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March 2006, Page 1.
Index of articles:
by subject,
by date.
In this issue:
(March 2006)
Lent,
Attendance,
Keepers.
Living a life set apart for God
Brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God ... Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1)
St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians can be quite a challenge to read. It shows the depth of love and concern that Paul had for these people in a distant Greek city. Paul had travelled there especially to tell them about Jesus. Some of them believed, and their lives were totally changed.
“We know that God has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not just in words but with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction.” (1:4-5)
So Paul struck up a deep personal relationship with them - he became “like a mother caring for her little children” (2:7) and “like a father, encouraging, comforting and urging you” (2:11). His concern wasn’t with churchgoing but with changed lives. He was overjoyed when his friend Timothy came back from a visit and told him of their faith, love and pleasant memories of him.
Each year we have the Christian season of Lent: this year Ash Wednesday (its start) falls on March 1st. As a church we’ll be providing services at which we can receive the sign of the cross in ash on our foreheads as a sign of inward turning to God (at St Luke’s in the morning, and we’re joining St Andrew’s Methodist Church in the evening). We hope the services help us in living a holy life - because the services aren’t the point - the holy life is!
“It’s God will that you should be sanctified, that each of you should learn to control his/her own body in a way that is holy and honourable ... that you should exercise brotherly love, and that your daily life should win the respect of outsiders” (4:3-4,9,12).
One way of reading this would be to say that Paul is laying down lots of rules, making us feel uncomfortable and bringing guilt into our lives. Actually that’s quite wrong. He means that when we turn to Jesus in belief, something amazing happens in our hearts. God puts his power and his Holy Spirit in us, and we suddenly start being able to do all these good things that we weren’t able to manage before! Those around notice and start to wonder where the change has come from.
This year the church invites you to observing a holy Lent. Will you rise to this exciting challenge?
John Hartley