Understand this, without fear of God, our lives are out of balance. Without fear of God, what we do quickly dissipates and yields limited fruit. Without proper fear of God, we lose membership in church, our resources are depleted, our relationships suffer, the state of our personal, communal, and national lives deteriorates and everything we do is empty. Beloveds, without fear of God, everything is vanity!

Dear ones, we are being called to bring in the sheaves after we have been prepared. We will find ourselves at different stages of the process. The beauty of community is that there are those who will always be greater, and those who will always be lesser than we. We will always have someone to help; and there will always be someone to help us. Take advantage of your community so that you may grow as the Lord of the Harvest intends.

My question now is: at what stage of the process are you? My advice to you is this: be patient in the stage at which you find yourself. 

Beloveds, faith is difficult. But we move forward for we trust Him, as I encouraged in the message entitled ‘Faith’. We move forward. We do not let go, even though everything presses against us, testing our strength, challenging our resilience. We do not give up, regardless of what we see, the failures we have endured, the disappointments that assail us. We do not give up, for in perseverance lies the promise.

The Creation account is a manifestation of the order of God. There is an alternating sequence between separation and production. The liturgical calendar of the Church is a manifestation of God's holy order.

Disciples of Christ, how is that order reflected in our lives? How is the order of things in our lives an image and likeness of God? How does God’s order of things manifest itself in the way we organise our days, our personal spaces, our workplaces, our faith communities, and our wider communities, and even our interactions with others?

The importance of the order of things cannot be over-emphasised, for the works of God cannot thrive where we persist in chaos. 

The Spirit, in like manner to the Father and the Son, is known by many names. The Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, is the manifestation of the power of God. Jesus was the incarnation of the Word of God; the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of the Power of God. It is for this reason that there is no single response to the question, ‘What is the Holy Spirit’, or more appropriately, ‘Who is the Holy Spirit’? There can be no one response for we serve a multifaceted God. We serve a God who is ‘I Am’. We serve a God who cannot be contained, fully understood. We serve an inscrutable God who will not be encapsulated in our limited human vocabulary.

Have you ever felt ‘ghosted’? You’ve been calling, IM’ing, even emailing and DM’ing, but there has been no answer from the other person – not even an acknowledgement. You’ve been scoping out their social media pages and they’ve been happily posting, updating their statuses, so it isn’t that they’ve been out of circulation. In fact, they are very much in circulation…to the point that they’re re-posting the posts of others.

Let me ask you this question: have you ever felt that God has ghosted you? He seems to be answering the prayers of others, so what’s up with your prayers? Beloved, it is for this reason, we pray, ‘Do not leave us comfortless’.

Do you know where love comes from? Do you know the source of the love that we have to offer to God, to ourselves, and to others? This love is poured into the hearts of mothers and from that they pour into us. To the mothers among you, 'Happy Mothers' Day'. To those who've enjoyed the love of a mother - biological or adopted - let us celebrate the mothers in our lives. Let us celebrate them in love.

Confidence - the power to be who we are called to be in Christ. Confidence to proclaim the mighty works of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. Confidence because we have a Gospel to proclaim. 

Vocation - a call, a voice, a passion, a burning within. With the many distractions around us, it's no wonder we struggle to find our vocation. It turns out that the Good Shepherd calls. If we listen carefully, we will find our vocation. Believe it, or not!

In the face of seeming defeat, it's easy to lose hope. In face of God's seeming silence, it's easy for us to question our mission. Dear ones, I say, you can't leave now. You can't abandon hope. Return, return to purpose. Return for your story of completion awaits you.