Kia ora!

Here is this week’s devotion on Christian hope. Daphne certainly gave a challenging reflection on what we can do as individuals and as a community to encourage hope in the people God brings our way. …challenging, but exciting!

Stranger in a Strange Land series (part 4)

“Encouraging hope in the people God brings our way”
Devotional notes

Readings to reflect on throughout the week:

Jeremiah 16^14-21
Jeremiah 31^31-37
Luke 4^14-30

Next week’s readings:

Jeremiah 18:1-10
2 Timothy 2:19-26
Matthew 12:33-37

An mp3 for the sermon can be found here.

Personal/group study:

Pray alone or as a group. If you like, use Luke 4:18-19 as a basis for the prayer.

Remember this clip from Aladdin? What’s the difference between wishing and hoping? Is there a difference?

Read Jeremiah 31:31-37

What does this passage tell you about hope, about who God is, about suffering?

Often in Christian worship we jump straight to the victory of the resurrection. Christ has conquered sin and death! Hallelujah! But why do we need passages like Jer 31:31-37 in our worshipful and prayerful lives? What value does it have for you personally?

How do you allow space for lament and hope in your devotional and worshipful life? If you don’t, why not? How could you incorporate these elements into your spiritual habits?

Read Luke 4:16-19

Compare this with the Jeremiah passage. What does the “new covenant” in Jeremiah look like?

How do you hold together the tension of Jeremiah and Luke, that the new covenant of God is here (this is year of the Lord’s favour (Luke 4:19)) and yet, we are still waiting (days are surely coming… (Jer 31:31))?

Daphne challenged us to think about what sort of person and what sort of church community we want to be. Do we want to exist for ourselves, busy with our various programmes, and in-house community? Or do we want to exist for others — for the least in our wider community? If the latter, what might that look like for you personally and for the Living Room?

What is your vision for the Living Room community? Brainstorm some practical ways that we could encourage hope in those God brings our way.

Close in prayer. You might like to use this prayer which Daphne used on Sunday. It’s by Mother Teresa:

Dear Jesus,
Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly,
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us, and be so in us,
that every person we should come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine;
the light, Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best,
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching:
not by words, but by our example,
by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear for you.
                                                                                                    Amen