Zetland Park Methodist Church Pastoral Letters
July and August 2015
Getting Ready
My life recently has been involving a 2015 lot of getting things ready. Getting ready for a holiday. Getting ready to fetch Emily from Holland. Getting things ready for the new Superintendent Minister coming. It is all about being prepared.
I am often very surprised how many good Christian folk, some very longstanding church-goers, tell me they do not feel prepared, not confident about meeting their maker. In some way they feel inadequate, perhaps just not assured about how they will be received! Somewhere in one of my many books on my shelves I have some sketches, "Eh, Jesus! Yes Peter?" one of which is an imagined conversation between Jesus and Peter where Peter is asking what he needs to prepare to take with him to follow Jesus. The punch line is, of course, "nothing, just bring yourself.
In the words of one of my favourite hymns, "Only by grace do we enter, only by grace can we stand, not by our human endeavour but by the blood of the Lamb." Nothing we can bring, nothing we can offer will ever make us worthy to experience the full presence of God or of our risen Saviour. But that doesn't matter because as the same song goes on to remind us, God calls us - yes, calls us - into his presence. We don't have to crawl, grovel or earn our way into his presence! Through the obedience and death of Jesus the debt is paid and the door is opened and God calls us, beckons us, invites us into his presence! Wow!!!
But do you have the spiritual confidence to trust that you can walk boldly into God's presence because he has invited you? Do you know such overwhelming love and have you responded with all the love you can muster in return. If not, then talk to Him about it, pray about it, and if necessary talk to me about it. Just fancy, no preparing, to getting ready, no earning it - just the trip of you life - now and in the future!
May you know His peace.