Talks

Claire Bell reminds us that we are created for worship. Not to worship creation, however beautiful it may be, but to look at it in awe and worship the creator, God.  We look at idolatry and how that is worship of an unworthy object, and how easy it is to centre our attentions and adoration towards created things rather than our Creator God.
In Romans 1:21, Paul provided the root of idolatry; “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him”. Their lives and loves had got out of order.

Claire also gives us three practical points to keep our focus on worship:
1) Choose to worship what is worthy - Jesus!
2) Get hold of what God really thinks about you! (If you are not sure, sign up for the Freedom in Christ course)
3) Live in Kingdom priorities

Let’s actively put Worship into every part of our lives because as we sang on Sunday: “Lord, there is nothing better than you!”

We are a family, living in community!
Paul Bell reminds us of that beautifully in the next part of our Spiritual Practices Series.

He says whilst Sunday mornings are great, we need to adopt the life style of Jesus during the week if we want to become more like Him – which is our goal.

Here are Paul’s 7 points from Sunday:

1) Community is non-optional for discipleship to Jesus
You can’t do it on your own! When you are adopted into a family, siblings, aunties and cousins are part of the package!
2) Community is non-optional for a well lived life
We all need people around us.
3) Community is the context where we are transformed
We are both exposed and encouraged in community. The only way we can get healed from relational hurt is in relationship.
4) Community is not necessarily the same thing as a group of friends
In community we are challenged to share more of ourselves.
5) Community is the by-product of commitment
6) Community takes time and intentionality
Embrace interdependence
7) Community is attractive to others

Did you ever think about the difference between “stopping” and “resting”?
Zoe explains in her talk about Sabbath that stopping is just “not working”, whereas resting includes stopping to think about work! Taking that into account, some of us might not have properly rested for a long time!
The contents of a godly Sabbath are stopping, resting, delight and contemplation. Doing that gives us a foretaste of heaven and totally goes against our culture that tells us that our worth is in our work.

Zoe challenges us with a number of questions and quotes:
Stop: We should be empowered to do good work out of rest, not need the rest as a result of overworking.
Rest: What kind of rest refreshes you spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially like the Lord was refreshed on the seventh day after he created the heavens and the earth (Ex 31:17)?
Delight: “On the sabbath we are reminded that Christians are called to order desserts and laugh until it hurts.” Jon Tyson
Contemplate: “Sabbath is a time to experience God’s pleasure and approval, knowing it’s nothing to do with my work-related accomplishments.” Pete Scazzero

“God is always trying to give us good things but our hands are too full to receive them”. St Augustine

Zoe goes on to explain that there is a journey between being aware of something and owning it. The journey starts with pondering, then valuing it. Now comes the difficult bit: an action gap that many never cross before we get to prioritising it. Where are you in your journey?

Do you want to get excited about the practice of Fasting? If so, we recommend you listen to Matts talk!
Just after Jesus was baptised he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days. After this time the devil tempted him. Jesus could resist the temptation because he was STRONGER, not weaker after that long time of fasting. How can that be?
Fasting is linked to accessing power, it has a physical element but also a spiritual element.

Fasting is not just abstaining from food or other things or following a restricted diet. Fasting is simply not eating food in order to feed on the Holy Spirit. “Fasting is feasting on our Lord and doing His will!  (Dallas Willard) 
For the Jews and the early church fasting was a regular practice. Learning how to resist our “Flesh” and feed our “Spirit”.
Matt also quotes some very insightful and challenging thoughts on fasting from great men of God of the past and present. Well worth a listen to get inspired!

Practical Tips on Fasting:

If you’ve never tried fasting before, start with one meal or two meals and take it from there
When you’re fasting, drink plenty of fluid (the body can last a long time without food, but not water)
Don’t try and do too much physical exercise at the same time as fasting (especially when you are starting)
If you have any health issues – be careful and speak to someone first
If you know you have issues with food – speak to someone first to get help
Be kind to yourself! Jesus seemed to expect his followers to sometimes make mistakes while learning – so we can too!

In the next part in our series on Spiritual Practices, Dave speaks to us about Silence and Solitude.
In our busy, noisy, technology obsessed world, to be silent and quiet with God is a stark contrast! The noise of the world can often drown out the most important sound we need: The voice of God!
We look at examples in the bible: Daniel prayed 3 times a day, Jesus withdrew to quiet places on a regular basis and Elijah learned to hear God’s voice in the sound of sheer silence.
Sometimes just being silent helps us resist the draw of activity and sound.
Dave gives us some practical steps to help us to take some action:  What could you do?
1. Raise our expectation that God wants to speak to us in the silence
2. Start to establish new rhythms that are going to work for you
3. Re-style existing rhythms you are already doing, but bring God into them
4. Start off small and build it up

Zoe introduces us to our new Series: Spiritual Practices and give us advise how to implement them into our daily lives and encourages us to see the different spiritual practices as gifts from God rather than a to do list. But they are key to discipleship and require some discipline. 
Zoe compares this journey beautifully to climbing a mountain. For both we need a target, preparation, the right outfit, people to do it with and the awareness that we’re going to hit resistance. 
But don’t we all agree that reaching the summit is worth all the effort?