Sunday 28th June*

Our Father in heaven

It is astonishing how God defines himself.  In Psalm 2:6 God declares that he is a father with a son, the latter of whom will rule over nations and the earth.  This is foundational because, as theologian Johns argues, God’s plan for the Church is bound up within the trinitarian nature of the Godhead.  Johns notes that ‘God is a family and community… the always-existing first family.’ Christianity is thus fundamentally a love relationship between a Father and a Son, in which God reveals Himself primarily in family terms.

Furthermore, God identifies and defines us using family-based terminology.  For instance, in Exodus 3:6, he declares to Moses at the burning bush that he is the “God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”  Families matter profoundly to God, and God’s fatherhood of us is foundational to our understanding of him and of one another.  We are God’s sons and daughters, alongside other sons and daughters: we rejoice because we are adopted by God into his family with profoundly rich spiritual ties. The depth of these bonds can surpass even those in biological families because they are threaded together by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection

How does being a son or a daughter of the living God affect how you think and live?

Who are your significant brothers, sisters and spiritual parents in the Church?

How might God’s loving fatherhood redefine how the women we serve in Chosen see themselves and others?

Thanksgiving

Thank Jesus for placing you into his family, the church, alongside other spiritual brothers and sisters.

Thank the Father for the depth of his love revealed through his Son Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Thank God that he is in heaven eager to prepare a unique place for each one of us (John 14:2), and is aching for the women we serve in Chosen to join us, (2 Peter 3:9).

Prayer

Pray that the women we serve would know their heavenly Father and they would be comforted by the depth of his love, and that Jesus would be revealed to them as the Son of God, their Lord and Saviour.

Pray that God’s identity would be revealed to the women as we engage on walking outreach, at our new Drop-In, as we advocate for the women with other agencies, and as we meet with them for coffee/tea/socially.

Pray that the women we serve get regular ‘tastes’ of heaven on outreach, at Drop-In and as we come alongside them.

Our women

Please pray for salvation, healing, strength, deliverance and new lives for our women:

Abigail, Alana, Alison, Amanda, Amey, Andrea.

*Prayer and Feasting.  This morning we have Prayer and Feasting which combines prayer walking around Desborough Road with a breakfast (optional) afterwards at a local café, meeting at 7:15am in the foyer of the King’s Centre, Desborough Road.