God is Light: 1 John 1:5-2:2

The letter of 1st John gives us timely wisdom into what is essential for faith and how we grow in discipleship; learning to live the life of Jesus.  1 John 1:5-2:2 tells us that God is light and that having a right understanding of sin through confession, our lives are brought into the light of his presence.

1 John 1:5-2:2

Jeremiah 17:9

Ephesians 5:8-13

Psalm 139:23-24

G.K. Chesterton

“It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

Martin Luther

“Sin is humanity curved in on itself.”

John Ortberg

“Sin is often the attempt to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.”

Sunday we talked about learning to shape our life around THE LIFE. We've put together some extra resources to teach about what a rule of life is, why live with it and where to begin.

The Life Appeared: 1 John 1:1-4

The letter of 1st John gives us timely wisdom into what is essential for faith and how we grow in discipleship; learning to live the life of Jesus.  1 John 1:1-4 tells us that Jesus appeared as The Life and we are witnesses to it and so we orientate all of our life around the life of Jesus.

1 John 1:1-4

John 1:1-4

1 John 3:2

Paul Kingsnorth:

“The great tides of current affairs and history will roll on with or without us. What we have the power to do is work in our own small spheres and in our internal and local landscapes. Using this power is often more effective in the end than the short bursts of public rage that rise and fall through the ages. We are regularly guilt-tripped into taking part in the meta-narratives of others. What happens if we do what we can with what is within, and respond to the communities in which we actually live? The still small voice is always waiting to be heard.”

Andy Crouch

“Rule of life is a set of practices to guard our habits and guide our lives..”

John Tyson

“I am basically convinced that without a shared rule of life, based on tangible practices,
discipleship won’t happen in a western context. Radical individualism and consumerism are simply too overwhelming as seductive forces for individual christians to resist.”

GK Chesterton

“The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”

St Clair is… Mission

Every fall we remind ourselves of what defines us as a community; what brings us together and what sends us out.  This week we talk about the value of Mission and what it means to be participants with enacting God's love in the world.

2 Corinthians 5:14-20

Colossians 1:15-19

Matthew 16:24-26

Augustine

“You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”

Lesslie Newbigin

“The deepest motive for mission is simply the desire to be with Jesus where he is, on the frontier between the reign of God and the usurped dominion of the devil.”

Barbara Brown Taylor

“much of what passes for spiritual teaching in this country is about consoling the self, not losing it.”

Bishop Desmond Tutu

"Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking, but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing."

St Clair is… Family

Every fall we remind ourselves of what defines us as a community; what brings us together and what sends us out.  This week we talk about the value of Family and how it is only through the sacrificial love of Christ and sacrificial love for one another that we can live into being the family of God.

Hebrews 2:10-11

Philippians 2:1-5 

John 13:34-35

Mother Tereasa

If you want to change the world, go home and love your family

St Clair is… Presence

Every fall we remind ourselves of what defines us as a community; what brings us together and what sends us out.  This week we talk about the value of Presence and how knowing nearness of God in our life and in the world changes who we are and how we live.

Psalm 4

1 John 1:2

Miroslav Volf

We are in a crisis: pandemic, racist violence, political uncertainty, cultural clashes, economic downturn. All this is exposing fragility of our lives and calls our way of life as individuals and society into question. The truth is we must be confronted with fragility and death to seek a more promising life. That’s Jesus: the healthy do not need – and do not seek - a doctor. We are sick and yet, faced with death, most of us crave not a new life, but the life we’ve always known, the very life whose cracks the crisis is exposing.

Dorothy Day

The greatest challenge of the day is how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?

Amy Knox speaks on Psalm 95 during our series, 'Summer of Psalms'.

Will Albert speaks on Psalm 40 during our series, 'Summer of Psalms'.

Marcée Groen speaks on Psalm 103 during our series, 'Summer of Psalms'.

Michelle Wood speaks on Psalm 107 during our series, 'Summer of Psalms'.