O Almighty God, who by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist; Grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires, and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.

FAITH IN FOCUS: IS GOD UP TO SCRATCH?

They do say that the best way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans. There’s nothing wrong with having plans, of course, but sometimes God has a very different knowledge of how our life is going to turn out. God doesn’t think like us and his ways are vastly different from ours. Isaiah tells us that the gap between our way of thinking and God’s is greater than the gap between heaven and earth. And Jesus puts the finishing touch to this by his story of a landowner who paid everyone the same wage no matter how many hours a day they had worked. Why should people be jealous just because God is generous?

One of the hardest things for many Christians to understand is that no matter how much we try, we never even come close to knowing how God works. What seems fair to us, God ignores. What seems to be the obvious choice is overlooked, what appears to be the only solution is bypassed by God.

This side to God’s character is known as his transcendence. It’s the "otherness" of God, the fact that God is unfathomable, that we can’t ever capture his vital statistics.

When we stop trying to think that we can control things in this world by enlisting God on our side, then we begin to learn. Once we accept how little we know about God’s ways then we’re really on the road to approaching him. Once we reach the point where we simply invite God into our lives and ask him to act for the good, with no conditions attached, then we have a chance of allowing the Spirit to make us holy. God is greater than anything we can imagine or conjure up, and once we grasp this then as well as some mystifying events in our lives there are also a few very pleasant surprises along the way.

WORD OF GOD

"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

(S. Matthew 9: 13)

WORD FOR TODAY

With our inquisitive minds we are used to trying to understand everything and how it works. Yet one of the wonderful things about faith in God is when we are caught off guard by the surprises that God brings into our lives just when we thought we were in control!

DOING YOUR BIT?

September is traditionally the time when things start up again in the parish. If you have any ideas how our community can better meet the needs of serving our brothers and sisters, then don’t hesitate to make them known. If you feel you have spotted a "gap in the parish market" then let’s talk about it. And if you think that you have a particular skill or gift that can be put to use in the parish, then now’s the time to come forward!

OUR MINDS act like the beam of a lighthouse, picking up one object after another. God’s mind is like the sun radiating simultaneously on all things at once.

(Richard Harries)

WE SHOULD ALWAYS APPROACH GOD knowing that we do not know him. We must approach the unsearchable, mysterious God who reveals himself as he chooses; whenever we come to him, we are before a God we do not know. (Anthony Bloom)

Wed: 2 Kings 9: 1-16, Acts 27: 1-26, Mark 15:33-41

Thurs: 2 Ki 9:17-end, Acts 27:27-end, Mark 15: 42-end

Fri : 2 Kings 12:1-19, Acts 28:1-16, Mark 16:1-8

Sat : 2 Kings 17: 1-23, Acts 28: 17-end, Mark 16:9-end