Precept & Practice – APRIL 3 – Cordiality
we give nothing if we do not give love
we give nothing if we do not give love
It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence alle
Misunderstandings and neglect cause more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness
Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.
Jesus is our Midwife and like a mother looks on us every day with love.
Jesus, with His own body, defeats the power of death and sin and bears us all into the promise of the Life after Life.
Keep me from wrath, let it seem e’er so right; my wrath will never work Thy righteousness. Incline mine heart to take men’s wrongs as Thou tak’st mine.
How to Repent:
1. Stop doing the bad stuff.
2. Start doing the good stuff.
3. Give away the fruit of our penitence.
(We do not join the ‘God Squad’ for our benefit alone.)
Jesus… doesn’t choose the powerful and capable to manifest his glory. He chooses corrupt tax collectors, penitent publicans, simple soldiers who are ‘only following orders’, women about whom your mother warned you, failed fisherfolk, and even us to be the workers of miracles that will transform a worn-out world into a feast overflowing with the finest of wine.
May we, having witnessed the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem in our carols and our worship this night, become proclaimers of those same words to all those we meet this Christmas.
‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you;
he is the Messiah, the Lord.
Fear Not!’
if we knew ‘the hour and the day’ of our Lord’s return we might be tempted to behave a little more like Christ as the Day approaches. And what kind of fair-weather (or more correctly Apocalyptic-weather) disciples would that prove us to be?