How do I want you to treat me?

Several people has said they found the last bit of Sunday morning's message useful, and on request here it is. It started with the Golden Rule ("do to others what you would have them do to you") and then asking "How then would I want to be treated?" Using 1 Corinthians 13 as a starting point, for me it came out like this ...

I want you to be patient with me and kind. I don’t want you to envy me if I am successful or appear to have gifts that you do not have. I don’t want you to boast when you do things better than me. I don’t want you to be rude towards me. I don’t want you to be totally preoccupied with your own interests, but have an eye to mine as well. If I get things wrong, I don’t want you to blow up at me. In fact, I’d like you to destroy the record you have in your head of the mistakes that I have made.

If I lose my way, I don’t want you to rejoice in my downfall. When I walk with God, I want you to give thanks with me for what God has done. I want you to watch my back, to protect me from those people and things that would bring me down. I want you to trust me, to think the best of me, and to persevere with me.

That’s how I want you to treat me. Is that not how you would like me to treat you?

Sustained to the end

Some of the leadership team met with representatives from our groups for older people yesterday. I guess that silver surfers don't make up the majority of our Blog readership, but all the same I found these words from Isaiah encouraging this morning ...

"Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you." (Isaiah 46v3)

Yesterday

Good to do church with you all yesterday.

Thanks for not mentioning that I spelt 'Galatians' wrong on all my Powerpoint pages.

Some great illustrations from the Dean I thought.

I shall remember than we are 'meanwhile' people, in a 'snakes and ladders' world who play cricket with sermons.

Ken

Find Time To Do Nothing

Take time out to do nothing – and start an adventure of self-discovery. That’s the message from the Bishop of Reading who spent Monday morning handing out egg-timers to stressed commuters at the town’s railway station. The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell urged people to spend three minutes a day in silent reflection - and find out what happens when we simply stop and rest. The Bishop’s theory is developed in his book Do Nothing to Change Your Life, an impassioned plea for people to resist the pressure to cram more and more into each day, and to find ‘delight and purpose in the ordinary things of life’.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/05/nbusy105.xml

The Power of One

I read something just now which gave me cause for thought.

ONE VOTE made Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and gave him control of England. (1645)

ONE VOTE caused Charles I to be executed. (1649)

ONE VOTE made Texas part of the United States. (1845)

ONE VOTE changed France from a monarchy to a republic. (1875)

ONE VOTE made Adolf Hitler head of the Nazi Party. (1923)

What a difference one can make.

Questions

We're two days into the Old Testament Reflections series and I was struck by the fact that on both days the questions that were asked could be applied both ways.

We might ask God, "Where are you?" and "What are you waiting for?"

But he might well ask us the same thing.