[Friday's Devotional] - A Right Perspective of Self

A Right Perspective of Self In Jesus we have a sense of belonging to God's family – He teaches us that God is a loving father and we are his children. We have a sense of worth - Jesus' love for us that ultimately led to him stretching his arms out in love on the cross for us.   A right perspective of self means understanding who you are with your strengths and weaknesses. If you know who you are in Christ, you can accept your weaknesses and mistakes and work through them, with God's guidance through the Holy Spirit, without comparing yourself to some impossible standard of perfection – someone once wrote "If you find a perfect church don't join it or it will cease to be perfect."   We have a sense of completeness -  The Holy Spirit working in, through and with us restoring us to the new creations.   Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."   ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity   Guy Mowbray   Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Thursday's Devotional] - Sustaining All Things

Sustaining All Things In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1: 1-3 [NIV]     Jesus made the Universe, he sustains all things and is heir of all things. Past present and future are his. Yet when I look around it doesn't appear that way – injustice, poverty, wars. The hell that was Grenfell Tower – it doesn't appear that everything belongs to Jesus. But this is where faith comes in, we know the Lamb is there at the end. Evil may try to claim the earth for its domain, but it is the rightful owner who is already bringing his new kingdom to fruition – even if it is just glimpsed through those local churches who open their doors to the families in need in North Kensington.   It is in challenging times that we need to be thankful that we have a God who wants to speak to us, who has travelled the road of pain   "In Gethsemane, the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him.  It did not.  After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed." (CS Lewis - The World's Last Night and Other Essays)   and holding this perspective allows us to face life's challenges with the knowledge that however hard it is to see or in some circumstances even just try to say without choking "All things work for good for those who love God".   Guy Mowbray Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Wednesday's Devotional] - WWJD

WWJD Jesus is described in Hebrews 1 as being the image of God - by looking at Jesus we see God's character.   Jesus replied, "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been with you all this time? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? John 14:9 [NIV]   In Jesus, we see sovereign power over the earth – he calms storms, transforms water into wine. We see wisdom that confounded the teachers of his day (Render unto Cesar), and wisdom that is still talked about today; his parables are still as relevant to our lives as to those of the Jewish community 2000 years ago. We also see compassion (feeding 5000), love (Jesus wept), healing and ultimately, he sacrifices himself out of love for mankind.   He is troubled, moved, he weeps, but he was also full of Joy and Love. In Jesus, we see the outworking of the Holy Spirit – Love, Joy Peace, Patience, Kindness, Self-control...   If in Jesus if we see Gods character, we also see our own character. If we think back to Genesis, we see man made in God's image, but that image is distorted and corrupted by Sin. We see then in Jesus not only the image of God we see what we should be like.   Do you remember the old abbreviation WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? Go and do likewise.     Guy Mowbray Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Tuesday's Devotional] - The Exact Representation of His Being

The Exact Representation of His Being He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power  Hebrews 1:3 [ESV]   I like the word imprint, as it reflects the Greek word used here. The word means the image made by one who mints a coin, or a seal or branding iron. When you look at the seal impression in wax, you see the image made by the tool, you recognise the name, authority and dominion of the maker and it bears his authority. In Jesus, we see God's character:   Name – Jesus Authority – Son of God Dominion – Heir of all things.   But we should not be left with the impression that Jesus is just a picture of God, we need to read the first and last parts of the sentence. He is the radiant glory of God – light does not radiate from an image; a picture does not uphold the universe by its own power.   Jesus gives us an image of God we can understand – but he is no less God for being incarnate.   We so often hear people referring to Jesus as a good moral teacher or example of a good life, but thank God he is so much more than that.   Guy Mowbray   Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Monday's Devotional] - In These Last Days, He Has Spoken

In These Last Days, He Has Spoken As I sit down to write these thoughts it is my youngest daughter Sophie's 18th birthday. Her Godfather Andrew gave her a card which has a picture of a bookshelf containing the books of the bible (see Hannah Dunnet's website  https://www.benandhannahdunnett.com/ )   It's subtle humour brought a smile to my face, with the apple on the book end by Genesis, a whale by Jonah, a church mid epistles and a lamb propping up Revelation. The text behind the bookshelf comes from Hebrews Chapter 1:   In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1: 1-3 [NIV]   There are some amazing thoughts tied up in this passage, starting with what might seem a simple statement '…In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.' Once we get over the idea that God actually wants to speak to us we need to start to understand what he wants to say.   "The truth taught by Jesus Christ is the right way to live. It is not primarily a religion, not even the best religion, but God himself explaining in terms that men can readily grasp how life is meant to be lived." (J.B Phillips – Your God is too Small.)   What does God speak to us through his Son?  The power behind the universe wants to have a loving relationship with us – He wants to restore us to a right way of living – that must be transformational.   Thank God he speaks to us.                    Guy Mowbray   Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!