What do I know about patience? Being patience is really difficult – one step forward, two steps back!! 2 Cor 12:9 says God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Patience is an evidence (fruit) of growing in Christ. (Gal 5:22) When waiting for something, doubt might set in, or we get distracted by ill advice. (Job’s friends) The following might be useful. What do I want? The “certainty” of patience. The more we wait, the more we say to ourselves this is really, really what I want. We might also ask others what they think. Grace and humility govern […]
Knowing God – outcome
5 posts
We have been reminded about showing kindness recently. Remember the memory verse we had a few Sundays ago? Hint: Micah 6:8 has “love kindness” in the RSV, Good News has “show constant love”, while NIV has “love mercy”. Love is everywhere! It’s also action-packed: to ‘show’ love. Mercy and kindness are two ways to show love. Ok ok, not everyone reading this now was there on that Sunday! Let’s pretend you were there 🙂 Love in isolation is like having something you really like (e.g. chocolate) but not eating it – just the thought / sight / smell of chocolate […]
Me me me. The root of much of today’s social, economic and political problems is selfishness. To be more exact, putting me first without taking consideration about how my action could put others in a far less favourable condition. However, I don’t think we should live a life of complete ‘for-otherness’, for example, shelter, freedom of mind and companionship are basic capacity of a person. God’s creation order has a relationship logic that spans vertically (e.g. heaven and sea) and horizontally (growth of nature). God’s fundamental basis for human is healthy relationships both to God’s creation order and with others. […]
Is gentleness a sign of weakness? Surely not. In fact it’s a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:23. Here, Paul contrasts the sinful actions that we have left behind (or try to), with a life in the Spirit where the Spirit develops our gentleness. Gentleness is something we should have, and have more of! It’s probably easier to define gentleness by what it is not – rude, quick-tempered, and selfish, to name a few. In one instance in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Paul wrote that by being gentle in teaching the gospel, he was like a mother nursing her children, […]
I stared at it for a good few seconds, my mind working out why I would deserve it. When the taxi stopped, I paid the driver and said there’s a pound coin just there. Looking back, I think we surprised each other: he didn’t want the 4p and rounded down the fare to a whole number. Self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit listed in Gal 5:22-23. There are many examples of self-control “success stories” in the Bible, as well as failures! Not merely abstaining from doing a bad thing, or choosing to do the right thing, it […]