Tuesday 17 September 2013

Ideas for Vision Sunday - A Jesus-centred Church

‘...he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.’ (Isa 53:10b)

Reading Isaiah 54 in my garden, I began to look at commentaries and found that before Isaiah 54 comes Isaiah 53 - and after it, Isaiah 55! Profound truths! I felt God wants us to be a church that embodies these three chapters.

Isaiah 53 wonderfully describes the Lord Jesus, His person and His work - and we need to be a Jesus–centred community. Jesus is the only one who can save us! He’s the only one who can bring us to the Father, it is all about Jesus Christ – whether we are talking about forgiveness or healing, or restored relationships among other things. We are not preaching ourselves but Jesus. He’s the Cornerstone, the Beginning and the End, He was at Creation, He will be there at the end of the age; He sustains, He towers over the nations and over history more than the Shard towers over London. We must be a Jesus-centred church.

Individually we need to be Jesus-centred too. We want Him at the centre of our lives, affecting our relationships, what we do with our money, how we respond under pressure, guiding and framing our choices and decisions. We are learners, followers, disciples of Jesus! The extent to which we do this will reflect on how much we gather to pray, how much time we spend reading the Bible and it impacts every bit of life. Your world view is different, what you are running for - everything is changed when He is the centre.