Recipe for the spirit

Over the last two Sundays we have engaged in some of Jesus’ most famous and, many would say, most controversial teachings. In the Sermon on the Mount we are immediately confronted with moral standards that are impossible to adhere to, because they are God's standards.These teachings are not designed by Jesus to leave us in a depressed pit but for us to clearly understand our hopelessness without Him.We are forced to lay down our self efforts to be holy and to rely solely on the  perfection of Jesus that is attributed freely to us.Malcolm spoke on adultery, marriage and divorce last week. (I was glad it was his week to preach!) What we as a team are convinced of is that Jesus fiercely defended the sacred inviolability of marriage and the family unit. For any of us to see ourselves as having 'made it' misses Jesus’ big point: We can't do anything without Him.At St Philips, because of Jesus, we want to see the reclamation of healthy Christian families. Last week Liz spoke about putting together a recipe book which would be contributions from families on how they have done intentional 'God time' together.This week my family tried one of the recipes that Liz recommended. At dinner time we went around the table and in one sentence said what we appreciated about the person next to us. Following this we prayed a short prayer together and then placed our hands one-on-top-of-the-other, basketball style, and yelled, 'Go Jesus!'  This worked for a young family made up of four males and one female.Your family might look very different to ours. You might be childless, divorced, single, old, young but still relate as family with others. This is your opportunity to bless others by sharing your ‘God time’ experiences. If you have a favourite please, please share this with Liz, or email the office.We can’t wait to see the collection of recipes we gather and the blessing that comes on families who sample these recipes.James