J* taught us this morning from 1 John 4.7-21. I loved his financial illustration: God's love is like the gold standard - it's backed up with the real deal of Jesus' death for us. The world's love is like an empty promissory note with nothing behind it. He challenged us with what it means to love one another.
This evening D* took us through the second half of Colossians 1, how we too often have too small a view of Jesus and so are tempted to dilute Jesus. But if we attempt to add to Jesus we in fact take away from him, and to move away from the gospel IS to move away from Jesus. He also revisited the tree illustration just for us: rather than being on a journey for journey's sake, we should think of ourselves as a tree:
First we are deeply rooted into the gospel. And like tree roots in soil, we are not to remove ourselves from it!
Second, we are strengthened so as to be better able to weather the storms of life.
Thirdly, we bear fruit.
The deeper rooted we are, the stronger we are and the more fruit we bear. And like a tree, the longer we are rooted in, the more fruit we bear, so hang on in there, stick with the gospel and don't try to add to Jesus because to add on is to move away.
They both said loads of other brilliant things too, and it was great to see God speaking through the preaching of His word.
We learned a new song this evening from RESOUND worship, who have a fantastic array of church-friendly music for you to peruse and acquire.
*This post is based on my notes and recollections of the day, and doesn't come with any express permission from either of them. Any and all errors are my own.
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