As we enter into this New Year it is very easy to start formulating plans to help bring about God’s kingdom. However we will never be able to succeed at this because the Kingdom of God – His role and reign – is not something we can create.
Instead it is that which we are called to demonstrate in our lives and in the life of the church and community, even though we cannot bring it about in our own strength. Yet nor do we have to.
Psalm 23 – He guides me in paths of righteousness.
I remember reading a newspaper article about a young man who collapsed at a disco. On examining the man, a medic found him to be wearing fifteen T-shirts, which had caused him to overheat. The young man had put on layers and layers of clothing to achieve look that made him feel better about himself. Ultimately it was this thinking that brought about his suffering, and embarrassment.
“The LORD will bless His people with peace.”
Psalm 29:11
Restoring broken relationships.
Many years ago my wife and I bought a Tiffany print for £50, (a large outlay for students!). The picture was full of vibrant colours, as you looked out onto a landscape through a medieval window, and I would often find myself drawn to the picture. Many years later I went online to look at how much another print would cost. In looking at a picture of the one I already owned I came to realise that, over the years, I had not noticed how much it had faded – or that the colours now bore little similarity to the original. I now knew the difference and could not restore my picture. Eventually I took it down, and then threw it out. Many of us feel that our lives lack lustre and write ourselves off – yet we have a Father who can restore even the most damaged of lives.
FASTER THAN LIGHT NEUTRINOS reported in BBC News, ABC News in Science, and arXiv 23 September 2011 and Science Live Chat 28 September 2011 (and other sources too numerous to mention). Neutrinos are subatomic particles that have such a miniscule mass they have been called “ghost particles”. Over the last three years scientists at CERN, near Geneva in Switzerland have fired bursts of neutrinos towards a particle detector 732km (455 miles) away in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory near L’Aquila, Italy and found they arrived 60 nanoseconds faster than if they had travelled at the speed of light. According to Einstein’s theories, nothing can go faster than the speed of light, but after 16,000 measurements the research team concluded their results were real, and not experimental error.