Book: Romans

Jesus calls us to turn away from pathways of judgement and condemnation and to follow him on the harder path of love and new life.

Christ is present to us in love, unity and reconciliation, and thus these are essential to our worship.

God and religion misunderstood can be the cause of hostility, division and violence, but the God made known to us in Jesus is a God of grace who generously gives us life, freedom and reconciliation.

God gives us the love we thirst for, even while we are still fighting against God, and in doing so, God sets the pattern for us to follow that will bring freedom to the world.

When God is understood through the revelation of Jesus and his pattern of relating, then we discover ourselves invited into generous and gracious solidarity with all creation.

God saves us by changing our hearts, but one of the great temptations for the church is to try to turn that back into a system of exclusion and control.

Are we, individually and together, focused on the things that we can be doing, that will enable us to embrace and nurture the growth of Christ’s values, withstanding opposition to them?

We have to choose between being squeezed into the world’s mould or re-moulded from within by God.

Staying true to the disciplines of ordinary faithfulness is part of our calling as we follow the way of Jesus Christ; and engaging in them eases our burdens considerably.

Social labels and divisions keep us parched and thirsting for intimacy and community, but Jesus seeks to break through them and give us the living water of love and acceptance.

Hope is the melody of the future – Faith dances to it today

Jesus commits himself to the path of redemptive suffering in preference to either fight or flight, and he calls us to follow him in that commitment.