HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I am praying that as you look out onto the snow and ice, you are feeling safe and warm. This year has already felt quite eventful – with a number of people suffering from flu, pneumonia, coughs and headaches. And now the snow! That said, I can’t but help myself in appreciating its beauty, and especially today when it is freezing (-5) but yet the sky is bright blue and the sun is reflecting off the roofs on the houses around and the white crystals are shiny and sparkling. And I feel myself wanting to praise God for His creation.
At the start of this year we are beginning a new series called ‘Alive in Christ’. So over the next 5 weeks I hope that we will:
• Understand more deeply the nature of God as a loving Father
• Experience God’s love in a way that will enable us to build their lives on it
• Grow in love for one another and learn the importance of forgiving one another
• Identify things that might be preventing us from knowing and experiencing God’s love
• Consider how our relationships change and transform as you understand and feel the security of God’s love
This week we will be focusing on the Father’s amazing love because once we know we are loved, once we appreciate that God so fully understands us and our needs we can then start to feel freer and begin to let go of the fears, the things that hold us back from being generous with our time and our resources. So I would encourage you to reflect on ‘The Prodigal Son’ Painting by Rembrandt and really think about how it feels to be one of the three main characters.
There are also daily readings throughout the coming weeks which you can find by following this link:
