Home - GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH CAMBRIDGESHIRE

SPEAKING OF LIFE

A weekly web programme from GCI commenting each week providing a biblical perspective on how we live in the light of God's love.

Speaking Of Life: 1045 | Do Not Fear

1045 | Do Not Fear

The solution to not being anxious or afraid springs from a reality of who God is as revealed in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, we find that God is love. God is full of mercy. God keeps his promises. God is good.

Jesus says “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE…” – John 14:6

You can view other Speaking Of Life episodes here:
https://www.gci.org/videos/media-spea...

Thought for the Week

Hello,

Boris Johnson was asked on the Today Programme this week, ‘Do you have a problem with women?’, to which he replied that as Mayor of London and as Prime Minister he has had around 50% of his key posts filled by women, and that he has been a champion of girls around the world having 12 years of education.

The gender gap has also been highlighted this week with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex promoting the importance of female education in Malawi, and Dianne Abbott, the first black woman to be involved in Prime Minister’s Questions, drawing attention to the negative issues women face in modern Britain.

Is there a gender gap with God? Interestingly Jesus included women in his entourage, which was unheard of for itinerant rabbis of his day, and Peter, an early Christian leader, said that men and women are joint heirs together of the gift of life.[1]

Both genders are of equal worth, value and significance. In an age where the call for equal opportunities for women is prominent, the Christian voice has an important message to add to the conversation: Everyone is included in God’s plan for humankind, both male and female – there is no discrimination with God. Now that’s some good news to celebrate.
Kind regards,
Barry Robinson

Barry Robinson is a member of the National Ministry Team for Grace Communion International in the UK

4th October 2019

Taken from - Day by Day - Growing Together in Life and Faith http://www.daybyday.org.uk/

Friday Bible Study

4th October 2019

Love The Lord

““Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”…”
Deuteronomy 6:5 (NIV)

Jesus said this command from the Old Testament is the primary and greatest command from God to His people (Matthew 22:37-38), and so from the very beginning God intended to relate to His people on the basis of love. The trouble is, to the modern ear this is a strange way to use the word ‘love’. After all love is something you do voluntarily isn’t it?

Surely love is a feeling not a command. However, the command given in Deuteronomy and by Jesus is that in loving the Lord God we are to do so with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul and with all [our] strength. In other words we are commanded to love God with every fibre of our being and with our whole life. If love is basically a feeling, then when you love someone, you only love them with part of you.

What does loving the Lord in this all-encompassing way mean? The passage in Deuteronomy 6 gives some clues: “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road” (verse 7) means in your private and your public life; on the head and on the hand (verse 8) means what you’re thinking inside and how you act outside—no double standards, no hypocrisy; “when you lie down and when you get up” (verse 7), that’s your entire waking life; “on the doorframes of your houses” (verse 9) means you apply it to your family; “on your gates” (verse 9) means you apply it to the economic, political, and civic life of your whole society.

All of this implies that to love the Lord in this way means you’ll love God in every aspect of your life. You won’t just love God at the weekends. You won’t just love God in your private life, but not in your public life. You won’t love God with this person but not with that person. Every single nook and cranny of our lives is to be affected by our love for God.

Does that sound difficult? Well it’s not difficult, for us it’s impossible—but not for Jesus. He not only taught this commandment, he lived it perfectly as is demonstrated in his complete obedience to his Father, even to death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Our hope of loving the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and strength rests in Jesus’ perfect obedience. He has lived it, and as we trust and allow him to live in and through us we will discover the power to live it too.

Prayer
Lord God, I can’t love you with all my heart, strength, and soul, but Jesus did. As my eyes are fixed on him may your Spirit install in me a deeper, higher, wider, truer love for you so that I can enter into and enjoy the relationship you have always wanted with me.
Amen

Study by Barry Robinson - member of the National Ministry Team for Grace Communion International in the UK

You're Included

https://www.gci.org/videos/youre-included/

Author William Paul Young is a friend of Grace Communion International whose book, The Shack, has sold over 20 million copies worldwide since it was first published in 2007, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

Below are two interviews from the GCI web programme "You're Included" with writer Paul Young and theologian Dr. C Baxter Kruger.

Dr. Kruger uses William Young's book The Shack to discuss the triune God's love for all humanity.
Dr. C. Baxter Kruger is the founder and the president of Perichoresis, Inc. and of Mediator Lures. He obtained his doctorate working with James Torrance in Aberdeen, Scotland. He is also the author of "The Shack Revisited."
Copyright 2015 - Grace Communion International
All Rights Reserved

Paul Young talks about how "The Shack" was written, and he discusses how the nature of relationship is embedded in the Trinitarian character and nature of God. William Paul Young is the author of the best-selling novel "The Shack" and "Cross Roads." Copyright 2015 - Grace Communion International All Rights Reserved

The God Revealed in Jesus Christ

A collection of articles outlining Trinitarian theology

The series begins with Jesus Christ. As God in the flesh, he reveals to us what God is; he teaches us that the Father is in character just like Jesus. Other doctrines flow from that point. Jesus reveals that there was, even before time began, love between the Father and the Son.

There are relationships within God, yet there is only one God. Humanity was made in the image of God, and we are made for the purpose of having eternal relationships, based on God’s love, with him and with one another. Yet we fall short of this divine purpose; we are unable to qualify ourselves for the kingdom of God. This brings us back to Jesus, the incarnate God.

As our Creator, he could represent us all, and so he became human as our representative and substitute, to atone for the sins of all humanity and to reconcile all humanity to God. He extends unconditional love and grace to us. Humans, however, do not always return that favour, and so there is a growth process toward the goal God has established for us. It is tremendously good news, and the more we learn about the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the more that we desire a relationship with him. We have not earned his love, but he has earned ours. It is all built upon the unity of the Father and of Jesus. And yet the Bible says that there is only one God. How can we have plurality within one Being?

The doctrine of the Trinity was formulated to say how Father and Son are one God: two Persons in one God. As we discuss in another book, the Holy Spirit is likewise a Person in the Triune God. God is love, and we are invited to join him for eternity!