Topic: Gratitude

Living in hope-fuelled anticipation of God’s promised future does not mean withdrawing from the life of the world around us.

Because of God’s abundance, God’s never-ending supply of extravagant and eternal generosity, we are raised out of death and into God’s life: a life of gratitude, of loving, of belonging, out of which flows a life of service and a burning desire to participate in God’s passionate concern for the world.

In Christ we have been given a new identity that dissolves the labels of first and two-thirds world, and invites us all to be poor.

When we approach God’s way of life and the Sabbath not as punishment, but as gift, the experience becomes a chance to rest from work and from striving; and to allow space for God through contemplation and re-creation and play.

We pray for our neighbours to be blessed, but could we actually be being called to give a blessing?

We can take our salvation and just return to normal life, but God calls us beyond normal into a wholeness that grows from praise, prayer and service.

Our identity as a community of Jesus’s followers is primarily expressed in love, gratitude and hospitality, not in compliance with a negative code of conduct.

God calls us to live exuberantly, generously reflecting the good things God has done and becoming model citizens in the reign of God.

The pathway to a life of joy and gratitude is to imitate Jesus in filling our minds with things which are worthy, honourable, merciful and loving.

God blesses us with much more than we need, but instead of throwing away the excess, we are to take what we don’t need and do something with it.

The ten commandments are not a measure of our moral accomplishment, but a gift offered to God by a grateful covenant people.

It’s our place to be within, and part of, creation and to love it as God loves it, and to learn to be ready to stand with others in their place of need.