Opening Prayers
Loving God,
It's all in
the touch,
the touch of
love,
the touch of
healing,
the touch of
compassion,
the touch of
reassurance,
the touch
that says,
'You are
special, wanted,
held in high
regard'.
It's all in
that touch,
that very
special touch,
the touch
you give through us
who reach
out to those in need,
to those who
need to know.
Help us to
be channels of your touch
in this dark
world,
to bring
your love,
healing,
compassion,
and reassurance,
to a world
that knows
none of
these
Bible verse (Amos 5:4-5)
For thus
says the Lord to the house of Israel:
Seek me
and live;
but do
not seek Bethel,
and do
not enter into Gilgal
Thought
for the day
The
perennial conversation in Church is what is the Church? The discussions will
range from the Church as the bride of Christ, through to the Church being the
people of God rather than the buildings. And yet as much as we like to think
that the Church is the people of God we invest heavily
in our
buildings. And don’t get me wrong, we have some amazing buildings but so much
of what we call Christianity has evolved around and because of those places of
worship we call churches, chapels, cathedrals etc. So much so that for those
people who are not Christians, when they think about Christianity they see
churches. The three places Amos mentions in today’s verse were three of the
holiest places in Ancient Israel. And yet God is telling Amos’ readers that the
life they seek is in God, not in those holy places. Don’t get me wrong Churches
and places of worship are important, but we can worship God anywhere. But when
our desire to see holy places outweighs our desire to see God we have a
problem.
