Thought for 30 August

 Ephesians 3:17-19

And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. 

May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fulness of life and power that comes from God.

For those of us advancing in years, society today looks a lot different to what we were used to in our teens, in our twenties, in our thirties etc.  We have generations of young and not so young folks that appear to have less and less in common with ourselves from a spiritual perspective.  Parents these days are not bringing, or even sending their children to church.  I have noticed when we have a baptism in the church, more and more folks look unsure about this environment that they are unfamiliar with and seem unsure as to how they should behave while there and I’ve noticed at funerals as well, many people are staring at their order of service but they’re not singing.  Forgive me for repeating myself but I’ve said before that my primary school days (certainly in P6 & 7), every day was opened with a hymn or psalm along with a prayer.  At high school, assemblies featured hymns and readings from scripture.  Boys Brigade meant coming to church on a Sunday and every parade or meeting featured hymns and readings from scripture.

When it comes to behaviour, in the days mentioned above, you could argue that even if children weren’t being set a good example at home, they would be getting the proper direction through the Christian teaching they were getting at Church, Sunday School, Youth Organisations and School.  I’ve heard of lots of situations about the ways some children address their parents and schoolteachers nowadays and I know for certain that it would not have happened, never mind be tolerated in my school days or in my home.

I would imagine that in Education circles the change away from Christian teaching might be seen by some as progressive and more inclusive but at what cost to the generations that are not even being given the chance to hear Christian teaching?  Surely, hearing it would at least give people the chance to decide if it is for them or not but not hearing it at all is incredibly sad when you consider the history of our Church in Scotland.

This society in which we live has evolved in a way that makes it harder and harder for young folk to discover this wonderful love of our Saviour (described so beautifully in today’s verses)  and to have the fulness of life and power that comes from God.  Maybe it shouldn’t surprise us because the bible tells us that leading up to Christ’s return, things will get worse and it is certainly heading in that direction.  We need to pray that the Holy Spirit will somehow, maybe through each one of us, reach out at least to those we know and love, those we will come to know and those we will only meet briefly for the sake of their salvation.

Prayer - Father, pour your love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit and pour it out through us into the lives of those we touch frequently, occasionally or even briefly. Make each and every one of us instruments of your grace so that your love will be felt in clear and unmistakable ways by those whom our lives impact. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen