{"id":1461,"date":"2017-10-11T13:15:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T12:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/?p=1461"},"modified":"2017-10-11T13:15:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T12:15:34","slug":"ministers-letter-oct-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/ministers-letter-oct-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister’s Letter – Oct 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

12<\/sup>Therefore, as God\u2019s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13<\/sup>Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14<\/sup>And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3: 12-14 NIVUK)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been reflecting recently on how we, as Christians, go about sharing our faith with the world.<\/p>\n

As part of God\u2019s Church, God calls each one of us to serve Him. We serve in a way which best suits the gifts God has given us. The one area to which all Christians are universally called serve God is that of sharing our faith. No one who is a follower of Jesus is exempt from this call: we are tasked with telling the world about Him. How do we fulfil this call from God?<\/p>\n

On one level, it is quite simple: we take time to understand the Gospel, and then we take any opportunity we get to tell it to others. We can tell them about God\u2019s love and forgiveness; about how Jesus\u2019 death means we are brought back to God; about how His resurrection is a promise of new life to all who believe. But is it simple enough to tell others this? Do we need to do more?<\/p>\n

I chose the verses above to start this letter because I believe it is not just our words that matter when we share the Gospel: our actions matter too.<\/p>\n

Paul gives a short list in these verses, explaining the qualities he would expect to see in Christians: compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. He urges us to forgive one another, in the same way, God has forgiven us. He tasks us with adopting an attitude of love, which brings all these qualities together.<\/p>\n

It is incredibly important that we, as followers of Jesus, live in this way. If we do not, I fear there may be those in our world who ask, \u201cHow can God truly love us, if His people cannot love one another?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let us encourage one another in love, forgive one another readily, and respond to God\u2019s call to share our faith in a compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient way!<\/p>\n

May God bless you,
\nStuart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12Therefore, as God\u2019s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8z2vw-nz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1903,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/ministers-letter-june-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":0},"title":"Minister’s Letter – June 2018","author":"admin","date":"11 June 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I lift up my eyes to the mountains \u2013 where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip \u2013 He who watches over you will not slumber; Indeed, he who watches over Israel will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2336,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/ministers-letter-september-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":1},"title":"Minister’s Letter – September 2019","author":"admin","date":"3 September 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever (Hebrews 13:8 NIVUK) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! 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Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.\u201d (Joshua 1 NIVUK) This is our verse for 2020. Each year of ministry at Clincarthill, I have tried to prayerfully discern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Minister's Letters"","block_context":{"text":"Minister's Letters","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/ministers-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1805,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/ministers-letter-april-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":3},"title":"Minister’s Letter – April 2018","author":"Stuart Love","date":"2 April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"30Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. 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