Topic: Discipleship

Being God’s people can be awkward.  Our actions of love and care stand against the me-first culture, and to seek justice, love, and a better world.

When we respond to the call to follow Jesus, he asks us to stop and examine our motives. Is it for the life of the world, or for our own benefit?

The beginning of wisdom, the entry onto the road that leads to life, is reverence for God, which shapes our character and therefore our lives.

Who we think Jesus is has real life implications. If we name him as God’s chosen messiah, we need to be ready to follow and live as he lives.

Jesus’s radical call to align ourselves with his new family trumps even our allegiances to our blood families, and asks us to shape our relationships in the church around a shared commitment to living out the will of God.

When theology and discipleship follow the path of God, they take us beyond an obsession with borders to a new engagement with the kingdom of God, present and tangible in all the earth.

As we head with Jesus towards the cross, carrying the pain and injustice of the world, God does not hide his face from us but hears our cries for justice.

Like the Magi and generations of pilgrims, our COVID generation has had to adapt and find ways to pursue sincere worship amidst challenging circumstances.

God has hung a star in our sky, and called us to follow it to the Christ child, who will receive the gifts that we bring and we will return changed to our homes.

All creation waits impatiently for humanity to work and pray its way into the fullness of our identity in Christ, for only then will all creation be safe and free.

God knows our tribulation and will keep us in the right way if we will trust to do right without fuss and without favour.

Jesus calls us to face hostility, not as doormats, but by boldly and creatively standing in our freedom and extending unexpected love and generosity.