[Friday's Devotional] - Smell

Smell As with taste, smell can be used to as an enticement or a warning. Scented flowers attract bees for pollination. Good smells encourage us to taste. Consider how some bakeries, coffee shops and chocolate shops channel the smell of their product outside to entice shoppers in. Bad smells indicate neglect and decay, often warning us of infection. In the story of Jesus raising Lazarus, stench is proof that the physical body is dead. Smells can be really evocative. They can take you back to significant moments in childhood. I remember so well the smell of wood fires in my Granny's house. The smell of wood smoke brings me back to the memory of happy Christmases and cosy family times. But I also remember the distinct smell of church – polish and heady flowers and old books. That smell brings back mixed feelings! I know plenty of people who use scented candles or sweet-smelling bath oils to help them relax. Many religious traditions use incense to generate an atmosphere of holiness, of peace and of tranquillity. Pleasant smells are associated with worship, and prayer rising heavenwards. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2 [NIV] How could we use the power of smell to enhance our own times of worship? Mairi Mowbray Twitter Website Copyright © 2018 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] - Taste and See...

Taste and See...  Did you know we have about 10 000 taste buds on our tongue and that they are replaced every two weeks? I learned this when my class was learning about taste. We tried each of four tastes sweet, sour, bitter and salty. The children's faces showed all sorts of expressions when they came across an unfamiliar or unpleasant taste! The body uses taste to gauge whether what we put in our mouths is good for us to eat. Good tastes start our mouths watering in preparation for digestion and a pleasurable sensual experience. Bad tastes generally indicate decay and we spit them out! The Jews had some very strict dietary rules, so that nothing harmful entered the mouth. On one occasion, the Pharisees criticised Jesus' disciples because they did not wash their hands before eating. This is Jesus' retort: 'Are you still so dull?' Jesus asked them.  'Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?  But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.' Matthew 15:16-20 [NIV] Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 83:4 [NIV] As well as thinking about what we take into our bodies, we should be concerned about what we take into our minds and hearts. What might this mean for us? Mairi Mowbray   Twitter Website Copyright © 2018 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] - Touch

Touch A few years ago, in my previous church, a fellow Reader who was also a skilled woodworker, carved a scene of Jesus and the children with a backdrop of our parish church in memory of a much-loved member of the church. He wanted to name it "A Touching Place" after the song by John Bell, which speaks of our response to the suffering and the marginalised, but, the family objected because of the modern-day connotations of the word touching and its links to child abuse. It is a sad reflection on our times. Jesus usually healed by touching the afflicted person. There are at least a dozen examples in the gospels. The Old Testament, and Leviticus in particular, has many rules about things that should not be touched because they make a person unclean and hence unholy. By touching those whom some regarded as unclean, Jesus gave a powerful message that no one is beneath his care, nor should they be beneath our care. Touching brings healing. Human physical contact is necessary for our emotional and spiritual wellbeing, but as we know can be abused. Touching can be a physical sign that you are reaching out to someone, offering care and love.   This clip on YouTube [4min 56 sec] has the words of the song and some challenging pictures. Mairi Mowbray   Twitter Website Copyright © 2018 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] - Those Who Have Ears, Let Them Hear

"Those Who Have Ears, Let Them Hear" Jesus often uses these words to end a parable. These challenging words come just before the well-known Parable of the Sower: The disciples came to him and asked, 'Why do you speak to the people in parables?' He replied, 'Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.  Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.  This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:' "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them." But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.  For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Matthew 12:10-17 [NIV]   As a child I would often be accused of not listening. Indignant, I would repeat back what had been said, for I had heard, but I had not always acted, hence the charge of not listening. I did in fact have undiagnosed glue ear – but that didn't excuse all of my inattention. Although the ears are better now, I often hear, but don't listen - words that are said float over me, like water off a duck's back and do not lodge in my mind or are not acted on. This is what Jesus warns against here. It is as if we "close our ears" to the truth. What a shame, because we are privileged to have access to the truth.  Why would we ignore it? Mairi Mowbray Twitter Website Copyright © 2018 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] - Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing Always after a theme to hang my devotionals on, I am going to think about our five senses, sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. There is a story in John's Gospel where a man is healed of his blindness by Jesus: As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' After saying this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 'Go,' he told him, 'wash in the Pool of Siloam' (this word means 'Sent'). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, 'Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?' Some claimed that he was. Others said, 'No, he only looks like him.' But he himself insisted, 'I am the man.' 'How then were your eyes opened?' they asked. He replied, 'The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.' 'Where is this man?' they asked him. 'I don't know,' he said. John 9: 1-12 [NIV] Why did Jesus' heal the blind man, apart from the obvious benefit of his being able to see and so earn his own living?   Jesus often spoke of "spiritual blindness" – people not understanding truth. This story shows that restoring physical sight is an indication that he can restore "spiritual" sight. Verse 3 says "this happened so that the works of God may be displayed in him".    Reflect on this story and try to get under the surface of what Jesus' words and actions are saying to you.   Mairi Mowbray   Twitter Website Copyright © 2018 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!