Exploring God's Great Love
A day to discover and experience more
Saturday 22 February | 10.30 am – 3.00 pm
A day run by one of CHM's Prayer Ministers
This is to let you know of an opportunity to come and rest in the depths of God's love for you. In Ephesians chapter 3, we are told that we are "rooted and established in love" If that's the case, why is it then, I wondered, that my life sadly does not reflect the fruits of this more often. I don't think I am alone in that.
The thing is...When we are born into the world, our understanding and experience of what love is, is shaped by how love is shown in the nature of the relationships around us. We learn by our experiences what love is, and isn't. We learn to cope with imperfect love, and adapt ourselves accordingly. We become rooted and established in these human patterns.
The love referred to in Ephesians, is the perfect Love of God, which was ours from the moment our Father God created us before the foundation of the earth. When I did a little research into the true nature of this love, I realised this is vaster, more intensely emotional, more constant, more vibrant, more active, more attentive than I had ever seen before. The depth of the biblical text is not always reflected in todays vocabulary. This is the love that Jesus embodied everywhere he went, and poured out to everyone. How could he possibly contain and constantly carry the vastness and intensity of that kind of love as a human being? This is the love in which we are to be rooted and established. The problem is, that we have learnt to become established in old patterns, and we can even imagine that God's love may be not much different - at best a notch or two up on the scale. Even the best of human love though, cannot come close to the original love story!
Psalm 62 begins "My soul finds rest in God alone" How true is that for you? It can be an interesting exercise to do a little "soul watch" for a time and notice when our soul is downcast, restless or troubled, maybe feeling anxious, stressed or discouraged and lacking in peace. When our soul is troubled, it is all too easy to respond by relying on old habitual patterns of behaviour to try to solve the problem - the human patterns in which we have become rooted and established. But these never lead to rest. All that happens is a short term fix at best, and the old patterns become yet more established. Rest for our soul is found in the vast perfect love that has been ours since before the foundation of the world. It is this we need to grasp, not merely understand. As Paul says in Ephesians," I pray that you, together with all the saints, will have the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God." When we truly grasp the nature of this love and allow ourselves to be affected by it, then we can find a place of true rest for our soul - this is the place of true security - wrapped in the promises of God.
The morning will be from 10 - 12.30, with a break for tea / coffee, and will focussing on the nature of God's love. exploring original Greek text. In the afternoon - 1.30 - 3pm, there will be time for you to engage individually with the Holy Spirit, to listen to him and invite Father God's amazing love into any situation, part of your life or area of your soul that he brings to mind or speaks to you about. I know He has healing in mind. There will be some personal reflective aids available if you would like to use them. Prayer ministry will be available for those who would like to receive it. Feel free to come to both morning and afternoon, or just the morning. but to take part in the afternoon you will need to attend the morning. There is no charge for the event, but you will need to bring your own lunch if coming for the whole time.
The thing is...When we are born into the world, our understanding and experience of what love is, is shaped by how love is shown in the nature of the relationships around us. We learn by our experiences what love is, and isn't. We learn to cope with imperfect love, and adapt ourselves accordingly. We become rooted and established in these human patterns.
The love referred to in Ephesians, is the perfect Love of God, which was ours from the moment our Father God created us before the foundation of the earth. When I did a little research into the true nature of this love, I realised this is vaster, more intensely emotional, more constant, more vibrant, more active, more attentive than I had ever seen before. The depth of the biblical text is not always reflected in todays vocabulary. This is the love that Jesus embodied everywhere he went, and poured out to everyone. How could he possibly contain and constantly carry the vastness and intensity of that kind of love as a human being? This is the love in which we are to be rooted and established. The problem is, that we have learnt to become established in old patterns, and we can even imagine that God's love may be not much different - at best a notch or two up on the scale. Even the best of human love though, cannot come close to the original love story!
Psalm 62 begins "My soul finds rest in God alone" How true is that for you? It can be an interesting exercise to do a little "soul watch" for a time and notice when our soul is downcast, restless or troubled, maybe feeling anxious, stressed or discouraged and lacking in peace. When our soul is troubled, it is all too easy to respond by relying on old habitual patterns of behaviour to try to solve the problem - the human patterns in which we have become rooted and established. But these never lead to rest. All that happens is a short term fix at best, and the old patterns become yet more established. Rest for our soul is found in the vast perfect love that has been ours since before the foundation of the world. It is this we need to grasp, not merely understand. As Paul says in Ephesians," I pray that you, together with all the saints, will have the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God." When we truly grasp the nature of this love and allow ourselves to be affected by it, then we can find a place of true rest for our soul - this is the place of true security - wrapped in the promises of God.
The morning will be from 10 - 12.30, with a break for tea / coffee, and will focussing on the nature of God's love. exploring original Greek text. In the afternoon - 1.30 - 3pm, there will be time for you to engage individually with the Holy Spirit, to listen to him and invite Father God's amazing love into any situation, part of your life or area of your soul that he brings to mind or speaks to you about. I know He has healing in mind. There will be some personal reflective aids available if you would like to use them. Prayer ministry will be available for those who would like to receive it. Feel free to come to both morning and afternoon, or just the morning. but to take part in the afternoon you will need to attend the morning. There is no charge for the event, but you will need to bring your own lunch if coming for the whole time.
