Facing the Shadows
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
audio (5MB)
They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes (v1)
So Jesus and the disciples made a trip to the other side of Lake Galilee, and what happened while they were there?
Oddly, not very much at all. Jesus had just this one encounter with a demon-possessed man, and then he went back across the river.
So Jesus made some strange choices. He chose to go to the other side. Then he chose to help this demon-possessed man and then when the townspeople asked him to leave he chose to leave immediately. And that’s it. That’s all that happened in the country of the Gerasenes.
So, you know if you where Jesus’ pa or his agent, let’s say … you might say, that was all a bit of a waste of time; that it wasn’t a very productive use of time or energy. The disciples could have just stayed on the other side of Lake Galilee, where the crowds were waiting to see Jesus.
Not only was it unproductive, but it was also unpleasant. Horrible really.
The Message, The Man, The Miracle (Mark 2.1-12)
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- Written by: Adam
(Regrettably the podcast failed to record, text version below)
Today we continue our preaching series on miracles in the Gospel. And as we look at the passage about the Paralysed Man today – I want to suggest that the theme is NEWNESS … something new is going on. There are definitely recorded miracles in the Old Testament but in the Gospels there’s an explosion … seventy-six passages in Matthew, Mark and Luke alone. And in Mark’s Gospel which we are looking at today 209 out of 600 verses are about miracle stories (30% of the Gospel). Which suggests that this is an important area to reflect upon and learn about …
Today’s passage is in Chapter 2, and the whole Gospel of Mark moves at this very quick pace (a bit like the holiday I just had …). So in the space of one chapter, we begin with John the Baptist, Jesus is baptised by John in the Jordan, Jesus is then tested by Satan in the wilderness for forty days, Jesus returns preaching in Capernaum, he performs an exorcism, heals a man with a physical disability, great crowds gather around him and he performs many more miracles, Jesus then goes on a preaching tour around the neighbouring cities and then today’s passage begins with him re-entering Capernaum.
And the content of his preaching we find in Chapter 1, v 15:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;repent, and believe in the good news.”
Guidance 5
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
With a Bit of Help From my Friends audio (4MB)
Well, we’ve come to the end of our series on Decision Making, so let’s have a quick quiz. What have we learned about making decisions in our lives? First of all, who do you rely on to guide you through your life?
If your answer was God or the Holy Spirit you’ve started well.
Next question: What is the primary means by which God promises to guide us? I hope your answer was through his word; through what we find in the Bible?
That leads to the next, and much more important question: Have you resolved to make reading your Bible a priority for your life? Have you worked out that knowing that God has given us his word to guide us is of no use unless you actually take it and study it?
Next Question: What happens if you get it wrong? Does that ruin God’s plan for your life? This one’s a little more difficult isn’t it? All of us get worried at one time or another that we’ve blown it with God. Some of us have made such terrible mistakes that we think they’re irredeemable. Yet we know that God promises to overlook our weakness. In fact he tells us that his power is made great in our weakness. So there are no mistakes that we can make that will limit God in bringing about his plans for us. God is sovereign over all things, including our mistakes.
Here’s our final question: Apart from knowing God’s will and waiting for the prompting of the Holy Spirit to show you the right path to take, what else can you do to make sure you make the right decisions?
A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
audio (5MB)
As we’ve been thinking about decision making over the past few weeks, I wonder whether you’ve thought to yourself “I’m not sure if I could ever know what God wants me to do and I’m not sure I could feel confident in asking him to show me.” Or have you thought you couldn’t ask God to guide you because you may not be good enough? In fact is that how you think about asking God for anything?
It’s very natural isn’t it? I regularly find myself thinking “I can’t ask God for that. I haven’t done this yet.” But the question is, what do you see as the key to faith. What is it that faith hangs on? Is it something in ourselves or something outside? Well today’s gospel reading provides us with something of an answer to that very question.
Here we find two accounts of Jesus healing people, very cleverly interwoven so that we see a number of contrasts and a number of similarities.
Guidance 4
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Making Big Decisions audio (5MB)
We’ve all had to do it in the past and we’ll all have to do it again. Every one of us, no matter how old we are or how clever we are will have to make a big decision sooner or later. Most of us will have to make several big decisions in our life. Some have already made some of these.
Let me give you some examples: Should I marry? If so, who should I marry?
Should we have a child? Or another child?
Should I join this Church or that one?
Which profession should I go into? Which job should I apply for/accept?
Should I consider full-time Christian Ministry? If so should it be in a local church or a missions organisation?
How much should I give to God’s work? How should I divide it up?
These are all decisions that people have to make at one point or another in their life. But how do you make sure you mak
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done
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- Written by: Adam Cetrangolo
God's Sovereignty & Decision Making audio (5MB)
Down the street from my house, someone has taped a hand-made sign to a pole … a little piece of secular wisdom that I walk past most mornings and inevitably read on my way to the train station. It reads:
LIFE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT, TO BE WONDERFUL
And though it is a little random and worldly … there is some truth to it. Jesus often chastises his listeners when they think that blessing and prosperity go together or that sickness and sin go together. Certainly on particular occasions sickness is connected to sin. But Jesus is clear in teaching that we cannot automatically make that assumption, in fact we should assume the opposite. He tells his disciples in Luke 13 that the Galileans killed by Pilate were not greater sinners than those who were spared. And in this sense the little adage masking-taped to the pole in Blackburn Road rings true: life isn’t always perfect (by our own definition of perfection: success, happiness, no aches or pains, etc.) but on another level LIFE IS WONDERFUL – because LIFE AND ALL OUR PROVISIONS ARE GOD-GIVEN … GOD IS AT WORK. Even as we encounter suffering, the reality of disease, death, conflict, violence in our world, we know that God’s PLAN is bigger than all of that. And the glory that awaits will make the problems of today pale by comparison. So in light of this:
WHAT SORT OF DECISIONS – MORAL AND NON-MORAL – ARE WE TO MAKE?
1. GOD'S SOVEREIGN WILL
This passage that we have just heard read by Sam/Richard from the book of James [4.13-16] is not about business or money or planning. It is addressed to believers like us. And it is addressed to believers like us, who in very tangible ways, need to make plans and need to make money to survive. We are called to be good stewards. James doesn’t call them ‘rich,’ he doesn’t call them ‘greedy’ … the text doesn’t say that their business-practice was ‘corrupt’ or ‘unethical’ … he berates them because they are believers who act like non-believers. They make plans without factoring in God’s PLAN.
How Does the Holy Spirit Guide?
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangelo
I wonder whether you can think back to when you were in your late teens (this will be more recent for some of us than others)?
What dreams did you have for your life? How did you picture your future? What sort of things did you hope to do? And have you done them? Have things worked out the way you’d hoped at all?
Have any of you seen a televisions series called 7-Up? It’s a documentary that tracks the lives of about ten people in seven year intervals. It’s fascinating to watch this snap-shot of people aging and to see how each major life-decision affects the rest.
Actually, it’s a little bit depressing. Because in every case, the people interviewed say that life has been a lot harder than they thought it would be when they were in their teens. And the study shows that there are two major life decisions in particular, that seem to limit, the potential for other opportunities: and those are marriage and children.
There’s a song that says ‘love changes everything’, and it’s true. The decision to love someone profoundly affects how we go about making other decisions about study, travel, work and how we spend our time and money.
When I was a teenager my dream for my life was to be a highly successful, highly paid barrister. I wanted to travel, to be financially independent, and to never get married.
You could say that that hasn’t exactly worked out the way I planned … and the reason for that is because at a young age I formed a relationship with Jesus and I gave my life to him … and then that meant that the Holy Spirit came into my life … and his love for me changed everything (and later he brought Adam into my life). This meant that I had to start listening to what the Holy Spirit had to say about my life choices. In other words, it wasn’t just about me anymore.
