Good morning! Glad to be with you. Hope you’re ready for new work in a new week at the Pastor’s Workshop.
We entering our fourth week in our series, “New Normal”. Our theme has been “training in godliness” from I Timothy 4:7. Our guiding challenge: What’s one healthy choice for one positive change you can make that would work God’s best into your life?
Week one we focused on our bodies. Is there a choice you could make relative to your diet, exercise, or sleep that would be a blessing for you?
Week two centered on our minds. What are you going to “focus on”? Do you need to “filter out” anything? Is there a new subject you want to start studying? How about spending more time in the Scripture? Are there ways, particularly during this “shelter season”, you could apply what you know for the benefit of others?
Last week we considered our relationships. The teacher in Ecclesiastes says “Two are better than one”. How are you keeping in contact? How could you claim an “in-between blessing” by how you choose to relate with those around you? Are there ways you could work together, encourage one another, support each other, forgive one another, cry with one another, rejoice with one another that would “weave Christ” into your relationships?
This week we look into our spirits. As whole persons, who are “body, mind and spirit”, we know this is a key area for attention.
Our texts for this week come from the Gospel of John. We’ll be studying John 4:3-15 and John 7:37-39. Both of these Scriptures speak of “living water” and the Holy Spirit.
The blessing of the Holy Spirit with our human spirits is one we particularly need in this time. Many have found the “journey” through this season of Covid-19 to be draining and tiring. It’s wearing and wearying. The promise of the Holy Spirit holds hope for refreshment, renewal, and revival. These Scriptures hold a word from Jesus to “Come and Drink, Believe and Receive” the “living water” he gives.
As always we begin Monday with reading and re-reading the Scriptures, silently and aloud. As you read today, put yourself in each of the scenes – at the well, in the Temple. What would it be like to be there? What do you see, hear, smell, and feel? If you were to hear Jesus in the conversation with the woman or in the call to the crowd – what would that have been like? Turn your “holy imagination” loose. As you do make sure you record what you notice, think and feel. As always, these observations are “creative elements” you’ll be using later in the week.
Our first three weeks we looked into “tangibles” – our bodies, our thoughts, our relationships. This week is “intangible”, yet just as real and just as essential. To make healthy choices with relation to our spirits is critical to our well-being.
In that faith, I look forward to all that is ahead this week as we “Come to the Well”.
Prayer: Gracious God, thank you for the blessing of our lives – body, mind and spirit. Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit that would revive and refresh our human spirits. Use this Scripture and this week to “deepen our thirst” and draw us more fully into the flow of your Spirit. This we pray in Jesus’s holy name. Amen