Life (and Death) Lessons for Peter

One of the knocks against the church, faith, the Bible, and so on, is that it can often seem so abstract. Okay, we read/hear that God loves us, that Jesus died for us, that we are called to grow in faith, and much more. But what does that really mean? What does it look like? How does it impact us in real, concrete ways? Sermons, Bible readings, prayer, and worship can be deeply meaningful. But if they only engage the head and intellect with abstract ideas and miss the heart and soul, then they lose much of their power. They are, at best, incomplete. At worst they are misleading, making us believe that all we need to do is hold the right ideas about God in our minds.

I don't know about you, but something that always helps me go deeper than the level of intellect and ideas is hearing real stories of real people. It helps me see and understand how these important ideas about God are made manifest and lived out in real people's lives.

This Friday (Good Friday) and Sunday (Easter Sunday), we will be following Simon Peter, one of Jesus' disciples and closest friends, as he sees and experiences the final few hours before Jesus' death and then the first few days after his resurrection. You see, Peter doesn't just learn new things about Jesus, though he does that too. He enters into and experiences everything from great confusion, raging anger, and deep despair, to rekindled hope and full restoration with his Lord and friend, Jesus.

Our two services (both at 10am) form a unified whole, with the story continuing from Friday through to Sunday. Be that as it may, if you can't make it out for both services, please do consider joining us for one or the other. We will look at the first four "acts" of this passion play on Friday, including a celebration of Communion:

• Act I: Submission and Service (John 13.1-17)
• Act II: Fight and Flight (Mark 14.32-50)
• Act III: Denial and Despair (John 18.15-27)
• Act IV: Death and... (John 19.16-30)

We will then move on to the final "act" on Sunday morning:

• Act V: Resurrection and Restoration (John 20-21)

We would love to celebrate with you and your family this Easter. But whether we see you or not, may the joy and love of God become more and more real for you this Easter season and always!

God's Word: What Is It Good For?

I was just a twinkle in my father's eye when Edwin Starr hit the charts in 1969 with his, now classic, "War (hunh!)! What is it good for? Absolutely nuthin' (say it again)!" It helped rally a generation in opposition to the war in Vietnam.

So, I must make apologies to Mr Starr as I introduce this week's continuation of our three-week series on the Bible: "God's Word: What Is It Good For?" After looking at 2 Timothy 3.1-15 and "The Power of Perspective" last week (i.e. the Bible's power to clarify and illuminate a good and proper perspective on God, ourselves, and the world in which we live), this week we will look at the usefulness of the Bible in other ways.

Now, you'll notice I have removed Edwin Starr's follow-up line -- "Absolutely nothing!" -- from the title of this week's message. I hope the reason is sufficiently obvious. However, it seems to me that many people in our culture today would be more than willing to keep that line in place when talking about the Bible. For some the Bible, at best, is hopelessly out of touch with the needs and perspectives of people today and, at worst, is hateful and dangerous.

This Sunday, rather than making a full-out defense of the Bible against these claims (though I am always willing to talk with anyone who wants to explre these ideas further), we will look at what the Bible has to say about itself in 2 Timothy 3.16-17:

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work."

More than merely giving a list of what is good and bad, right and wrong, God uses the Bible to change us from the inside out. I hope you can join us on Sunday as we explore this idea more fully.

A Steady Diet of God's Word

If you have spent a bit of time around the church at some point in your lifetime, I'll bet you have, at some point (if not at many points), been told that you need to be reading your Bible. Some of us, I'm sure, feel guilty and ashamed over the fact that we don't read the Bible as much as we feel we should. Others of us, maybe haven't heard this as much and wonder what the big deal is all about. Isn't the Bible just an old history book of sorts? Why should I bother spending time reading it today?



In our previous series on spiritual formation, we spoke of the Bible, along with prayer and worship, as being a crucial part of our spiritual nourishment at every stage of growth along the way. Over these next three weeks, we will be looking in depth at 2 Timothy 3.10-4.5, a portion of the New Testament that speaks of the ongoing importance of the Bible to the life of every follower of Jesus. If you're someone who needs a reminder about why the habit of reading your Bible is so important; or if you'd like to go deeper in your practice and understanding of Bible reading; or if you're someone who isn't sure what all the fuss over the Bible is about to begin with; then this three part series is for you. Please join us starting this Sunday at 10am! I hope to see you there.