Scripture & Reflection: Sunday 23rd June and for the week ahead:ScriptureOn that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ (Mark 4 35-41)ReflectionEach of us face different storms in our lives. Some of us, like Mark’s original audience, might face persecution for our faith; for others, it’s a storm of illness, of loss, of trauma, of seperation or of loneliness. No-one is immune to these storms and, just like the disciples, we find ourselves floundering and crying out for help. Just like the disciples, we fear the storm and want it to be calmed - but help is there in the form of God’s saving love.To accept that help we first need to get into the boat with Jesus, we then need faith in God to calm the storm. But more than that, we need to trust that God will do the right thing - trusting Him to be the anchor in the storm, trusting Him to still the waters in our stormy life.Trust is faith in action - we cannot change the course of the storms of life, but what we can do is trust in the Lord to be there alongside us and to show His love for us by guiding us through the choppy seas.Lyn Hayes ALM
ScriptureSo now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and all his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. (Deuteronomy 10.12 - 13)Reflection‘Well being’ is a buzz word today - there are well-being hubs in schools; we are told that exercise is good for our physical well being; that mindfulness is good for our mental well-being. Well-being simply means an ‘ultimately good quality of life’.So by taking a walk in the country or practising clearing our mind of distractions with meditation and stillness we can obtain an ultimately good quality of life? Our bible reading today tells us that there is another dimension involved - a spiritual dimension.We are born with inherent spirituality. It is up to us to tap into it. Here is a modern translation of the verse above - 1. Have a healthy respect for a higher power than yourself2. Cultivate an attitude of love, forgiveness and acceptance of all that is.3. Go out of your way to help other people, even if it involves sacrifice.Do all this ‘ for your own well-being’. In tapping into the innate spiritual relationship between us and God, and being a blessing to others, we invoke an ‘ultimately good quality of life’ for ourselves!Vicki Young
Scripture:“So we do not lose heart…. We are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not sight.” (2 Cor 4.16, 5.6-7) Reflection: We have to cope in a world in which God seems so often absent - just as the friends and followers of Jesus had to learn to live without his physical presence. St Paul had an exceptional experience of ‘seeing the light’ and was exceptionally empowered to be a missionary. But he also experienced much terrible personal persecution from all quarters, (Romans, Greeks, Arabs and Jews) and shipwreck. But he had also witnessed in himself and others how things – and our bodies – are short-lived , unlke the spiritual virtues such as Truth and Love, which live on. We walk on by faith, not sight. David Harmsworth
