Resurrection!

Many thanks to everyone who enabled the Holy Week 24/7 prayer in the church building...for me this experience of "vertical" prayer (as Nigel described it) really helped in preparation for Easter this year. On Sunday night I preached on John 20, Mary at the empty tomb .....I love the very personal encounters that Jesus has with individuals in John's Gospel: Nicodemus, the woman at the well, Lazarus/Mary/Martha, Thomas, Peter...each one is so personal and yet the truths that Jesus leads each individual to appreciate are also so universal - they apply to all of us. In each case Jesus leads them to a new level of faith by revealing more of who he is... a positive, upwards spiral....as they respond in faith, He reveals more of himself, so that they can respond in faith and He can reveal more......
This reminds me so much of the dialogue that Moses has with God at the burning bush, except that Moses is more questioning in response to God's self-revelation. has anyone had their own experience of this God-led positive spiral of faith?
Adrian

I've been surprised - and heartened- by the number of people in church this Christmas at All Saints....and so many who don't often turn up at other points of the year it seems - which raises the inevitable questions about how we might build on the explicit sense of the spiritual that becomes evident at these times, how we can demonstrate that our faith is actually a down-to-earth way reality that has a positive impact on our lives (rather than a set of escapist aspirations, ritualistic tranquilisers or intellectual ideas), how we make a connection with normal people.....

2010 will see the launch of More to Life, and the Community Youth Outreach Project ....but perhaps there should be some visible change in each of our individual Christian lives too...






graphic, with permission, Jon Birch, from http://asbojesus.wordpress.com/