Dear friends,
We have come near the end of our Sunday series both in KidZone and in morning worship on ‘The Fruit of the Spirit.’ (Galatians 5 v22-23)
Someone has described these qualities of Love, Joy, Peace. Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control as the essence of Christlikeness. If we want to know what Jesus is like; these words describe him beautifully. As the perfect ‘Spirit filled man’ Jesus is all these things.
The first part of Paul’s letter to the Galatians is all about the gospel of grace. It tells us that we can’t be justified through anything that we do. Our salvation can only come about through what Christ has done for us by dying on a cross. The second part of his letter doesn’t then revert to telling us what we then have to try to do in our own strength and by our own efforts. No! Not at all!
It highlights what the Holy Spirit, given by Jesus for our justification loves to do in and for us. The Spirit is in the business of making his people more and more like Jesus who imparts his nature to us. Our role is to cooperate with God in encouraging these fruit of the Holy Spirit to grow and develop in our lives.
At the moment as a congregation we are in the process of electing up to 10 elders to help lead us into the future. It can be difficult to know how to decide who should receive our votes. Click here for a copy of the little leaflet produced by PCI called ‘Choosing new elders.’
I hope this may be useful in helping us decide what we need to be looking for in a spiritual leader. A further way is to pray God will guide us not to look on outward appearances, but for those lovely Christlike traits of a godly character:- Here’s Eugene Peterson’s version of these familiar words from Galatians 5 vs22-23
“Things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. A willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”
God guide us and lead us as together we seek to “Keep in step with the Spirit”.
Yours most Sincerely, Frank
Listen again to Frank’s Sermon on John 16:17-33 entitled ‘A riddle and a parable’ from 1st March 2020 when we were thinking about what to look for in an elder