moortown Baptist Church, although my blogs have now been deleted from their website. Which either means they were considered heretical, or they just reckoned I'd moved on so time for them to go! I was thinking of being cheeky and copying some of the blogs across to get started (can you plagiarise yourself??) but as this option isn't available they will now all be "fresh." For those of you who don't know what blogs are, they are means of making available short thoughts/reflections/articles that may be of interest for folk to read. The phenomena is an interesting one and often used as means of self promotion. As I'm here to promote Jesus and his Kingdom, not myself; I'll only be blogging when seriously inspired by something and/or God puts something on my heart. So feel free to check this part of the web-site every now and again to see if there's anything of interest and feel free to give me feedback!
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