Starting with God

The writer of Ecclesiastes examines the whole of existence in his book and comes to the conclusion that “everything is meaningless”. But with one proviso: “everything is meaningless” without God. Chris looks at the dead ends that can occur in our lives if we try to exist without God directing us and how He gently but firmly brings us back to the path to life if we allow Him to.

This week Chris continues looking at his series in Starting with God, this week looking at the choices we make. There is a difference between fate and destiny. Fate (which is not real, by the way) gives you no choices in life, you're restricted to the train tracks laid out in front of you. Destiny is different, where God gives us the choice to follow His way which leads to life or the other ways which.... don't. But whichever path we choose God always gives us the opportunity to turn towards His way.

Starting With God by looking at all of those things that we construct for ourselves to replace God or to divert our attention away from Him. The Bible has a word for those things: idols. Idols can even be things that make us think that God approves of what we’re doing when we know deep down that He doesn’t. We are invited to cast away all of those things and to focus and trust in God alone for all of our needs and strength. It’s very easy to say it. But can we actually do it?

This week we are looking at intimacy with God. At the foot of Mount Sinai God spoke to His people who he had guided out of slavery in Egypt. They were so afraid that none of them wanted to go up the mountain and seek true intimacy with Him, they rejected God’s true purpose for them because of fear. We now, through Jesus, receive that same invitation to experience the fullness of God. Will we accept or will we – like the Israelites – be content with holding God at arm’s length?

“Starting with God” Episode two, looking at the story from Genesis where Jacob wrestles with God. Until this point Jacob has tried to fit God into his own worldview, mold God into what he thinks God should be. It’s only when God reaches deep and humbles Jacob that he sees the error of his ways and learns to surrender. How often do we act the same?

We begin a new series focusing on re‑setting our relationship with God. In the introduction, Chris uses the image of a jigsaw puzzle—yet not one where Jesus is the final piece we simply drop into place. Instead, Jesus is the central piece around which the whole picture is re-formed. The ‘hole’ we sense in our lives isn’t a Jesus‑sized gap we can fit Him into; it’s a reminder that our entire lives need to be re‑shaped around Him.