Hi everyone and welcome to Monday’s Podcast – my name is Mick Woodhead and with my wife Tricia, we lead this amazing church at STC Sheffield. As a church, we consider every year the vision or focus God is calling us to – this year we are inviting people to ‘Join Us in Building Community’ – committed people who can bring Godly change to our society.

These podcasts are part of that vision – they offer an opportunity to draw close to Jesus through a Bible based thought for the day from one of our STC team, followed by a prayer, a worship song and a reading of the day’s Bible passage. You can also read the whole Bible passage for the day on the Podcast link on our website. STC Podcasts really are a great discipleship resource, why not pass it on to a friend so they can be blessed by Jesus?

REFLECTION

My colleague James began our reflections from Paul’s letter to the Colossians last week – I hope they encouraged you as much as they did me. Jame’s theme for the week was ‘grace’, God’s unmerited love; this week’s reflections pose this question: ‘Is it possible to change?’ Our Bible reading today is Colossians 1:21-23 from the MSG translation – hear it at the end. Our focus verse is v22: “Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together.”

As we begin this week’s reflections it’s helpful to consider this place Colossae – in its day it had been one of the leading cities in Asia Minor (now Turkey) but was now just a small market town as other surrounding cities had grown in prominence – it had changed and declined dramatically. Not unlike many of our cities in the UK which have also changed and declined as industries and business have moved elsewhere. But Jesus had other plans for Colossae! Paul’s friend Epaphras started a new church; people joined him and together they began ‘Building a Community’ that would have a profound effect on the region, the world and even us today as were still talking about it!

Is it possible to change?

The key to change is how we view Jesus Christ. Many people today of faith and no faith, would recognise that Jesus was a great figure in history, although alongside other historical religious leaders. However, is Jesus the Son of God – the universal Saviour of the world? This is an issue today in our increasingly secular society and it was just such an issue in 1st century Colossae. In this small church, other ideologies and powers were being put on an equal footing with Jesus. In this letter, Paul, with wonderful gentleness but firmness says ‘no’ – he states that Jesus is the only Saviour of the world.

We were all far away from God but are now brought close to God. Jesus has reconciled us to God (v.22aNIV) through his death on the cross and we are now holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation (v.22bNIV). Is it possible to change? – the Bible says yes! It is through Jesus alone that we and our world can see good and Godly change. How? “Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together.”

We live in a world overflowing with beauty and blessing but also so much brokenness – just watch the news. Every area of life seems touched but one aspect constantly cries out to me for change – children suffering in Syria; teenagers shot down at school in the US and dying through knife crime in the UK. We have such a responsibility towards our young people; that’s why at STC we have helped pioneer a schools initiative called SHINE which looks to bring real gospel hope to teenagers of a better future through contact with Christian artists and speakers – it’s so exciting!

Is it possible to change? The Bible clearly says yes it is – Jesus is THE change agent! Each day this week we will consider different aspects of how Jesus brings about change – as we begin our week here’s ano...