[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Lent 5 NT reading

[Joe Parrish]

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-----Original Message-----
From: Fr HC Smith <howard.smith at anglican.org.au>
To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
Sent: Mon, Apr 4, 2011 8:10 pm
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Lent 5 NT reading


Friends,

Here are some notes towards a sermon on the Epistle for Lent 5, Romans 

8.6-11.

Howard

___________________________________________________________________________________________



* Today is the 5th Sunday in Lent - our journey towards Easter in which we 

try a little harder to be better followers of Jesus.

+ Now today we are asked to think about "who or what rules your life?"

- Another way of looking at that is to ask who or what do we

take notice of when we make our choices?

- Do we let God guide our actions, or do we only let our own

minds tell us what to do?

+ The Bible reading we had from Romans today says that if we are

followers of Jesus then we have started down the track of

allowing God to guide our choices;

- That's what Baptism is about, letting God guide our choosing.

+ And that means that we are able to look at the bigger picture,

we are able to consider the consequences, we are able to make

choices in which love and life play a big part.

+ Left to our own devices we have a rather restricted outlook,

but if we are in the process of learning to look at life from

God's point of view, then the possibilities are endless.

+ Now this doesn't mean that we will always be right; it doesn't

mean that we are more important than other people.

+ In fact we must remember that we are human beings and that

we are on the same journey as everyone else; and part of that

journey is the fact that one day all of our bodies have to die.

- But followers of Jesus know about Resurrection - and we're

going to celebrate that in a couple of weeks time.

+ Paul is helping us to see that if we make our choices about

what to do simply using our own limited minds, we will

probably make selfish choices which will hurt other people and

probably even hurt ourselves;

- but if we let the Bible guide our thinking, we are opening

ourselves up to very broad possibilities of doing good.

- If we try to do what Jesus would do, then we will be helping

to make this world a better place, we will be helping to

overcome the violence, the abuse, the hurt which happens every day.

+ So as we receive Holy Communion today, let's make up our

minds to try to live like Jesus during this coming week;

+ Filled with his love in this sacrament we can make a good go of it.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Rev'd Dr H.C. Smith

 Retired Anglican Priest

 Orange NSW

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