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JESUS FOR TODAY

Richard Cleaves

www.highburychurch.co.uk

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Taking the story of Jesus on to the streets

Jesus for today brings together a number of blogs and web pages that I have put together over more than ten years. One tells the story of Jesus through the Cheltenham Passion Play as we took the story of Jesus on to the streets of our town. Another is the record of a conference I attended on Reconciliation at the Tantur Institute in Bethlehem. Another includes a video diary of a pilgrimage my wife and I helped to lead to Bethlehem and to Galilee. There’s a series of sermons I preached on all the books of the Old Testament seen through the eyes of Jesus, a series of sermons on Acts and the blog of my weekly preaching.

Jesus for Today

Through the eyes of Jesus

The OT through the eyes of Jesus

Reconciliation

Five Prayer Meditations

Five prayer meditations linked to the five acts of the Passion Play: Friendship, Conflict, Betrayal, Death, Resurrection.

Will you come and follow me?

YESTERDAY TODAY AND FOREVER

It’s one thing helping other people: quite another when it happens to you. I was still in my mid twenties and had been minister of Harden Congregational Church hen my father, himself a Minister, died. He had only just retired. It was an untimely death. I found it difficult to get back in harness. There came the moment when I had to take a Sunday service. I decided to preach on Ephesians and in the first part of the service came up with an idea for a talk with the children. It involved making a fake measuring tape from elastic which I could use to measure how tall people were, only to discover my measuring tape said they were the same height.

I then made play with the idea that a stretchy tape measure is no good. You need one that’s always the same. I rushed to find a verse to ‘fit’ my story and came up with Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. How important it was to find in Jesus Christ a measure for our lives that would never change. It was later over lunch my wife commended me on a wonderful choice of reading. I hadn’t noticed the previous verse even as I read it. But when I looked it up it meant the world! “Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”

Prayers

Jesus: today, tomorrow, forever

“Come, follow me.” An invitation? A challenge? It made a world of difference to those who did just that. And it still does. Jesus opened up a way of life to follow. At its heart, it was a way of love. Love for God, love for neighbour, love for enemy too. Jesus opened up a window on to God. Follow Jesus and discover the God who comes alongside us in our weakness at the point at which we are most vulnerable, stays with us every step of the way.