Good morning everyone!
I hope you are all well and staying safe? I would like to share with you what I have been thinking about particularly over the last few weeks and that is ‘JOY’ and how to hold on to it. It is often said that we shouldn’t let anything steal our joy and whilst this is true, it is sometimes easier said than done as life can get us down. God didn’t promise this wouldn’t happen but he puts little ‘love notes’ into our lives to remind us that there is reason to rejoice and be thankful – even if it’s tough at this moment, there are better moments to come. Just think of all those little things that remind us of His goodness to us and how very blessed we all are.
Romans 15 v 13 and Nehemiah 8 v 10 remind us of this:
The Oxford dictionary says joy is “a feeling of great pleasure & happiness”. The spiritual meaning of joy has many interpretations but I liked this one:
“Joy is a spiritual experience of living in a personal relationship with a personal God whose very nature and identity is infinite goodness”.
We cannot find true joy in the possession of material things but only in our relationship with the one who is divine personal goodness.
In John 15 verses 10-12, it says:
“If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete”.
Let us take hold of God’s promises and remind ourselves of them daily.
Here are three songs about joy that I’ve chosen for us to worship with this morning – one that I sang as a child which still lifts my spirit and appeals to the child within me, one I sang at CLC when I first became a Christian 27 years ago and a more contemporary one. I hope you enjoy worshipping God through these songs.
Kim
Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen the evil of racism highlighted through the killing of a black man by a white police officer and the world’s response to that incident. Protests across the globe and statues pulled down – some extending grace and asking for forgiveness, others fuelling the hate. But if we think that racism is just a problem in the USA or London or Birmingham … well that makes us part of the problem! Racism exists in Hereford.
So this week we return to Craig Groeschel as he shares his thoughts on how the church can respond to racism by showing justice, mercy and love.
Powerful words Craig!