Today we celebrated our church's 74th anniversary - remembering God's faithfulness and thanking Him for all that He has done. And as we remember the past we have confidence to go into the future, because God will continue to prove Himself faithful. But what are the challenges for the coming years?
We continue our series in Luke, looking at 6:37-49, with the challenge to be those who don't judge or condemn others, but to be those who are generous givers and forgivers. This follows close on the heals of the call to love our enemies, to treat others as we wish to be treated and to be merciful. The motivation to live this way has to stem from the knowledge that this is the way that God has already treated us - He loved us when we were His enemies ...
So what might this mean for us in the coming year?
Being a multicultural congregation we recognise that we can easily offend each other- without even realising it, because different things have different meanings in different cultures. But we choose not to be offended, we choose to always think the best of each other, to forgive again and again.
In our community we look for ways in which we can love and serve - not to stand at a distance and wag our fingers at all the things we see that are wrong, but rather to embrace all that we see as right and to celebrate and promote those things. And we recognise that that may mean working alongside those of a different faith to us. Yet we choose to embrace these opportunities to love and serve.
