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Many years ago I read an amusing article that reminds me of a key part of what we celebrate here at the Lord’s Table.\u00a0\u00a0It was by a writer who had gone on a long and arduous journey to Guyana in South America.\u00a0\u00a0His group faced many hardships with the jungle and the Amazon river, but he said it was all worthwhile when at the end of their journey they waded into the upper waters of the Amazon to see the largest water lily in the world. That lily traps very large insects in its petals and releases them the following night.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The reason I laughed was that I often stopped on my relaxing lunchtime strolls through the Botanic Gardens to see that very same Victoria or Amazon Lily (Victoria Amazonica).\u00a0\u00a0There was no need for an arduous journey, someone from the Gardens has already endured that for us.<\/p>\n
\u00a0That\u2019s similar to how many people approach God with a difficult journey of searching, like long pilgrimage, or involvement in exotic religions, or performing deeds of great sacrifice, or even self-torture in times past.\u00a0 But efforts like that do not bring us closer to God.\u00a0\u00a0Why are we tempted to such great effort?<\/p>\n
I suggest it is to put ourselves at the centre of things, so we can then decide where God is and who he is.\u00a0\u00a0It is the old temptation of Adam of wanting to be like God, to be the one in control.<\/p>\n
\u00a0We don\u2019t need to search for God, for we are the ones who were lost, not God.<\/p>\n
But here we celebrate that God has already found us, and is very near to us, waiting for us to turn to Him.\u00a0\u00a0He reached out to us through Jesus, who took the penalty for our sin on himself on the cross at Calvary.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus has restored us to God\u2019s righteousness.\u00a0\u00a0All we need to do is simply believe and trust in what he has already done for us.<\/p>\n
Romans 10:9 reads, \u2018if you confess with your mouth, \u201cJesus is Lord,\u201d and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved\u2019.<\/p>\n
God has come to us.\u00a0 He is not distant or remote, for He has sent his Spirit to live in us, that we may live a new life in Christ.\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus said in Luke 17:20, \u201cThe kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, \u2018Here it is,\u2019 or \u2018There it is,\u2019 because the kingdom of God is within you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Jesus invites you to this meal. You don\u2019t need to be a member of this or any church, for Jesus reaches out to you wherever you are placed in this journey of life.\u00a0\u00a0All you need is a willingness to know him more, and to live the wonderful life he has prepared for you.<\/p>\n
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Many years ago I read an amusing article that reminds me of a key part of what we celebrate here at the Lord’s Table.\u00a0\u00a0It was by a writer who had gone on a long and arduous journey to Guyana in South America.\u00a0\u00a0His group faced many hardships with the jungle and the Amazon river, but he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26735"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26739,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26735\/revisions\/26739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}