[Wednesday's Devotional] - Pray Always

Pray Always Paul also maintained a close relationship with God.   For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:9-13 [NIV]   Paul's prayer here is focused on those in the church, praying that they would grow in knowledge and understanding through the Spirit, bearing fruit in every good work. The sense here seems to be that, as we do good work, we grow in knowledge of God and this develops fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control).   Father help us to pray for one another, and act that we too may grow in knowledge and bear fruit.     Guy 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] - Close to God

Close to God Reading Chapters 5 and 6 of Mark gives the impression of a frantic time of miracle after miracle and crowds flocking to Jesus to hear the good news. We also see that Jesus took himself off to quiet places to rest and pray. We may not currently be seeing miracle after miracle or crowds flocking to hear the good news, but we still need to learn from Jesus' pattern of ministry. He would go to a quiet place and recharge and reset his relationship with the Father. He would remind himself who he was and how much the Father loved him. If Jesus needed to invest regularly in keeping his calling clear, keeping distraction and temptation at bay – how much more do we? We need to learn how to recharge –  taking time to reset our relationship with God. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18 [NIV] Father teach us to keep close to you.   Guy 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] - Discipleship

Discipleship I thought this week we could look a little at discipleship.   One of Bill Hybels' observations of the church in Willow Creek was that those who came to faith, but did not develop strongly, had not learned to find sustenance for themselves. They relied on others to do the work for them, they had not been taught to stand on their own feet. Discipleship is about learning —listening, clarifying, asking questions – understanding and maintaining a close relationship with your teacher. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing that they're the ones who need a bath. It's better to suffer for doing good, if that's what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God. 1 Peter 3:14-18 [MSG] Perhaps in a time of reflection we could ask ourselves: do we take responsibility for our own discipleship? Do we seek to grow in faith and understanding, or do we rely on others to "do church for us"? Father help us to grow close to you.   Guy 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!

[Friday's Devotional] - And God himself will be WITH them

5    And God himself will be WITH them Through this week we have been reflecting on just a few notions based on the declaration at the birth of Jesus that 'God is with us'. It might be nearing the end of January and Christmas is long gone but there is a blast of encouragement and joy that shouldn't be missed. John, in outlining his 'revelation from Jesus Christ' has some important things to say about God being with us. His theme draws on an understanding of the writings of the poet Isaiah and his context is a church under extreme persecution from the power of Rome. This is what he declares: "Then I saw 'a new heaven and new earth', for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell WITH them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.'" Revelation 21.1-3 [NIV]     It seems that God's purpose in creation is to be WITH it; Father, Son and Spirit in relationship together and with US. How incredible is that! 'Lord God, we praise and thank you that you have revealed yourself and your purposes to such as us. Forgive us for our lack of understanding and devotion ….and encourage us, please, to walk faithfully with you. Amen.'   Richard Farnell    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] - God with us – in JESUS?

4  God with us – in JESUS? I'm back to thinking about Christmas. Can you cope with that?   The incarnation of God is a mystery. How can the vulnerable baby be king, God and fully human? Remember what happened in those first few months of Jesus' life as a baby. Before being born there was the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, ordered by the occupying power. The place of birth lacked privacy, so it seems, and the lowest of the low [shepherds] were the first to burst into the 'post-natal' ward. And then…..   "An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream [again!]. 'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.'"   Matthew 2.13 [NIV]   They fled into the night to escape, south to an unknown country, many miles away. We are told that the monster, Herod the Great, in his fear and his obsession with maintaining power and privilege, ordered that all the boys in Bethlehem, under two years old, be killed.  The whole story is as far from tinsel and soft lights as you could get. It's a story of vulnerability, asylum seeking and refugee status. It's a story with so many modern parallels, whether in Syria, Sudan or Yemen.   It is legitimate to ask, 'where is the God of love in such situations?' The answer might be difficult to express but the starting point is surely an understanding of the risks, the dangers and the devastation that God incarnate experienced in his first few months of human life. Not to mention the degradation and humiliation of the cross. Is there a challenge here to our causal understanding of the very nature of God? And what it means for us to be 'made in his image'?   Richard Farnell      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!