Merton Vineyard Church

How we view things determines how we live out our lives. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us not to get rid of our thoughts, but to make them obedient to Christ. To take those things that we cant understand, and lay them in trust at the feet of Christ. 

Following on from last week, we looked at 1 Corinthians 14, the outpouring/actioning of love in the church. How Paul was putting the needs of the many above the wants of the few. 

Everyone who has ever been to a wedding, knows 1 Corinthians 13 is all about love. This morning we looked at the last verse of this chapter, which talks about everything fading away, except faith, hope and love. These three are intrinsically linked, and dependant on each other. We need a strong faith in God, our hope to be in Jesus, and then we will see his love flow through us, and in our lives. 

Unless we change and come to God as children (humble, eager, open-minded) we cant even enter the Kingdom of God and what He has for us.

James 1:19 tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. If extreme opposites was a topic of conversation between the culture today and a word of scripture, I think this would be near the top. James was a respected, wise elder of the original Jerusalem church, and this letter was written after many years of watching and understanding people. If we could learn to be quick to listen, slow to talk, and slow to anger, imagine what a difference it would make!

There is a lot written about how the main battle we fight is in our thoughts and thought patterns. This Sunday we focused on 2 Corinthians 10, how Paul encouraged and warned the Corinthians about the nature of mind-games. 

Often we see criticism as a bad thing - but John 15 talks about the more we bear fruit, the more we will be pruned. Its a good part of the process - pruning is not there to tell us we are bad, but to spur us on to be even better.

A quick reflection this morning, looking at Psalm 42, as well as Colossians, about sometimes telling ourselves to chill out, and trust that God is good

We talk about “our faith” and “having faith” and what if we feel that we don’t have enough faith. This morning we looked at how if we believe, we have faith. The big question, is where is our faith? 

Jesus parables were about understanding the Kingdom of God. On this fathers day, we looked at the parables of the Prodigal Son, and changed the focus to the wonderful nature of the the father, and the fathers house. So often we focus on the 2 brothers and don't see that the focus is on the nature, character and compassion of the Father.