Are you listening?

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One of my favourite childhood movies is ‘Muppets From Space’ where Gonzo is desperately trying to make contact with his alien family and in the process of trying to connect his repeated call is “Are you there?”  His family tries all kinds of ways to communicate – from dreams of talking fish, talking sandwiches and words spelt out in his breakfast cereal…they communicate, yet it seems Gonzo just can’t hear them. 

Sometimes it feels like that with God.  In our passage today Jesus’ cry was…‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ (Luke 8:8) and we were reminded of three of the ways God speaks to us.

1.  In creation God speaks 24/7 of His existence

Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.

2.In Jesus we see and know who God is
Hebrews 1:2 “ he has spoken to us by his Son”

3. In the Bible we find words that are transformational and life changing

Luke 8:15 hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop

God is speaking – the question is are we listening?

This is the videoclip from Sunday…

Paul Baloche - The Same Love (Official Music Video) from integritymusic on GodTube.

LINK to the sermon here.

Observing Interactions...

I was in a queue behind an electoral candidate this week – and in observing them in action. It led me to think about how we operate in our workplaces, home and community. I guess because this person’s face was on a large billboard on their car in the car park (and all over town) it probably heightened their awareness that every interaction could mean a vote – and therefore they were immensely polite and friendly to the salesperson… and everyone in the shop.

It left an impression on me, it made me think…this one might be worth voting for – how they behaved spoke volumes – it wasn’t only the words, it was their way of being and interacting with people. Made me think about what we have been exploring in Luke – about how Jesus spoke and modelled the Kingdom of God – and of Jesus’ challenge that “If you are listening”(Luke 6:27) this is what it would look like for you to do the same. Each of us in our interactions with our workmates, neighbours, family and complete strangers are modelling and speaking about the Kingdom… the question is, would our expression cause people to consider having a closer look? Amy

Click here for the link to the sermon on our website